Challenge du Dauphiné?

Saturday 29th may 2010

Decided late in the day to enter this big race. Drove at night the 158km to Autrans in the Vercors mountains just west of Grenoble. It took about 15 minutes to locate the centre where registration was to be in the morning and there was no sign of a race. This has happened before so it didn’t seem too odd – everyone turns up in the morning.

06:30 in the morning and absolutely no one there. Drove around a bit and could see no sign whatsoever of a race organisation. The race was publicised in a magazine guide and the details were also copied off the internet. Called a few telephone numbers but no answer – so I gave up. Drove to Villard de Lans which is a small ski resort and a very nice little town. Bought breakfast around 07:45 and made a decision. The weather was good and so I might as well explore the area on my own on the bike – especially considering that I had a copy of the course itinerary and it looked interesting with several mountain passes. A major part of the attraction of this sport is discovering new places.

The Vercors is a very beautiful mountain range rising up abruptly right beside Grenoble. On the other side of this range you find Valence. You can also drive around to Valence on the flat by circumventing the mountain range – which is the normal route. The mountains are a small self-contained range with spectacular vertical cliffs practically all around. The area is very popular for Nordic skiing in the winter and for trekking in the summer.

I bought a map, studied it for a while and then drove to Villard de Saint Julien to start off. Altogether the ride covered 80kms and around 1500m vertical in a leisurely 3h20’. It was very enjoyable and a good workout, but I was still disappointed. On returning to St Juilen another cyclist stopped right next to where I was parked to use a bench to sit down and eat his sandwich. I went over and asked him if he knew what was happening with the “Challenge du Dauphiné” race. He didn’t know but telephoned his brother in law who did know. The race had taken place a week ago (when I was in the Ardeche) and its name had changed to “Challenge du Vercors”. The idiots didn’t even think of mentioning this on their website. This is how things seem to work in France – they still rely on carrier pigeon to get the word out. It seems to work for the French though because they seem to tune into the madness and understand what is going on. It always worries me here in France though because organisation is either accompanied with a mountain of bureaucracy or a total lack of logic.

Although I missed out on racing I thought I’d post here another superb photo from the Giro D’Italia in its penultimate stage…

Bourg to Cormet de Roselend 1391m Climb

Bourg to Cormet de Roselend 1391m Climb

First high altitude (2000m altitude) hill climb of the year. The Cormet de Roselend is the only high mountain pass open so far due to the large quantities of snow still around. Didn’t expect the body to have recovered enough to be able to climb well, but was surprised as I was able to complete a full high intensity workout and felt good. This is the first time I’ve had good sensations since starting to recover fitness in mid March. Until this point it has been just a slog. There was no discomfort from the previous day’s run either. The legs felt tired prior to the workout and at the start, but they were fine once warmed up. Energy levels were good.

The road was practically empty and it was mild enough to cycle to the top without a jacket. The roads here are much better than in the Ardeche area where the last two races have been. There is no gravel and the surfaces are generally smooth – which makes for more enjoyable and safer cycling.

Heart Rate Zones

Went for a 10k run, but the legs were still tired from Saturday’s cycling. Ended up doing a slow 1h00’28” but probably still ran too fast as instead of staying in an “active recovery” training zone I was 50% in Basic Endurance and 30 % in Tempo Training zones.

I’ve noticed that there is a lot of confusion regarding “maximum heart rate” for working out what appropriate training levels should be. Apparently you are born with a fixed max heart rate – but sedentary living may reduce it over time. The many formulas available to calculate it show that there is no real consensus on the issue. Currently I see my own heart occasionally pushed up to 183 bpm. When I did the CTS Field Test I could only manage 173 bpm and subsequently when working on PIs (power Intervals) only 174 bpm. What I’ve realised is that Carmichael is right is the sense that it’s not an absolute max heart rate that you need it’s what you can practically and regularly achieve in training – in other words – what you get from his field test. For this reason I’m now sticking to 173 as a practical max heart rate.

When using SportTracks software I’ve set 173 as max heart rate for all the training because it has a strong effect on the algorithms for computing fitness and fatigue levels. This is a rolling calculation so I went back though all the previous entries and set 173 as the reference so as to ensure the best computations and predictions from the software.

