The Chicken Run

Not sure how to describe this escapade - The Chicken Run! Part tour, training, adventure, ordeal, pain, pleasure, achievement all mixed together.

La Poule - "The chicken" is the shape of the heart of Savoie on the map - comprised of its two main mountainous valleys - Tarentaise and Maurienne. Savoie is department 73 in France. It used to be a fully independent country but was "liberated" from its freedom by Napoleon and incorporated into France. There is still an active "Free Savoie" movement operating today. The road around the centre outlines the chicken.

Our aim was to cycle the entire chicken in a day, around 220km with 4700m climbing. Just to make it more difficult we were going to cut the chicken's head off by going straight over the mountains by the Col de La Madeleine - which was the toughest climb on the hardest mountain stage of this year's Tour de France. Today it would be the smaller of our climbs with the Col de l'Isèran reaching 770m higher at an altitude of 2770m and being the highest mountain pass in the Alps. Added to the difficulty would be the fact that only two days earlier cars could only get across it with snow chains on despite it only being the middle of August. There was some suffering lying in store for us.

The day was supposed to begin from the Tonneau bar in Bourg St Maurice at 7am sharp. Leaving Aime driving east towards Bourg there was a stunning sunrise illuminating the clouds above the Col de Petite St Bernard - but this did forebode the "Red sky in the morning - shepherd's warning"! I arrived about 15 minutes early in Bourg to have a coffee and decide where to park for the day. After parking and getting the bike and a small day bag ready then returning to the Tonneau bar for 7am - only Rob was there by now - tucking into a fresh croissant and coffee. The start was not going to be so sharp - in fact we set off at 07:35 eventually.

Only three of us were doing the entire route - Chris, me and Justin who had just arrived the previous day and had not acclimatised to altitude. We all gave day bags to Rob to put in the backup car. Rob remaining oblivious to the significance of our individual preparations. Rob and Lesley were aiming to each do stages of the tour, with Lesley tackling the first climb and Rob the second. Rob's first task was to take Lesley to Moutiers ahead of us where she would start her day. The car would also allow us all to meet up for a scheduled lunch stop at St Michel de Maurienne. The three of us set off at a good pace, slipstreaming in rotation and making good speed on the first leg of the tour to Les Lecheres and the bottom of the 25km 1500m climb up the Col de la Madeleine. Straight away on the climb Chris set off on his own at a slightly faster pace. I stayed with Justin who was already sweating heavily and clearly not in the best shape. For me, part of a day like this is that it is more social and shared with others than a race day - so there was no rush. In addition my recovery from Saturday's very hard race had not gone so well so I wanted to conserve my resources. About 8km from the top I felt like having a bit of a workout and so pulled away from Justin and kept a slightly higher pace to the top of the climb. At the top of the climb, while waiting for Justin I got chatting a a young guy with a small shack selling mountain farm cheese. It turned out his parents own the farm right next to the house we rent in Aime and he was at college last year with our Norwegian neighbour/landlord. This passed the time waiting for the suffering Justin to arrive and sort himself out for the descent. Descending from the col the road was very good - having been improved for the Tour de France earlier this year - that is until we went through a short tunnel and in the bad light I hit a pothole! The bike was fine but my Garmin GPS jumped off its quick release mount and bounced about 30m down the road. This time the Garmin was not so happy about falling - having survived two previous adventures with a different quick release clip that turned out to be broken. The clip was not broken in this case, but still spat the unit out. Anyway, from then on the unit could not lock on to satellites - so it appeared to be toast. The rest of the descent was done with the GPS dysfunctional and not logging any position data. Fortunately about 7 minutes further on I realised that I should switch off the auto-pause which engages automatically where there are no satellites - thus enabling the unit to log heart rate data and time at least. At La Chambre, the bottom of the descent, we met Chris and Lesley in a cafe waiting in the warm for us. It was overcast and chilly since we had started cycling - the blue skies having disappeared right at the start of the tour. Rob then appeared after having driven the other way around the Chicken to scope out the section he would be climbing. Without wasting too much time we set off again - the four of us together towards St Michel de Maurienne at 23km distance. Miraculously the GPS started to work again  - it was as if it had been temporarily concussed by the fall and had now recovered. This was the start of the long climb up the Maurienne valley - from 470m eventually culminating at 2770m altitude. St Michel would be our lunch stop, where Rob was ahead locating a suitable restaurant. Lesley meanwhile was hanging in, slipstreaming as we fought our way rapidly up the "faux plat" against a headwind. We predictably split into two groups with Chris and myself ahead but I started to feel some leg pain which was clearly a legacy of Saturday's race as this sort of pain had been unknown all summer until that race - so I allowed Chris to lead and remained slipstreaming. This was a section of road that we passed on the Marmotte race and I remember then how I was fooled by the faux plat and how my legs turned to mush at St Michel when we changed direction to climb the Col du Télégraph. Rob found a nice restaurant where we could sit outside - sheltered from the wind coming down the valley. We all ordered the "Cicyliste" menu - but the Spaghetti was full of fattening creamy sauce, cheese and ham - typically Savoyard and very inappropriate for our needs. In compensation however it tasted very good.

(Actual route taken - GPS track in blue)

Lunch took about an hour altogether after which the three of us set off for Bonneval at 60km further up the valley and at 1800m altitude. Most of the climbing would continue to be" faux plat" and Justin was suitably suffering. We stayed together working as a group until we reached the second 'Col de Madeleine" which is a short climb several kilometers before Bonneval. There we split up and went at our own paces, Justin finding again that he was short of power on the faux plat after the climb. Rob had started his climb just before this col and left Lesley with the car. We passed Lesley sitting on a terrace sipping coffee at an outdoor market looking like she was enjoying life slightly more than we were at that moment. Later we would meet up with Lesley and the car at Bonneval just at the bottom of the final 1000m climb up to the Col de l'Isèran. On arrival at Bonneval the rain started - cold rain! We all had some extra clothing and protection in the car so we put it on - including waterproof shoe covers (that aren't waterproof) and leggings. I also had a better waterproof jacket and a dry microfibre shirt to put on at the top of the climb. Rob was way ahead of us - having not stopped at Bonneval as we had scheduled and taking our coffee kitty with him. Rob didn't have any extra protective clothing.

