Wacky Races

Interesting to read here in a French cycling magazine that the latest research shows that although heart attack and stroke risk is greater for sedentary people as their body weight strays further from ideal reference weight, this isn't the case for people who stay aerobically fit! You can be obese or anorexically thin but if you have good aerobic fitness your heart attack and stroke risk is exactly the same as for ideal reference weight. It's led to a new term - being "fat fit". I think that's me just now - still, all summer ahead to lose a whole bunch of kilos. I'm much more likely to go airborne over a cliff or get squashed under a truck anyway - no idea what the statistics are there. On a similar note I'm witnessing the unexpected fact that my max heart rate is not getting lower with age - once again this only happens with sedentary people though in training manuals this is not made clear. I remember about 20 years ago my max heart rate on a bike was 186bpm and it's now 185. It used to be 193bpm for running sprinting but the problem is that I'm now way too decrepit to sprint without risking detaching ligaments or something to that effect - so I can't check that one out too easily.

This year's "Wacky Races" have well and truly begun. It's quite common to overtake cars on your bicycle when descending on narrow Alpine roads. Yesterday when descending into Favèrges some idiot in a big family car obviously decided that he was being humiliated in that he could not pull away from me. Just at that point we started to enter a built up area with sleeping policemen on the road. On a bike it's not necessary to slow down for those obstacles because by taking your weight off the saddle you absorb the entire bump with your knees and hips and at 6.8kg the bike is so light that it is unaffected by the bumps After being almost overtaken on the first speed bump the driver decided that he could accelerate over the next one! Up until this moment I'd only ever seen flying cars in Hollywood films. He completely took off, all four wheels off the ground, then his spongy suspension on landing made his car squirm all over the place - almost going off the road. Even worse he didn't succeed in increasing the gap between us. Having been provided with excellent entertainment so far I wasn't about to back off. There was a clear and less steep section ahead so he pulled away out of sight but about a kilometre further on I caught up again as he was stuck behind another driver. Arriving at the centre of Favèrge I had the pleasure of passing him right before the main junction and with both of us then going in separate directions he couldn't pass me again.

Training Log:
Aime - Albertville - Col de Tamié - Favèreges - Ugine - Col de la Forclaz -Albertivlle - Aime. 140.43km, 2237m climbing. 5hrs 45mins, 7330 Calories. Weight 73kg. Weather: wind, sun, localised rain/wind storms.

The last cold virus is still having an effect even weeks later - coughing out stuff and not feeling right. When cycling there is no coughing but nasal breathing is still impossible so that shows to me my system has not fully recovered. The long valley roads to Albertville were head on into the wind as usual as it is towards the West and the adiabatic (mountain) winds are at their strongest mid afternoon. I'd left rather late - about 2:45pm because it had been cold overnight and was around 2°C in the morning. Better to let the air warm up with the sun even though storms were forecast for the afternoon. It was slightly chilly in just a shirt and shorts but most of the time on the outward leg of the ride the sun was out and unobstructed by either clouds or mountains. With the sun directly on the body you get warm quickly and it's better to put up with the chill in the brief shadow areas to avoid overheating in the sun. It does amaze me however how you can stay warm through effort wearing just a thin short sleeved shirt at 30 to 40 kph when everyone else is walking around in overcoats. For some reason - probably psychological - I don't push too hard against the wind. It's probably because it's so inefficient and you really tire yourself out - so it's best to save energy until you are out of the wind and then try to make up time by ramping up your speed. Today however, due to that late start and not finishing until about 8:30pm the mountain winds would start coming back down the valley in the evening and against me on the return leg too and so I'd have the mass of cold mountain air descending against me later on.

The climb up the Col de Tamié was fine and despite the head wind I was stronger and faster than five days previously - sprinting up the final few hundred meters at about 18kph and enjoying the effort. After that was the eventful descent into Favèrge racing the car, then the long cycle track descending pregressively towards Ugine. There was a strong sidewind on the cycle track but eventually as the route swung around to South of East it was possible to sustain around 40kph and gain some time back. I'd not be stopping anywhere for a break today because time was limited having started so late and also I wanted to simulate race conditions where you just don't stop. I was also trying out a new pair of gel padded cycling shorts and this would be a great test for them. My bum however had already started hurting at around the 50km mark. 15mm of padding directly over the bum bones is apparently still not enough at this stage. I'm not sure what is worse - bum pain or leg pain - but they are both pretty distracting. The good thing is that the bum stops hurting as soon as you get off the saddle and the legs recover from aches in about half an hour. I also notice that even when very tired if you focus on sustaining a strong effort especially when climbing then the pains mostly disappear. The worst pains are then when you stop this effort. I've no idea whether this is a psychological issue or a physical one.

Col de Tamié on the left, Albertville on the right.

Straight away on the climb up the Col de la Forclaz at around the 75km mark, the leg pain started. Obviously the legs didn't want my sore bum to be getting all the attention. When pain starts you know that it's there for the duration - it won't go away even if you stop and take a break it returns as soon as you put stress on the muscles. I was hydrating with a carbo/protein mix with all the minerals and B vitamins necessary for good absorption - but I think that proper carbohydrate pre-loading is necessary for even training at this distance. The only solution for dealing with pain is to slow down - but that just depends on how much pain you want to tolerate. I'm not bothered about the pain it's just a distraction so the slowing down only happens when I literally run out of steam. The Forclaz climb is very scenic and attractive - not steep at the beginning but quite steep for the final 3km. I was forced to drop down to 1st gear 34/28 to keep a good cadence on the steep parts - but only for short stretches. Pulling up on the pedals removes a lot of the strain of pushing down and likewise reduces the muscle pain considerably while adding anything up to 50% greater speed. The descent into Queige and on to Albertville was a welcome break from the climbing. At Albertville I knew that I was tired because I stopped being attentive and became disoriented at a junction not recognising where I was for a moment.

Col de la Forclaz - Ugine left, Queige right.

The wind had turned and was against me again when climbing back from Albertville to Moutiers. I took the road through Cevins because there is a public water tap there where you  can fill water bottles. So far in four and a half hours I'd only drunk one litre of sports drink - but that's all my thirst demanded. It wasn't a hot day. Now the sun had disappeared behind the hills and thunder clouds and it started to rain - but with still a considerable distance to go and tiredness setting in. Fortunately the rain was mainly slightly further to the West side of the valley over the mountains to the West so I was just catching the edge of it. I stopped briefly to put on an extra shirt which had been anticipated might be necessary when the sun went down and it did the job. There was no need for the water/wind proof jacket - which unless it's very cold or raining heavily has a negative effect of making you so wet with sweat that you are better of without it. Amazing that even in this weather  and with the sun down only a couple of tee shirts are necessary to stay warm. At this point I made myself eat a carbo/protein energy bar and  soon felt the benefit when the sugar got to the brain. Reaching the other side of Moutiers the roads were dry and clear for the rest of the return trip. Taking a deviation through Pomblières there is a short steep climb where surprisingly, with good pedalling technique, I could still keep up a fairly reasonable power output. For the 1.6km Tunnel du Saix I had mini superbright led lights both front and back, but as cars were now lit up all the time they stayed on for the rest of the way home - sunglasses now firmly slotted into the front vents of my helmet. Night was rapidly closing in and it was really nice to be home and to collapse in front of a good escapist movie with a hot drink. I went to bed with a copy of a biography of Stalin - which predictably put me to sleep in minutes.