CTS only gives heart ranges for specific training interval exercises – not a set of general heart rate training zones. For that I used the CTS HR Max (173) then I used a table from “The Triathlete’s Guide to Run Training” by Ken Mierke to get general heart rate zones for both my GPS HRM unit and SportTracks software.

Zone 1 – Active recovery 103 - 132
Zone 2 – Basic Endurance 133 - 142
Zone 3 – Tempo Training 143 - 149
Zone 4 – Lactic Threshold 150 - 155
Zone 5a – Super Threshold 156 - 159
Zone 5b – Anaerobic Threshold 160 - 165
Zone 5c – Anaerobic Capacity 166 - 173



The above charst shows the heart rate training zones - which are programmed into the GPS/HRM unit for use in real-time.

Interestingly the "Tempo" intensity is totally different between this system and the CTS (earlier in this blog) but the Latic Threshold levels are very close and that is the important area.

Below, the blue signifies fitness level and the heavy red line fatigue - they re calculated using sophisticated algorithms,but the choice of max hear rate has a strong influence on the chart.



It's interesting to see on the fitness chart that the big intense workouts raise fitness dramatically - but also fatigue. The fatigue levels recover quite rapidly though and shorter training sessions following the big ones prevents the fitness level decaying which fatigue slowly recovers.

La Beaume – Drobie 135km

I did NOT want to do this race. 135km and 2620m climbing meant at best survival and at worst disaster. I could have opted for the much more manageable 90km version, but didn’t. This was neither a sensible nor a logical choice, but certainly an interesting one.

The Beaume and Drobie are two rivers situated in the Ardeche region of France. They are not just rivers they are deep gorges in steep mountainous terrain. Despite the low altitude the mountains are every bit as rugged and wild as the Alps - but with a much drier and warmer climate. The Beaume gorge in particular is absolutely spectacular – a favourite for river watersports and with stunning, steep terraced slopes cultivated with olive, cherry and pear trees, vines and amazing architecture.

High intensity training for both cycling and running during the week had left me with tired and sore legs – and little hope of full recovery before this race. Those races always start fast, so there is no way that you can just pace yourself to last the distance – you just go as fast as you can fighting to stay with and help groups on the way and hoping that your legs last out.

Christiane decided to come along this time and so we arrived at Valgorge beside the Drobie river at about 1am. The place was dead and we found a quiet, empty parking spot right beside the local tourist office with a drinking fountain and public toilet – perfect for a relaxing night’s sleep. The race wasn’t due to start until 10am so there was no rush in the morning – except we weren’t sure where exactly to go and the information on the internet was minimal to say the least. It looked like no one would be there in the morning. The weather had finally changed from our extended winter to the first clear skies of springtime. Settling in to sleep I saw an extremely bright meteor through the dark tinted glass of the van. It just made me think of how fragile our little planet is and how glad I am that most meteors are really small.

Up at 7:30am I cooked and ate the porridge straight away to avoid it sitting in my belly at the start line as happened in the previous race. Around 8am Chris Harrop passed by on the road and spotted the van. He was here with his family staying in an auberge (Hostel) from where they were all going to canoe down the gorge during the following two days. Chris offered to locate the inscription point and race start then report back on the return to his auberge. His report was that there was practically no-one there and all those pre-inscribed were racing club members. In addition most had entered for the short course. This meant that the long course was going to be brutal and with the great risk of being dumped early on by everyone. When I went to register about 45 minutes later there were so many people arriving that I had to run to avoid being stuck in a queue. The good weather seemed to have brought everyone out of the woodwork after all and there was no shortage of entrants. There were about 140 in the long course and about 250 in the small one. This is still a very small focussed competition in comparison with some where they are forced to limit the numbers at 7,000. I enrolled in the 135km race despite thinking that I would not be able to finish it. I was really worried that my legs might just seize up as sometimes happens in training – when it is still easy to get home. There is a “sweeper up” vehicle, but I didn’t want to end up in that either – I’d rather have an accident and get a fast ride in an ambulance! (which almost happened).