The climb was just a slog really. I was now in bottom gear to spare any leg muscle pain from developing and just winding my way steadily uphill. At the half way stage of the 13 km climb Chris was still visible up ahead so he was going fairly slowly too despite him feeling in better form. We were closing in on the 200km mark so he was certain to be tiring. Justin and I did the first pitch together, chatting for a while, but then we split due to the need to find our own paces for the task ahead. The last part of the climb is hard because at around the 2km mark the gradient suddenly jumps to around 12% and the air is becoming thinner at this altitude. I'd been climbing using nasal breathing all the way - in fact all day excepting periods when chatting - but here I just couldn't maintain that. The sudden change of gradient had me wondering for a short while if I actually had the strength left in me to make it to the top - but then the steepest part was behind me and I felt better. Perhaps it was breathing through the mouth at this altitude; I don't know but it felt like a veritable "second wind" and felt good right to the top. At the top it was absolutely miserable; Some people were arriving on bikes from the other side - obviously making the trip over to Bonneval because no-one would just climb up one side on a day like this without really having to do so to get somewhere else, but at least they seemed properly equipped for touring - unlike us with our racing setup. I went in to a doorway to shelter and put on the dry protective clothing as quickly as possible because I just wanted to get down the other side and into our meeting point - the Chevalot Boulangerie.

Immediately on the descent it was clear that the brakes were practically useless for rapid slowing down - which meant that the entire descent would have to be slow. The rain was pouring down and there was still snow piled on the sides of the road. The wind added rapidly to the chilling effect and it wasn't long before the shivering started. Where the road was straight is was possible to go a little faster but the chilling effect was incredible and shivering amplified instantly with each acceleration. The descent was totally miserable. Towards the bottom it was difficult to hold on to the brakes as the fingers were frozen and cramped by now. The involuntary shivering of the body was so violent that it threatened to destabilise the bike and cause an accident. It was a very strange feeling. I realised at one point that due to the shivering I couldn't even breathe properly and had a tightness around my lower ribs and diaphragm area; Breathing out was prompting an involuntary groaning that was very hard to stop. I wasn't sure of making it to the bottom, but just had to go on. Arriving at the boulangerie Chis was just leaving it to go to a warmer cafe and so intercepted me and took me with him. Chris had probably been down for about 20 minutes already but was still shivering violently and had already had one hot chocolate. Rob had done a runner with the kitty. When Rob had arrived at Le Fornet cable car at about 1900m altitude (Val is at 1850m) Rob was forced to stop and shelter as he felt unable to control his bike any longer. His feet were so cold that he was worried about what would happen when he put them on the ground - whether or not they would function. While standing there groaning and shivering the free bus stopped by him and the driver asked if he ws OK. Rob jumped on the bus with his bike and took a warm sheltered ride into town, called his wife Inga and got her to pick him up all before any of the rest of us arrived. Rob had climbed the Col rapidly as it was his only section of today's tour, but he probably ended up suffering more than anyone by the bottom due to lack of protective clothing. Justin arrive some time later and after having a hot drink in the boulangerie he saw our telephone message and came over to the cafe to warm up better. The decision to abandon the remaining 36km descent back to Bourg was unanimous. There was no way that we would have made it without falling off the bikes. The shaking of the body was so violent that controlling a bike much longer would have been impossible. I struggled to drink my first hot chocolate fully expecting it to end up on the floor. Chris had been embarrassed that everyone in the establishment might think that he had Parkinson's disease when in fact he was just really chilled.

All Rob's crimes were forgiven in the end as he returned with the cavalry - namely his warm vehicle with a bike rack on the back, plus the drinks kitty. Rob drove us down to Bourg through the cloud and rain to where Chris had to recover a car and mine was parked. Thankfully there were some warm dry clothes in the van so I changed straight away and went immediately home - zombified. Chris and the others all had a dinner party planned for later - but there was no way I was up to that - followed by a drive home. I just wanted to sleep already. Unfortunately sleep was not great because the body felt like it didn't know that it was all over - it rebelled a bit during the night but nothing serious.

Analysis

Distance.   We logged 198km on Chris's GPS and 4700m climbing. I burned almost 10,000 calories. Due to the GPS problems about 10km is missing from my own recorded workout and track.

Heart.         Basically only a relatively short time was spent near the anaerobic zone so the tiredness appears to stem from the race four days earlier - and the extra long distance.  It appears that the effort was controlled as best as possible because the average heart rate at the end of the last climb after almost 9 hours of effort was practically the same as the start of the first climb of the day. The only difference is that at the end of the day it would have been very difficult to have made the heart work much harder.

Food.         Apart from a coffee and glass of water only three 500ml bottles of sports drink were taken all day and one energy bar eaten. (For energy add a spaghetti lunch). This seems to be terrible mismanagement of feeding requirements - but the tiredness towards the end felt simply more like muscle fatigue, which could probably be expected. I do need to find a way of consumming more though - both fluid and carbohydrate/protein sources. It's just so hard to make yourlself do those things when the body doesn't give you direct signals to do so.

