Monday 18 July 2011

Day 293\ Lapinarello done....not quite


Right well yesterday i did 'Lapinarello' after 292 days of thinking about it.....well not quite. I did the medium course of 132km and 1350m of climbing, missing the mighty 'Monte Grappa' and another 72km. Therefore the challenge is still on 364 days to go till 'Lapinarello'....



Waiting in the streets of Treviso with 3208 other punters, il sogno di stefan, i was doing it for the kids, and the feeding station in Valdobiaddene.

As a challenge i have to say it was teh first i really enjoyed. The weather was perfect and i felt good. I'd learnt my lessons from the granfondo colli euganei and eat better in the days leading up to the race. Rather than trying to 'Carbo Load' i just basically had a cake at breakfast and a small bowl of pasta with lunch from about 4 days out so i wasn't altering to greatly my normal eating. Added to this i eat more moderately the morning of and the night before. My eating and drinking during was much better also. Consciously drinking every 15-20mins and eating from about 20mins in. The Bikefood bars really were worth the trouble.

The 2 week taper also went well. My last big cycle was 14 days before and 6 cycles all flat, minimal climbing. And the day before did 2x30mins flat with cake and coffee in the middle. I would change it only by including some hills on the 1st taper week and some short intense sprints in the second week, just to open the lungs up.

The trip did give a taste of what it's like to be in the peleton for about 30mins at least, with lots of support vehicles and graffiti on the road. On the down side it didn't have that, 'look inside an see what your made of' factor. Which is why i need to do the Monte Grappa next year.....

Friday 15 July 2011

Day 290\ 2 days to go......& some numbers

2 days to go and i'm actually looking forward to it. last 2 weeks i've really throttled back on the riding and today i woke up feeling pretty fresh!!!!! I've had my shirt printed with the ilsognodistefanologo logo and we're all bike fooded up. The team now only Scherrit arrives this afternoon. Tomorrow we'll probably go for a final ride into the colli before heading to Treviso for registration. Sunday 06:45 we head off into the hills.


sweater and bike...all ready to go

Here are some numbers....

Of an original 13 positive responses, 1 have made it to the start line.
I have lost 3kgs
I have cycles a total of 3420km
Spending a total of 9156 minutes in the saddle and
climbing 11470 meters, 2630 more than Everest.
I have breathed 659, 232 litres of air
My legs have rotated 677, 544 times and
my heart has beaten 1,208,592 and i've burnt 105, 294,000 Calories


All this to cycle for 134km and climb 1400m!!!! 

Thursday 7 July 2011

Day 282\ Hypoxic Update....

Right finished my loading phase of hypoxia and i can't say i'm sorry about that by the end it is a bit of a pain in the knackers, but if you lay it out as an equation i.e. knacker pain v worthwhile. The worthwhilelyness of doing the whole thing far out weights the knackerpain and it is far more convenient than driving up to 6,500m for and hour or so. in the end the last 6 days of the protocol i did following the more conventional protocol of 6mins on 4mins off x 6 and i did 3 days on day off 2 days on day off day on. Which contributed to the knacker pain as it dragged it out a bit.


on track...

Certainly my weekend ride on sunday and the climb up the monte madonna suggest that training and the hypoxic stress are on track.

Monday 4 July 2011

Day 279\ 13 days to go...

13 days to go. Yesterday was very pleasing. I managed 101km alone in 4hrs and 20mins with plenty of climbing maybe a bit less than 1000m and finished strong feeling good, speed of about 32km/h, 90rpm and a hr of about 132bpm. That is a significant improvement over previous rides, it is certainly the best ride i have done by myself. The weather was absoulutely beutiful, no clouds cool air and a light breeze. Magic. Could of bottled doing the last big climb but chose to do it and reaped the rewards. Don't even feel too tired today as i did after my previous two long rides, i may almost be looking forward to Lapinarello?


this is where i go cycling, Fontanafreddo

Friday 1 July 2011

Day 276\ Heart rate down....

I have just completed a 45km ride with about 12km in town and a climb of about 520m, it's a fairly tough climb up the monte madonna above Teolo south west of Padova. The first climb into teolo, about 200m, i went really strongly without dropping down onto the small front ring and my HR didn't go above 154bpm plus my time to teolo was only 41mins and i didn't go above about 120bpm on the ride to the start of the climb.

heart rate.....

The climb from from teolo to the tope of monte madonna is quite tough and the last time i did it my heart rate was at 174 for most of the ride to the picnic area and for pretty much all of teh ride to the top. This time it didn't exceed 164 on the way to the pic nic area and didn't exceed 168 on the way to the top. What makes this more impressive is i still have 3 days of Hypoxic work to do and my body won't have fully adapted to it for at least 7 days after finishing. What makes it more impressive is i had quite a late night last night with some friends so my HR would of been elevated as a result of the alcohol intake. NICE.