Blue skies and sunshine reminded me to put on sunscreen and carry only an absolute minimum of gear consisting of one spare inner tube, two plastic tyre levers and some glucose tablets (Isostar) to put in any water refills. The bike had two full water bottles with sports drinks. No wind or rain jacket was needed and it was great to leave money and the mobile phone behind. It’s amazing how good it is to feel free of those things even if only for about 5 to 6 hours. It’s also a bit worrying because if you do get lost you really are on your own. The course however was perfectly well marked out and manned at important junctions with refreshment stands at the top of each of the three big climbs.

The 135km race started off 10 minutes before the 90km race. And I forgot to start the GPS and heart rate monitor unit on my bike – remembering only about 10km further on. The start was downhill and surprisingly the peloton stayed at a reasonable speed – that is NOT too fast. Perhaps it was because there was a security motorbike in front. It wasn’t long before we arrived at the first climb and it was steep. Chris had been behind me until this point and as he caught up and overtook me on the climb he asked how I was doing. I relpied “OK, except I’m going backwards now”. The first 20 minutes of the climb were the worst until the initial leg pain wore off then I got warmed up and into a slightly faster rhythm and found my place in the pack. The first climb was the steepest of the day and that probably damaged the morale of quite a few people. At least at this point there were still some people behind me so I felt reassured. My legs were not fresh and carrying about 20lb excess body weight there was no way I could climb fast – despite having a much lighter bike than last year. Combined body and bike weight is currently higher than at any time last year. Once the first climb was over there was a steep narrow descent. This is when it became apparent that it was going to be really dangerous because there was a lot of loose gravel around and the turns were sharp and steep. Sure enough after only a few bends there was a body and bike on the ground and someone waiting for an ambulance. I decided on the spot to take it really easy descending – no heroics and no mad push to catch a bunch ahead or anything like that. Safety is much more important. If Lance Armstrong could end up in hospital due to others falling in front on him on gravel only a few days earlier then no one had any immunity to that fate. The course was set out as three loops all intersecting at the original start point. The first and second loops seemed to blur together. I ended up in a pack of about 6 and we worked hard together slipstreaming. At first I was being left behind a bit on the climbs and the pack split up and reformed several times. Later on I seemed to be the strongest in the pack and unintentionally dropped the group a few times when climbing – so waited for them so as not to waste energy against the wind on the flats alone. This process continued throughout the second loop and it was good to have a pack to share the work with as it was a long grind and we made good speed. It is very motivating to work in a team and you do get a good recharge to your batteries while slipstreaming. With 6 or 7 riders together your proportion of the real work is relatively small and you travel fast.

The start of the third loop was at the bottom of an 1100m 17km climb – with absolutely no respite. About 6km up this climb I suddenly started to slow down and there was nothing could change that. The breakdown process was relatively gradual, beginning with some of the pack I’d been with just steadily dropping me. Around the 12km mark there was another noticeable pace reduction when I noticed that my heart rate had dropped to 142, whereas it had been between 155 and 173 up until then – a completely unsustainable level of course with 173 being my current practical heart rate training maximum. Basically I had “bonked”. There was no way of generating enough effort now to keep the heart rate up. The problem was not that the climb had still 5km left – it was that the course still had 60km left. Already there had been many riders returning from the climb in the opposite direction having abandoned – so I was not the only one in trouble. The base of the climb was the actual overall start/finish point so it was very tempting to bail out – in fact it’s almost like it had been set up deliberately to lure people in their greatest moment of weakness and vulnerability. I made up my mind that I’d prefer the sweeper up van than that option – giving up is not an option. The top of the climb had a refreshment post so for the first time ever in a race I stopped and got off the bike. Without speaking to anyone I drank a full litre of sugary orange juice and stuffed my face with dried fruit and crisps, then washed that down with more orange juice and replace the liquids in my water bottles. The stop only took a few minutes and I managed to jump on the bike and catch another guy who had stopped for refreshments. After a very small descent the climb perversely recommenced and continued again for ages. I was unceremoniously dumped again. Fortunately the guy ahead was very cautious descending so I caught up again, but despite covering a significant distance together he wasn’t a good work partner. After sitting on my tail through all the descents and all the flats he finally dumped me again as soon as the climbing recommenced. We were now in the Beaume valley and I had resigned to being effectively out of the race, but decided to at least then try to enjoy it. The worst part about bonking is that your head goes really foggy and you can’t think straight, basically due to low blood sugar. You just want to stop. The refreshments must have helped because my head cleared, but the legs were not interested. I started making a point of observing the scenery and was stunned by the natural beauty and grandeur of that valley and promised myself to bring Christiane to see it. When she did see it later she was amazed and said that she never imagined there was such scenery or landscape in France – even though she has spent her entire life here and is a mountain guide. Eventually there was a steward at the roadside waving a flag and pointing up towards a steep narrow road off to the side. This was the start of the climb up the last mountain pass – 6km of climbing and some of the steepest of the day. I was well and truly on my own now and was just glad to feel assured that I wasn’t actually lost. The legs had not grown any worse which was a great surprise. I’d managed to sustain about 25km/hr on the flats even in this state and now on the hills I was still climbing steep sections at about 12km/hr – dropping to 9km/hr on the very steep sections of the single track road. The “compact” gearing was great and it always allowed a good cadence and reasonable workload even with bonked out legs on a steep climb. Strangely, it actually felt like the legs were recovering a bit, but the heart still couldn’t rise above 146 bpm .