Breathing.       The recent virus appears to have gone already so nasal brething was possible for most of the tour. When being sociable and chatting it's impossible to breathe through the nose, but the rest of the time I'd switch back to nasal breathing. Slight occasional blowing of the nose kept it clear enough to deal with even the most strenuous efforts of the day. Only at close to 3000m altitude and with extreme tiredness did I allow myself to switch over to mouth breathing for a few kilometers. The hope is that this permits a better recovery from the tour than would otherwise happen. It was noticeable that with Saturday's race which had to be all mouth breathing due to the slight virus - the recovery after the race was slow. I'm assuming that this has to do with the influence on lactic acid levels generated by different ways of breathing - the CO2 and blood acidity being higher with nasal breathing thus more O2 being released into the blood and a more aerobic workout resulting  - hence lower lactic acid concentrations and quicker post exercise recovery.

Cold.     If one lesson was learned today it is that the very highest mountain passes cannot be cycled without special clothing unless the weather is warm and dry. The problem is that in the wet the brakes don't work so you have to descend quite slowly and the body can't work to generate its own heat - other than by shivering to the point that the bike cannot be controlled.

Weight.     Next morning weight: 67.1kg

                Blood pressure          106/71

                Resting Heart rate      49 bpm

Le Tour de l'Ain stage 4

Saturday 14th August 2010  (Weight 67.8kg Hr min43/max185, Bp 115/73)



http://www.tourdelain.com/   Route: Culoz - Grand Columbier - Belley

The professional Tour de l'Ain ranks about 4th in terms of importance in France, after the Tour de France, the Paris Roubaix and the Dauphiné Libèré. This year's tour incorporated France's first ever "cyclosportive" tour in parallel - with the option for amateurs to enter either the full tour or individual stages.

Basically, the fastest amateurs are slightly faster than the slowest pros - so it makes a beautiful overlap, catering for all sporting levels.

The winner of the pro tour was Haimar Zubeldia of Radioshack - Lance Armstrong's successful Tour de France team - he won by a few tenths of a second over the 4 day tour.

The overall winner of the Cyclosportive event was 23 year old Benoit Paris - and as can be seen in the photo the event is celebrated almost as seriously as the pro event...

Some of the participants in the amateur event were actually professionals. John Thomas - an excellent rider and British ski teacher based at Peisey Vallandry - had a fight with one during the race. The Cofidis team rider apparently threatened to push him off the road if he didn't comply to his desire to ride in a certain way. Unfortunately it didn't really matter because John had misjudged his food intake and bonked on the biggest climb of the day - having to get off his bike and walk anyway! That must have been a seriously bad day for someone who is used to ending up on a podium.

Preparation

My day started well and finished well. That's unusual!

The night before I had parked the van right next to the small town center in Culoz and had a good night's sleep, rising at 6am to breakfast on porridge with an apple. Previous disasterous attempts to "carbo load" discouraged me from attempting it again. The day before I ate a pasta meal in the evening but that was my only consession. I didn't want to start a race again with a bloated stomach through ridiculous overeating. While driving to Culoz though in the evening I did crack and buy a Magnum almond and chocolate coated ice cream - but perhaps that's why I had no energy probems during the race the following day!

After breakfast I went out on the bike to find the race registration and entered both myself and Chris Harrop - paying 38 euros for each of us. In return we were given electronic race numbers and cycling jerseys worth 50 euros each - so it was a good deal. Right next to the center was a small cafe serving coffee - so everything was perfect - except one detail !!! Chris had slept in with his alarm clock failing and it became obvious that despite his best efforts he would not make the 08:30am start despite driving 150km like a lunatic.

The Race

The weather was forecast for rain though it appeared to be clear. I decided to take a rain layer with me - not so much for the race but for after as we had a 17km ride back to the cars from the finish line and lunch in Belley- and that was potentially unpleasant after cooling off.

At the start Chris had still not turned up. I waited at the back of the grid in case he made it so that I could give him his start number - but he didn't make it. We had arranged that in such an event I would start the race with both numbers - his tucked inside the front of my jersey and my own electronic tag pinned to my back. Chris's task was now to either intercept me or catch up with me - a long shot but better than nothing. Chris was really depressed and frustrated at the situation and ready to turn back for home, but he spotted the race security just ahead of where he was on the road and realised that the peloton would pass this point, so he parked up and quickly got ready. We were perhaps only 500m into the race and I spotted Chris coming the other way desperately looking for me amongst 315 others - so I shouted and he spotted me, replying that he would catch me up. This was definitely the most audacious start so far - and a happy ending to a horrible moment for Chris. Meanwhile I was on a mission because starting at the back of the pack meant that the main peloton was already disappearing into the distance and we were being stranded with a bunch of slow moving duffers - not a good idea with 63km of generally flat terrain ahead. I found myself out in front pushing on my own to try to bridge the gap. This anaerobic effort could not last long and I made very little ground up on the fast moving massive peloton. At last Chris caught me up and so I passed over his number which he folded and put in his pocket. Chris then took over for a while to help with the chase. For about 20km we were pretty much alone in chasing the groups ahead as the main peloton began to fracture, with several riders tagging along but not helping. Eventually we caught a group that was going fast enough to stay with and conserve some energy. We lost a lot of time due to the poor start, but at least catching this group would make us reasonably effective from now on - at least that was the idea.

At Km 23 and the first hill climb the group fractured and Chris went ahead with two others. I was just behind with two young guys who annoyingly stopped at the top as they had a support team waiting for them there - and so I was isolated and could not catch up with Chris. Soon the young guys caught me up though and we started to work together - but only kept a steady distance from Chris's group. Eventually after about 20km of hard work the main group behind wound us in and I realised that it was time to rest a bit and hang at the back for a while to recover. At Km 60 eventually we wound in Chris's group - to Chris's great surprise as he was engulfed in riders all of a sudden after being sure that there was no-one behind him. I took the lead as I saw a small climb coming up and prefered to be ahead and control the group a bit  rather than being dumped off the back. This resulted in me taking Chris's place with the two other strong guys as we broke away from the main group - and it let me survive a rather sustained climb without being wound back in again. We continued to reel in some other groups in front and made some good progress, but soon the real climbing would begin in earnest. Up until this point my average heart rate was at 91% max for almost 2 hours and well inside the Super Lactate Threshold zone - but I didn't feel any adverse effects. I'd given a water bottle to Chris as he had started with only half a bottle and I still had a complete full one, but it made me conserve my drink rather than drink liberally and running out. By the end of the day I'd be a bit thirsty but it didn't cost me any problems. The worst moment was just after eating an energy bar which immediately caused stomach cramps. Eating and high intensity effort don't go well together for me.

