The blog is about the rolling I do in life - my life on wheels - riding my bike with the aim of participating in cyclo-sportives. A few words about the guy writing: 34 (phew time flies) years Norwegian male - with residence in Copenhagen. I do as much sports I can - and as work, girlfriend and a healthy social life shall permit.
So, you're not going to read tips from a pro-rider - far from it. What you will find here is straight reading about experiences done in relation to rolling and how to get ambitions in sportives to balance with things our generation try to squeeze into a day: good family life, work life ambitions and social activities with friends.
What the blog will offer is words on:
- Training - combining strong training with a career
- Preparations for sportives - about the planning, nutrition and race
- The Sportives I do and wish to do - this year I'll do the La Marmotte, The Maratona d'les Dolomiti and Le Tour du Mont Blanc
Today is rest day in the second to last week before a hard weekend where two of this year's big goals are coming up. La Marmotte is taking place in Bourg d'Oisans with end on Alpe d'Huez July 3rd. The day after I will be riding the Maratona d'les Dolomiti which starts in La Villa in Italy - some 700 kilometers away from Alpe d'Huez. This year I have start number for both (736 for the first and 9642 for the latter). In the La Marmotte I participated last year, coming in 203rd at 7.20. Together with some good friends the stunt of doing both races in the two consecutive days was also planned last year. But we did not have start numbers, and arrived too late in the morning to reach the start. That day it ended with a shorter ride in the Dolomites and a decision to do both races with start number in 2010. I was lucky to get a start number in the lottery each year deciding which 8 500 riders out of 25 000 applicants will get to start. I'm really excited about the weekend coming up and hope all now will go according to plan. I have not heard about anyone else done both of these sportives in one weekend before (please let me know - I'd love to hear the story) - and let's see if I can put a check mark and done in a couple of weeks time on this one. Of course, with sportives in the alps - anything can happen.
Let me share a couple of very brief facts about these one-day races before moving on.
July 3rd - La Marmotte - 175 km, 5000 m elevation, 7500+ participants
July 4th - Maratona d'les Dolomiti - 140 km, 4000 m elevation, 8500+ participants
July 18th - Le Tour du Mont Blanc - 330 km, 8000 m elevation, ? participants - I have start number 97 and registered here a couple of days ago.
I will write in detail about the races and planning in the coming days. Today - it's about setting the scene for where I stand - ready as I soon will have to be.
10 days and final preparations starting
Only 10 days left, and it is time to do final preparations and trying to time for peak performance. Hours of training now need to come together and culminate. Over the last 12-16 weeks the wheels have been spinning about 400 km per week. Now it is time to step down a bit. In order to peak, I now need to go from longer intervals and longer rides to shorter more intense intervals combined with really easy rides.
Saturday I had a couple of hours of indoor spinning. Some cyclists defer from spinning as it does not resemble sufficiently road riding. Brian Holm has even been quoted for prohibiting spinning during winter. Well, for me - not to eager to always ride in the really bad weather conditions in Denmark and also trying to squeeze in high-intensive pulse training after work, spinning is works excellently. After a warm up, you can get right to intensive intervals and get the right level for the training - at least if you remember to mentally picture yourself riding outdoors. Saturday was not a winter day, but I also use spinning for high intensive peak forming sessions. During these sessions I go with intervals above AT where the pulse hit 88-95%. The firs session was a pulse session where the pulse level is shown to the whole class on a monitor. It certainly adds a competitive element. All in all a fairly hard session for one hour and an easier second hour with longer intervals below AT.
Sunday I needed a longer ride in fast pace. I could feel the legs having a bit of the good type of tiredness. I joined up with some triathletes and we did around 150 km around 35 km in average. It was not racing. Average pulse was around 137. This was adequate steady work over a few hours and the type of workout you know will pay off when the first mountain hits in less than two weeks.
Monday the downscaling from previous weeks really started. I did a late evening ride after work required a high level presentation to be prepared for the day after. The longest day of the year, one of the shortest rides of the year - and the latest - ending at 22.30 pm. The trip took me around Amager, where the airport is in Copenhagen. It is my favorite restitution route. Calming and flat landscape. I ran into a nice fellow called Jais and we had a good chat along the way. Sun set after 1 hour and 40 minutes where cadence wsa high, but pulse was low - never above 65%.
Today, Tuesday I almost feel guilty in not exercising at all. I've been restless, but know this is a needed break. I was really feeling the heavy training from the weeks before during the weekend, and it is now time to get sufficient restitution - but not too much yet. Tomorrow there will be a hard training session with a good session just above AT. Today my biggest worry has been weight. I have kept a very conscious diet. This morning my weight had jumped 3kgs from 71.1 to 74.4. I suspect it to my body is bloated now as a reaction to hard training and potentially lack of water and responds by binding more water to fill up glycogen deposits (was a topic on this here). So, let's hope my weight will be down to normal again in a couple of days.
Time to get sufficient rest prior for tomorrow's workday and intensive training.
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