Near the top of this climb I caught a glimpse of my unwilling partner from an hour before and also noticed someone not that far behind me – so this spurred me on a bit and the legs felt better. Over the top and not long into the descent I caught up with the guy in front and ended up leading him down through the most treacherous descent of the day – made even harder by being so tired by now after over 5 hours of racing. I just tried to stay alive and get to the bottom of this descent. Earlier in the day, on the second loop, I had touched my front brake slightly during a turn to the right during a descent – both front and back brakes were being feathered to contain the speed – and suddenly the front wheel went completely from under me. I was going down for sure and at quite a high speed. The wheel must have skidded violently about a foot to the left then suddenly the tyre caught again and whipped me back upright. Wow, that was close! Almost an ambulance trip after all. About 200 yards further on another competitor was standing at the side of the road waiting for the ambulance and a little bit further on there was another. I had been lucky then and didn’t want that luck to run out at the end of the day. At the bottom the climb the guy was still with me and I knew he would probably dump me again. At that point I believed there was still 13km to go and then saw a sign saying 3km to go to the finish! I’d forgotten about the problem with the GPS at the start of the race and didn’t realise that the end was so close. Another two riders came into view not far ahead so I decided to go for it and accelerated. The legs came back to life and the heart rate went back up for the first time in ages. 3km uphill is still quite a long way and when the kilometres are marked at the side of the road they seem interminably far apart. To my total surprise I was able to keep up this new effort all the way to the end and left all three of them far behind. It was amazing to finish strongly like this after such a struggle earlier on. Totally unexpected! The two other riders that I overtook at the end turned out to be on the short 90km course! Chris happened to be there as I arrived, having finished a long time ahead. His race hadn’t been plain sailing either. It seems that he had made a push for it too on that last 3km climb and suddenly both sets of thigh muscles went into intense cramp. He ended up lying on the ground rolling around and screaming in agony. Other riders were stopping and asking if he needed an ambulance. It took him ages - about half an hour - to get back on the bike just to cover the last 3km. My own outcome was much as expected though it didn’t end in tears. The legs came good in the end and I’ll certainly be much less apprehensive about tackling a big course like this in future. Strangely, the second half of the course, once the head cleared, was actually more enjoyable as I could more or less sit at my own pace – with still no danger of being caught by the sweeper up van. The oddest thing I saw during the day was a fat, one foot long lime green lizard ripping up the road in front of me – and I wasn’t hallucinating!

The red is the plunging heart rate and the brown is the altitude. Click image to read better.

I finished 114th in 05h43'51 out of 125 who completed the race and Chris was 74th in 05h08'42. Next time we should both do better. The winner managed an impressive 04h00'56 and the last two crawled in at just under 7 hours.

Results:- http://beaume.drobie.site.voila.fr/

Short Hill Climb

Aime to Granier 580m Vertical 36’ 33”

Should have been resting the legs today but the weather was good so I had to get out. Last September I could do this climb in 35’09” but my weight was at 67kg. Today my weight was at 74kg

Will need to calculate a power to weight ratio later and see what difference weight actually makes to climbing speed – I’m sure it’s significant. Quite pleased with this time as it is 30 seconds better than last month without any weight change - plus the legs are not fresh.