The serious climbing began at Km 62.6 and I'm glad I didn't know what was ahead or I'd never have worked so hard from the start of the race. Basically this climb is considered the Ventoux of the North - perhaps the toughest climb Hors Categorie next to the Ventoux itself. The climbing starts 30km from the summit, and goes up in stages with the final stage being 12km and averaging 8%. This is not a particularly hard average gradient, but the problem is that it is stair cased - going flat and then really steep - all the way up. Gradients of 22% are frequent and the final kilometer is scary to even look at from below. Chris predictably pulled away form me on the climb and as climbing is a case of "every man for himself" I was happy to see him go and then just get on with surviving. The mental strain of just hanging in there was really tough - especially near the beginning. Once a rhythm sets in then you settle down and get on with it. I was surprised to hold my ground with those around me and only two riders overtook me on the entire final section. Back at Km 72 there had been a food and drinks stand and I had stopped briefly to get some water. Filling the bottle was too awkward so I just filled my stomach with as much as I could rapidly swallow. Just at that point the main group that I'd left behind earlier got in front of me. I then regreted not having just stayed with them and conserved more energy - but you can never really tell. Most often a group disintegrates anyway and then if you had stayed back you would lose out in every away. The climb itself was gruelling but at least it was not hot, in fact it was threatening to rain but fortunately only started to spit at worst. The roads were lined with people setting up for the pro tour coming through later on, but they were relentless in their encouragement. 

At the top of the climb we were just entering the clouds. I'd kept on my arm warmers so didn't bother with the rain/wind layer and didn't get too cold on the descent. The descent was fearsome, reaching over 70km/hr on some nasty surfaces. One rider ahead of me did a "tout droit" on a sharp steep bend but safely survived the event. The long scary straight sections higher up suddenly changed into an incredibly windy section lower down. My left hand, operating the front brake (European setup) became totally numb at one point but I couldn't let up. I wanted to try to stay with one or two fast guys by the bottom of the climb so as to have people to work with on the flats. In the event I did become isolated anyway at the bottom. I'd even missed the apparently stunning views of the Lac du Bourget during the descent - focus had to be 100% on surviving. The flats at the bottom of the climb would have been welcome except for the pain that now appeared in my legs - deep pain in the thighs signalling the effort from the climb. I probably just didn't notice it when descending as it was a life threatening descent. Now the pain grew and I knew it would be a while before it disappeared. The right thigh started to cramp so I consciously removed most effort from it but continued to pedal to flush the lactic acid from the muscles. Eventually two riders caught me from behind at a strong pace and I jumped in behind them to both go faster and rest for a while. Fortunately the legs recovered quite rapidly because it was about to become considerably hilly again. It rapidly transpired that I would be the strongest on the climbs as I could keep up a high pace on short climbs, the strength having returned to the legs. One of the guys dropped out on the climbs and I was left with one other who I waited for on two climbs to work with on the following flats. We worked well together and kept up a good pace catching a few riders ahead. Finally, two kilometers from the finish there was a very steep short climb

Photo of the guys at the back - with the Voiture Balai hoping to collect them...  

After Race

Immediately after the race we each had to find the reception for getting our meal - which happened to be a kilometer away. Thankfully they did have an organised enclosure with tickets to protect the bikes. The meal however wah absolutely horrible. I thought it was scrambled eggs and sausages but it turned out to be a horrible yellowish polenta with diots (tough Savoyard susage) whihc was completely inedible after such a race. I had lots of water to drink, a small desert and a small coffee but that was all. I'd found Chris straight away in the enclosure so we chatted about the race for a while and then decided to find our way back to Culoz, 17km away where the race had started and our cars were parked. This entailed navigating our way past the closed streets and barriers and somehow finding the right road which would hopefully take us on a flat journey alongside a river all the way back. The road had fast flowing traffic so we stayed single file with Chris in front and kept a pace of around 34 Km/hr - another complete workout really! On arrival at Culoz we went straight to the town center where leading pro peloton was just about to arrive. I went to get some money from my van and Chris installed himself at a table of a roadside bar and ordered coffees. We made ourselves comfortable just in time to see the charge of the leading contenders for the tour fly right by in front of us. Their speed was pretty impressive. Zubeldia was in front. It was great watching all the pros go by  from our roadside vantage point while chilling out in comfort.

Leaving Culoz the rain started almost immediately and it was torrential. We had had a very lucky day all round.

Analysis

315 entered the race and 248 completed it. Apparently the Col du Grand Columbier claimed many victims.

My placing was 197th in 4hrs 47mins with the only two women finishers being 8 and 12 minutes ahead of me. The faster of the two women is the current Olympic cross country skiing champion. Chris finished strongly 18 minutes ahead in 145th place in 4hrs 29mins. Chris was 24th in our age category and I was 35th out of 53 finishers

http://www.velo101.com/fichiers/classements_cyclo/tourdelain2010_etape4.pdf

The fastest professional was Wouter Poels in 3hr 15mins (Zubeldia same time) with and the fastest amateur Jean Francis Pessey at 03hrs 44mins.


Breathing
The slight bug that I had during the week meant that nasal breathing was impossible. I can't really explain why as the nose isn't really congested. I had to breathe through the mouth the whole way so I tried to focus of at least keeping the breathing pattern correct and making the exhalations longer that the inhalations. Listening to the others around me they tended to get it the other way around - long deep inhalations and sharp exhalations. It must be the first time I've ever paid attention to the pattern of other people's breathing.


