Training Log Archive: bartholemeu

Event: Etape Du Tour 2014
 

Rode on my own again this year and kept a pretty good tempo to the base of tourmalet, jumping in some groups, but more pulling groups of freeloaders. Puncture on a descent, i think from a patch job. Never patching again.
Tourmalet was hard but i'd told myself i want to describe my climb as "measured", which it was, and got to the top without too much trouble.
The weather turned dramatically at the top, and although i had a rainjacket, overgloves and baselayer, i FROZE on the way down, shivering uncontrollably to the point of not being able to control the bike, and actually starting to black out. Stopped in a barn halfway down, then at a feedstation where i was given an emergency blanket and told i was not to continue. Sod that, after 20-30mins i got back on the bike and warmed up once the road flattened.
Felt great to the bottom of hautacam, where there were crowds massed on the road and riders had to go through 1 by 1! Just like the tour!
Hautacam was a bit more inconsistent gradient than tourmalet, which was a little more draining on the muscles, but got to 2 km to go still with juice in the legs.
Descended, ate pasta, rode home. Job done.
Felt good afterwards. I'd intentionally kept some gas in the bag so that i could ride the rest of the week.

Took the whole group out for an easy spin down a great french bikepath called the voie verde. Very nice riding with a cheeky climb up cauterets to test out Drew's lungs/legs, as he's recovering from illness

Was aiming for 10km @ 4:10, but watch wasn't working so went out too hard.

Ended up doing
wu
5km @ 3:50
rest
3km @ 4:00
rest
2km @ 4:00
cd

not great, but not too bad given the heat!

To/From Pool

Relaxed recovery. Concentrating on entry. in the medium lane