Standard 10k run

Standard 10k run yesterday evening. Legs felt fine and managed a few sprint intervals for the first time this year. Have to be careful now not to do too much prior to Saturday’s race.

Awesome workout today!

Watching the Tour of California live on the internet – really great coverage…
http://tracker.amgentourofcalifornia.com/

Special Slalom (Vineyard)

Used the CTS (Carmichael Training System) and found it to work a treat. Decided to go for the full PI (Power Interval) workout and wow was it hard! The idea was to do two sets of 3 repetitions of 3 minutes at 100% max heart rate – with 3 minutes recovery between each repetition. Between sets there was an eight minute break. That makes 6 reps total (18 mins at max heart rate)

Used my local hill climbing terrain for the workout because it is right at the doorstep and has very little traffic – despite the fact that doing a really intense workout would probably seem even harder on a hill.

After a good 20 minute warm up I went straight into it. The first 3 minute PI saw me reach max heart rate after about 90 seconds and then stay quite close to that for the next 90 seconds. Wow! Very hard! It’s not that you want to vomit that’s so bad it’s that you can’t. It is REALLY hard. The worst part is that after the first repetition is done you know there are another five still to come and it just doesn’t seem possible. Anyway, I got through all six reps and actually felt great at the end – much better than after the normal constant pace hard slog hill climb. What a strange sensation sprinting uphill. I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard on a bike in my life and I can see why this brings about improvements in overall performance.

What impressed me the most is how precisely the CTS system works. The CTS test I did a few days ago gave me the parameters to work with and I was a bit sceptical. Today – working to the absolute maximum – my max heart rate was within 1 beat of the figure measured during the test. I started a bit too fast on the first few reps because the idea was to build up power for 35 seconds, rather than go absolute maximum from the very start – it’s called an SEPI (Steady Effort Power Interval). When you start really fast it is called a PFPI (Peak and Fade Power Interval) which is probably harder – but you can’t sustain the peak that happens at the start. I got it about right and did seem to peak in the last minute for most of the reps.

I understand now why my legs were so tired after Monday’s (La Plagne (1400)) high intensity (35 mins above lactic threshold) workout – and why I couldn’t run properly the next day! Here is a “recovery table” from the CTS system: (Gives time for full recovery after workout)

Technical Information...

0-6 hours endurance intensity – 8 hrs
30-60 mins Tempo intensity -8-10 hrs
75-120 mins tempo intensity 24-36 hrs
15-45 mins at lactic threshold 24 hrs
60-90 mins at lactic threshold 24-36 hrs
10-30 mins above lactic threshold 24-36 hrs
45 mins or more above lactic threshold 36-48 hrs.

EM (Endurance Miles) 50% to 91% of ave CTS test Heart Rate (allowing terrain to dictate variation of effort)
T (Tempo) 88% to 90% of ave CTS HR.
SS (Steady State) 92% to 94% of ave CTS HR
CR (Climbing repeats) 95% to 97% of ave CTS HR
PI (Power Intervals) 100% Max Heart Rate

PI has two versions - SEPI, Steady Effort PI and PFPI, Peak and Fade PI - explained in blog text.

OU (Over, Under) is when an interval fluctuates between CR and SS for a few minutes.

My ave from the CTS test is 163 and max is 173.

This computes as follows for the workouts:
EM 82 to 148 bpm
T 114 to 122 bpm
SS 150 to 153 bpm
CR 155 to 158 bpm
PI 173

Tired Legs Run

10k run today, but legs were tired from the high intensity bike climb yesterday – so there was no way to pick up any speed – slow 56’16”. Look forward to when a “slow” run is still well under 50 minutes. Still felt enjoyable though. Had to wear winter clothing layers because it has returned to almost winter temperatures – which means a lot of layers to wash afterwards.

Worked on reaching behind with the stride – lengthening the stride behind instead of reaching ahead. Noticed that this really stretches the upper quads near the pelvis and is a good antidote for the bent over leg contractions in cycling (where I had a few mild cramps yesterday). The changes in running style more towards the “pose” technique really make this difference in muscle use clear.