Heart Rate Zones
Rode in total 3km completely anaerobic! No idea how my heart rate can stay so high in the sub anaerobic zones for so long - this being the longest ever with no clear sign of tiredness. It seems that the three enforced days of rest prior to the race might have helped a lot.

Performance charts (1st chart Distance based,  2nd chart Time based)

Refuge de Mont Pourri 2465m

Tuesday 10th August 2001

Hiked up to the Refuge de Mont Pourri for today's exercise. Legs hurt superficially from Sunday's hike but this was an easier path to climb so there were no problems.

Was unable to breathe through the nose in bed last night and this morning - as there seemed to be some heaviness or congestion that wouldn't go away. This seemed to have carried on from having had to breathe through the mouth while training yesterday. Had no problem nasal breathing on the climb today.

It's only just dawned on me that the attraction of hiking in the mountains is that it is an endurance sport! I'd just tolerated the physical side of it in the past - but now relating it to endurance cycling experiences I can see it differently and now understand what really attracts people.

Here's a couple of views of Mont Pourri glacier today... (They can be enlarged.)

Noticed that with the Nordic Walking poles I liked to place them both in front of me on the steep parts of the climb and then drop my centre of mass forwards while supporting myself with the poles - then as the body moves up and forwards this progresses into a push up from behind. Normally, unless descending the poles are supposed to stay behind the body - but I find this other way more effective as an aid in climbing steep ground.

Swim and Bike

Monday 9th August 2010

Started today's exercise with a swim. Working on breathing on both sides with the crawl - absolutely awful! Sometimes before the end of a length I'd feel so confused and anxious about exhaling that I'd just have to stop. It seems that there is so much tension that when I need large amounts air and yet have to control a long exhalation my reaction is to either block or let it all out rapidly. The whole thing gets confused. It might be that swimming trains you to tolerate a slight air hunger and raises your CO2 levels (hence O2 in the blood), but for me it just seems to expose my dependence on hyperventilation or over breathing. My body just doesn't seem to tolerate this level of CO2. Whether it's the breathing itself that is the problem or tension due to technique I can't decide. Will persevere until I'm relaxed with breathing on 1.5 cycles instead of just 1 cycle on the right side as I usually do. It's still good training for reduced breathing even if I don't get far in the swimming itself. Triathlon can just wait a bit longer.

Joined Chris for a light cycling workout, 30km around le Versant du Soleil. Was tired from the hiking yesterday and really felt that in the legs until they warmed up properly. An hour into the workout I was able to attack the final climb up to Macot with an average speed of around 24 km/hr so couldn't have been all that tired. Was unable to sustain nasal breathing due to talking with Chris. It's really hard to switch back to nasal breathing once it gets interrupted. When you are engaged in nasal breathing then you can sustain it even at high intensity but otherwise you can't go in and out of it so easily. I did manage the Macot climb wath nasal breathing because I was on my own by then.

The sore throat hinting at developing the past few days has thankfully gone away.

Col de La Chal

Sunday 8th August 2010

Change in training today - went for a hike with 900m climbing - in the valley of Peisey Nancroix, up towards Les Arcs - Col De La Chal. Was pleasantly surprised at feeling fit and strong, both climbing and descending on some quite steep trails. Walking downhill uses different muscles from cycling - especially with the quads and the calves involved in eccentric contractions - that is the muscles are forced to contract while extending! The result is that I was more tired that expected at the end (Next day it hurt!)

Used nasal breathing the whole way and felt very comfortable with it. Christiane, who is not very fit just now, struggled to breath through the nose and had a bit of a nose bleed at one point.

Used Nordic Walking poles as can be seen in the photo below.

Those poles are attached to the hand though a glove which can be quickly and easily detached from the pole. They have sharp tungsten spikes (or rubber covers for tarmac) for grip. When climbing or walking you keep the poles behind for propulsion -just like in cross country skiing. This really helps with steep climbing - especially when running.

When descending you keep the poles in front and usually place both point in the ground to use the poles to lower yourself. This takes a great deal of stress off the knees.

The poles are extremely lightweight carbon and a real pleasure to walk, hike or run with. This also gives the upper body a good level of workout, particularly the shoulders, arms and upper back.

Les Arcs 1950 Time Trial

Saturday 7th August 2010

Well that was a mistake and a half. Today was supposed to be a day of rest and recuperation, with some swimming to loosen up the body after the really demanding workout yesterday.

There I was, comfortably tucking into a salad in Bourg St Maurice at about 12:50pm when the telephone rang. It was Chris Harrop – who I thought might want to meet up for lunch as he started by asking me where I was. Quickly it transpired that there was some confusion as Chris pointed out that our time trial race was in just over an hour’s time – to which I replied that it was the wrong day – it was tomorrow. A quick check on the documentation proved Chris right! Suddenly a leisurely lunch and afternoon were out of the proverbial window. Wolfing down the food and drink I arranged to meet Chris five minutes later as he arrived in Bourg to give him my license to register me into the race. This would let me dash off back to Aime 15km away to get my bike and stuff for the race. It would be cutting it close but seemed possible. The problem was all the tourists on the road. Instead of a normal traffic flow at 90km/hr they were blocking the road the entire way at 60km/hr so it was a very frustrating journey as the road between the two towns is not safe for overtaking.

On arrival at Aime everything was collected quickly with one sports drink made up and a quick change of clothing into cycling gear. Everything was thrown rapidly in the van and another” hair tearing out” journey back to Bourg followed. Meanwhile Chris called to rendezvous in the Funicular car park on my arrival. Nothhing was forgotten despite the haste and I made it with about 10 minutes to spare. Chris attached my number to the bike while I put the other on my clothing. Then we were off to the start.

That’s where everything slowed down. The organisers were not in a hurry to start and nothing was ready. After a lot of faffing around everyone was ready on the road next to the funicular, which was closed to traffic. There were quite a few photographers and videographers but I have no idea where to find any of that stuff now. I was quite apprehensive as I expected to have very tired legs from the day before and there were a lot of seriously fit racers – with many from Macot cycling club who all looked skinny and ready to climb.

When the race started it set off fast following the lakeside to the South of Bourg and around to the start of the climb up to Les Arcs. By the time we reached the climb the field was already split in two with me at the tail end of the front group and already about 200m gap to the second group. Everybody attacked the stat of the climb hard at around 20km/hr in my case and close to 25km/hr for the very fastest. The question was “Is this pace sustainable?”. To my great surprise it was sustainable and my legs felt fine. Quite a few however did not have the same luck as after about 10 minutes of this there were many who simply had over done it and faded already. I just let my body decide what to do and continued to race. Bourg starts at 800m altitude and by Arcs 1600 I was still overtaking people and felt good. Prior to the race we had discussed nasal breathing and Chris was convinced that at this level of effort – in a hill climb time trail – that nasal breathing was not possible. I wasn’t exactly sure, but so far, despite hovering around the anaerobic heart rate level the entire time, I was having no trouble persisting with nasal breathing. It was at the 17km, 1700m altitude and 1 hour after starting that I first felt my limits. Though I slowed down slightly there was no let up in heart rate (93% max) or effort, it was still up on the edge of the anaerobic zone. There was a brief section of downhill and for me that is not good because it is so difficult to get back into using hard leg power again after a break like that. Despite all of this I kept up speed and heart rate right until the end. In the last 500m I was overtaken by two others (I overtook one) but I had not realised that the end was so close. I thought that there was still quite a serious climb to make so it was necessary to hold back a little. Of course had I known the route better I’d have given it everything for the last 500m and made a better finish.

The nasal breathing was fine for the whole thing. It’s hard to say if it slowed the pace, but it didn’t seem that way. Pace felt like it was controlled more just by strength. I’d stayed in 3rd gear right up until the 17km mark which was when I had to start using 2nd gear and so dropped a bit in pace. It’s the first time this year that I’ve climbed in 3rd so it took more strength than usual but was definitely faster. The previous day I’d done much more climbing but always in 2nd and had thought that was hard at the time! There was no feeling of breathlessness or chest tightness at the finish line which seems to be provoked by hyperventilation – so I’ll stick with the nasal breathing and higher CO2 levels for now.

The following links leads to information and resources of nasal breathing:
http://www.buteykoclinic.com/
http://www.normalbreathing.com/

Analysis (Click image for larger view)

Statistics Wt 68kg, PB 112/71, HR 43bpm

Interesting to note that the heart rate remains constant over time but the pace slows progressively. Normally the heart rate also drops when the effort is intense, or rises over time when the effort is aerobic. Last year I managed a full climb in the top "anaerobic" zone the whole way 98% max heart rate over 55mins - but I  don't think that would be possible on this climb which is 11km longer.

Chris's previous time for the race was 01:22 which he bettered this year at 01:19. He seemed disappointed, but that is a significant improvement considering the record by elite pro racers is around 01:03. I came in at 01:26 which considering a totally misjudged preparation was a respectable time.

It seems possible that the reason I had recovered well enough so soon from the previous day is due to the nasal breathing. Nasal breathing creates higher CO2 and NO hormonal levels which reduce lactic acid in the blood plus many other free-radical ravages. Yesterday I'd used nasal breathing throughout the 4hr workout.
Today, after the race, about an hour after descending to Bourg, I did have a serious energy dip. This is probably not surprising as regardless of breathing or anything else it is certain from the data that I was well above lactic acid threshold the whole way up the mountain - so there would be a big accumulation of lactic acid and all the reactions that entails. I cracked and went to McDonalds and had a fish burger with fried potatoes! First time this summer.

Had a slightly sore throat in the evening. Not sure if it's from really overdoing it over the last two days - especially with the cold at altitude yesterday - or if it's a slight effect of inhabitual "extreme" nasal breathing. It feels a bit like a bug though. 

Snow at 2400m

Thursday 6th August 2010

On Wednesday a wet cold front came though and it snowed down to 2400m. I should have been quicker off the mark and headed up to Tignes today because there would probably have been good powder skiing.

The bad weather on Wednesday however had a positive side as my Tacx Fortius Multiplayer indoor cycle trainer arrived by mail order from the UK. This is a pretty advanced piece of kit so it took me most of the day to assemble it and then try to figure out the software. There were quite a few moments of panic, especially concerning software versions - but everything seems good now. For motivation during the winter I can use my GPS tracks on Google Earth with the motorised resistance simulating all the hills. It gives loads of feedback including power output, cadence, speed, heart rate, vertical profile in real time. There is also a virtual world to ride and compete within. There is video training with interactive stages from famous races and there is direct competition with others over the Internet. Certainly puts a new slant on computer games - you won't get fat, lazy and stupid with this one.

Back to today's workout. The sun was out between clouds but the air itself was still a bit chilly early in the day, so I continued working on sorting out the trainer and waited until late afternoon for the air to warm up. I'd wanted to have a bigger than normal workout to make up for not doing a long race this weekend, but was leaving it a bit late. When I finally went out it was about 3:30pm. I took one bottle of sports drink with a couple of Isostar tablets for refilling and two energy bars. Just in case of the cold I had a thin lightweight windproof top but otherwise was just dressed in standard summer clothing.