It’s obvious however on a day like this that a high intensity workout on the bike – well into lactic threshold territory – makes tired legs in general so they are not great for running. Still, I expect that cross training in this way is still allowing muscle repair, recovery and development more specific to cycling. I must get a faster run in sometime this week though.

La Plagne (1400)

Short 700m climb, working on power at Lactic Threshold.

Our valley has not seen the sun for weeks now and each day has seen more rain or snow at higher altitudes. The place is beginning to resemble the west coast of Scotland – except there are no midges here thank goodness. Decided to use the bad weather to carry out short high intensity workouts on the bike because long trips are just not too appealing at the moment. On this workout, due to going up to 1400m and temperatures dropping below 5°C I wore my neoprene shirt as a “vapour barrier”. Well, I now know for sure that neoprene is not waterproof – the sweat came straight through to my insulation layers and I felt a bit chilled on the descent. The idea of a vapour barrier is to prevent moisture from accumulating in the insulation layers – but I will need to find something else – neoprene works a bit but not well enough. There is fresh snow all around the top of the valley. The cold started in November last year and it is still cold in mid May now – so much for global warming!

The CTS (Carmichael Training System) program that I’ve been studying bases itself on high intensity short duration interval training. CR (Climbing Repeats) are the second highest intensity intervals and should only be maintained for a few minutes – for me that means a heart rate of 155 to 158 bpm. The idea is to train the body to produce and then re-cycle lactic acid and to become efficient at doing so. Well so much for the plan! On this session I sustained an average heart rate of 155+ for 35 minutes and much of this was above 160. Now I know why I feel tired after workouts like this! I also know now that I’m not going to stick to the CTS program because I can already cope with considerably harder training than it advocates.

There are two useful things I’ve learned from studying the CTS approach. One is the idea of RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion). RPE is a subjective rating of effort levels based on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being no effort and 10 being maximum. Lactic Threshold work as around the 7 to 8 level. I’d rate the climbing yesterday at 8 to 9 (Very Hard) getting close to 9 but not quite. The other thing I have learned is that PI (Power Intervals), requiring an RPE of 10, are something that I’ve been missing in my training. For a PI my heart rate need to be 163bpm or above (max 183) It makes a lot of sense to me to do PI’s as intervals because there is no way you can sustain an RPE of 10 for very long – it’s like a full on sprint. I can see how working on this should bring performance benefits - so I’ll have to figure out the best way to incorporate them into my training. I know that with training however I can sustain a heart rate of 167 – effort of between 9 and 10 – for an hour. What’s new for me though is pushing the body at full on 10 for intervals.

The time taken to complete the climb was only one minute slower than at my peak last August – yet I weigh 7kg more just now and my fitness level is only starting to improve – so things are looking good for this time of year. Just need to find a way to stop overeating now.

Conditions at Aime just now...

Cracking photo of Cadel Evans winning yesterday's stage in the Giro d'Italia - they are having some pretty bad weather too!

http://www.steephill.tv/2010/giro-d-italia/photos/stage-07/ - link to more great photos of that epic Giro stage.

CTS Test (Carmichael training Systems)

Carried out my first CTS test for cycling this evening. It was very tough!

The test is to establish training zones for heart rate. It should also be for power metering, but as such equipment is ridiculously expensive I plan to just make do with heart rate monitoring. The test requires a warm up then a Power Interval , “PI”, at maximum power output for 8 minutes, followed by a cool down and then a repeat PI for another 8 minutes. Going as hard as possible for 8 minutes is very difficult, and the last minute of each PI has to be pushed really as hard as possible. Carmichael points out that “you can do anything for 1 minute” and he is right about that. You think you are already at your maximum and somehow you ramp it up for another level as if your brain enters into a contract with you, accepting that it is for just one minute.

The key figure to extract from the test is the average heart rate for whichever interval gives the highest reading. In this case it was 163 bpm. From this figure I can now calculate 5 different training zones to use for specific training exercises tailored towards specific goals.

The two peaks in the data are the PIs and the enlarged image (click on image) shows the slpit time markers for the start and end of each PI. The Garmin Forerunner 305 is an excellent tool for this sort of measurement and the SportTracks free software is perfect for extracting the precise data. (The graph here is a print out from SportTracks.)