The first climb up to Granier was fine, a couple of minutes slower than usual because I was pacing, but the 23% gradient at the top was really fun! You look at it and think that you will never get up it - it's like a wall in front of you - but the lightweight bike makes it easy. There was a lot of sweating as usual on that climb but the chilly air at the top was not too bad at 1250m altitude. This climb was followed by a descent to 200m vertical then a climb back up to 1250m at Valezan. From there followed a long descent to Bourg St Maurice where the climb up to the Cormet de Roselend begins going from 830m altitude up to 2000m. I didn't feel too good so there was no attempt to break any records, however I'd decided to climb in one gear higher than usual all the way so as to work on leg strength. This did make the muscles hurt deep down inside. That pain was always present on long climbing days last year when using a standard chain ring setup on the bike but this year with the "compact" setup it's the first time I'd felt that. At least I now know what causes the pain! Some pain however is probably a very good thing - especially if the aim is to develop strength and provoke an adaptation in the body.

By the time I reached the plateau at 1500m near Chapieux the clouds had covered the sun and the temperatures were getting low. There were strong winds on the mountain - blowing downhill as they nearly always do on the Roselend. Quite a few riders were descending but I was clearly the last person to be going upwards this day. Most of the oncoming riders were well wrapped up against the cold with long training pants on, warm gloves and under helmet hats and some even with their faces fully covered. They had certainly anticipated things much better than I had. Some however only had summer gear and a windbreaker like me - so I was not alone in that. I had to put the windbreaker on for climbing from this 1500 point and also took the opportunity to eat an energy bar. If I don't stop then I won't eat so as it wasn't a race I stopped and enjoyed the food. The first parts of me to feel the cold were the feet. I don't know why this happens unless it is to do with them spinning around and more air passing by - but the feet get cold very easily on a bike. From the plateau the fresh snow was visible at altitude and it was lying where it fell, unaffected by the day's sunshine, which meant that it was cold at altitude. I did start to feel uncomfortable with the cold but then remembered how I'd felt worse during some races this year and that it was never intolerable - you just adapt to it and get on with it.

When I got to the top there was a van waiting with a very large bike trailer on the back - still empty. It looked like there would still be a lot of people trying to get to the top, but clearly from the other side, from Beaufort. I didn't hang around and started the descent immediately. The feet didn't start to warm up until I was back in the valley and even then not properly until I was indoors, despite a valley bottom temperature of 21°C.

I had slowed down a bit on the climb up to the Cormet de Roselend but found that there was still plenty of juice in the legs when required. The days' climbing started at about 13km/hr and eventually slowed down to 10km/hr on the Roselend. On the last climb up to Macot after 4hrs, knowing it was relatively short I was able to sustain 20km/hr. Any climbing at 10km/hr or above is a good effort. You know that you are in trouble when it slows down to 7 or 8 km/hr.

Used nasal breathing the whole way so it will be interesting again to see if this aids recovery like it did last time.

Pay Off !!!

Tuesday 4th August 2010




Normally it takes me about four or five days to recover from a really hard event such as Sunday's La Bourgui. For that reason I set out today, after only one day's rest, for an easy low level recovery ride. To my astonishment my legs felt stronger than ever and so the recovery ride turned into a full on training session, climbing the 1400m up to La Plagne ski station - with surprising ease and beating my personal best for the climb by 5 minutes. What is going on?

It appears that my switch to exclusively nasal breathing has paid off. One of the benefits of nasal breathing is lower blood lactate levels, even at rest. High lactate levels indicate chemical reactions in the body that definitely slow down recovery. I've never experienced a recovery like this before so it seems to be a bit more than coincidence. Prior to recently adopting nasal breathing I was a chronic mouth breather and even the pattern of breathing was back to front, taking long inhalations and short exhalations - it should be the opposite.

One other very surprising thing has happened. Normally about an hour after a hard workout I feel wasted - unable to concentrate on anything for hours to come and feeling quite irritable. That problem seems to have gone. It appears that it has been caused by hyperventilating (overbreathing) and the effect that it has on blood chemistry. The most influential hormone in the body is CO2. Overbreathing lowers the levels of CO2 in the lungs too far and upsets the metabolic process and reduces circulation. In addition, breathing through the mouth eliminates another important hormone called nitric oxide. This gas is produced in the nasal passages and inhaled through the nose. Without it the body cannot exploit oxygen properly - one of the reasons for high lactate levels.

There was no apparent benefit on the day of La Bourgui race, but that is what is predicted. You feel no real benefit from nasal breathing at the time - it is the recovery effect that changes. One real benefit however is that you can't have a heart attack through over-exertion because heart attacks are caused by hyperventilation during exercise - depriving the muscle tissue of oxygen due to lowered CO2 levels. It's "heartening" to know this!

La Bourgui 2010

Sunday 1st August 2010

The best laid plans of mice and men.....

La Bourgui is very well organised cycle race, but it seems to attract only fairly dedicated hill climbers. This became clear when collecting the start number in the morning in front of the Maire's building. The average height of the contestants appeared to be about 3ft 6ins and with no one over 5kg in weight. OK, perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration, but that's what it seemed like.

I set off near the back of the field, with 138 attempting the long course that I'd be on, covering 127km and 170 on the short 80km course. My plan was to start a little bit back so that I wouldn't have to suffer everyone overtaking me on the first climb, and with luck I'd progressively overtake others as they faded during the race. Great plan! It just didn't work. I was effectively dumped immediately and never saw anyone again.

Well, perhaps it wasn't quite so bad. I'd anticipated this a little bit so had earphones and music to keep me company all day. I listened to all 35 tracks at least twice. Things went wrong right from the start really. Putting my number on the bike frame proved a little difficult and the tie wraps were too small for the frame. Removing the tie wraps from the first attempt I used a box cutter and slipped , managing to cut straight into the carbon bike frame! Fortunately the cut only seemed to penetrate the first layer of paint. More fortunately it wasn't me that was cut. Next, the GPS battery had managed to discharge itself completely during the night, so there would be no time keeping, no GPS, no heart rate monitor and no feedback during the entire race. Great! At least I had my music to help with the inevitable isolation on the climbs.

Descending from St Martin de Belleville to Moutiers was straight forward as the road was wide on the main road (North East) side of the valley. The descending start was part of the reason I hung back a bit - not wanting to have a catastrophic accident by being surrounded with manic racers all descending together. Moutiers to Aigueblanche is a short climb and at the top of that I had to stop for a pee. Carbo loading really doesn't seem to agree with my system and I'm sure that was the real reason for the pee. My guts felt bad in general and basically I didn't feel good.

Aigueblanche was the start of the first main climb of the day up to Navettes and over the hill to Naves. It was still chilly - as was the descent to Moutiers - because the sun had not had time to warm up the air and we were still in the shade of the mountain despite a perfectly blue sky.

During this climb I was able to work hard and managed to stay in second and third gears, overtaking a fair number of peolpe. Throughout the day I was focussed on nasal breathing and despite working hard it was no problem nasal breathing here - except perhaps the very summit of the climb when I think I was anaerobic. The nostrils started to narrow too much during inhalation so I had to use fingers to pull them open for a minute. Otherwise the nasal breathing kept my mouth from going dry and generally felt very good. It is easier to estimate your performance level when breathing this way, it gives clearer feedback. The descent back down to Lecheres was fast and I still felt good at this point. Luckily I caught up with someone so was looking forward to having someone to work with on the long flat section of about 20km that was about to come up. Just as I caught the guy he stopped! I was isolated and then took a wrong turning that only became obvious as I started to go on to the motorway! Doubling back I saw the entire group that I'd overtaken on the climb taking the correct turning and leaving me behind. At this point in Lecheres, the same road would be used on the return leg from the flats and people were already returning - some 20km ahead of me! Despite my best efforts there was no way I could catch the group up again - they were working well together. Gradually during the long flats they pulled away until they disappeared from view and I just got more tired. Eventually someone caught up with me from behind and I was really glad to have someone to share the work and pick the pace up together - but then a few minutes later a woman appeared with a car parked at the side of the road (his wife) and had a camera out to photgraph him. He stopped! I was isolated again. He caught me up at the bottom of the second big climb of the day - up another valley opposite "Navettes" - and he promptly burned me off leaving me behind. About four or five poeople overtook me on that climb and I felt rotten by now. There was no power in the legs. Eventually near the summit I was overtaken by a young woman who had a support car that was continually leapfrogging her and was a complete pain in the butt. On the descent I overtook her again leaving her out of sight.

Back thorough Aigueblanche and Moutiers to the base of the old narrow and very steep 30km road up to Les Menuires (Val Thorens). Here I came across the guy again who was always stopping for his wife - but this time it was at a refreshments stand - so he hadn't pulled all that far ahead of me on the previous climb. If someone is only two minutes ahead of you you never know because you don't see them on the road. It's not like the Tour de France where they have information by radio all the time.

During the second climb it had started to become very hot and the sun was burning. Each time I passed a refreshments stand I managed to refill a bottle and over the 6hrs 25mins managed to drink almost 5 bottles - four of them with isotonic powder or tablets. I simply didn't manage to eat anything solid during the entire race as my guts didn't feel too good. The nasal breathing probably helped avoid dehydration too. The last 30km climb was nasty. I was overtaken again by the guy being nurtured by his wife and eventually the young woman caught me up again. I'd settled into a sustainable pace where I'd keep going forward OK but wasn't suffering too much. In your head there is a constant desire to just stop and end the discomfort, but that just gives more of a motivation to overcome it. On the day 21 people abandoned this long course and were probably collected by the "voiture balai". In fact I'd seen the famous voiture balai when returning on the loop to Cevins on flats - exactly the same place that I saw the guys 20km ahead of me - this time I was on the right side of the 20km.

The climb up to Les Menuires was interminable - but at least the last 5km were a bit easier and flatter - though by now everything was hard. At the finish line there was a refreshments stand and I must have stood there for 30 minutes just drinking - Orangina, ice tea, coke, water - everything I could find. It's when the exercise stops that I feel the thirst - or perhaps that's when the stomach can cope best. The last I saw of the guy being supported by his wife was when I passed him again sitting in the back of his car with his bike on the ground looking absolutely whacked. He didn't overtake me again - so he was eventually the only one I successfully race against all day.

There is no data to analyse due to equipment failure. During the entire race I had no idea of time, altitude or anything. My final result was the worst of the year - relative to other placings. I came 107th out of 117 finishers, with another 21 abandons, in 6hrs 25mins. Last rider home was 7hrs 12mins. I'm sure the field was very competitive though and if I count the abandons then it doesn't look so bad. In my age group I came 18th out of 19 - which once again probably reflects more on the competitiveness of the field.

Next race will probably be a short one - just to boost morale.

Granier Training

Friday 30th July 2010

Straightforward workout, trying not to overdo it but to maintain fitness. Would have preferred to workout on Thursday to have more rest in preparation for Sunday's race - but weather was not cooperative.

Observations on Breathing

I notice that when nasal breathing the heart rate does not climb so rapidly at the start of a workout - it is a much more progressive climb and seems to relate better to the "warming up " process of getting the muscles to the right working temperature - which takes time.

Felt much stronger than usual today and despite not exerting to the upper limit was able to match previous best times for this climb this year. On those other occasions I'd been pushing to the limit and was anaerobic. Couldn't get an accurate time check at the end because the road is closed at the last 100m. Took a side road with an extraordinarily steep climb - real fun - but it was blocked by a tractor unloading hay - bad timing!

Began carbo loading in the evening - didn't like stuffing myself with pasta even if it was wholegrain. Continued generally overeating after that and went to bed stuffed. Woke up mouth breathing and a kilo heavier than the day before. Eating definitely affects breathing.

Analysis