Back Online!!

Firstly, how do I get these Oriental inerlopers off my Blog?!!!

Hello strangers! Finally, I am online at home and no plans to move house again for the foreseeable future! So, hopefully, some normality will resume – whatever that is?!

It’s been a while since I Blogged but 2 weeks of that gap was spent on our family holiday near Lake Annecy in the French Alps. Rather than send you to sleep with holiday stuff, I will give a revue of the training I managed to squeeze in. My aim was to concentrate on strength workouts to make use of the mountains. Then, when I returned the plan was to hone the speed with some 25 mile TT action and some faster running.

The weather in France was very hot, which is good for me as I love the heat when training or racing (why do I live in the UK?). As far as biking goes, I made use of a climb that I did last year: Col De La Forclaz. It is not a long climb at 8.5k but it was used in Le Tour in 2004 and is a cat 1 Climb. That means it is steep! It is very hard and ideal for a mountain time trial. I did the timed ride 4 times in total, cutting my time from 38:30 to 35:16. At the summit there are fantastic views and a number of souvenir shops and cafes. Many cyclists ride the climb but the tourists at the top may not have been used to seeing the state I was in when I reached the top! It really was empty the tank effort when timing myself and I think the emergency services were nearly called!



And these are Alberto Contador's hands! I got knocked just as I was taking the pic.
I also did a few other climbs at a steadier pace but they still hurt as there is no easy ride across the Cols. The best ride by far was the ride from Doussard to Chambery to watch the depart of Stage 10 of Le Tour. It was an 85 mile round trip across 4 Cols. I rubbed shoulders with the Saxo Bank team and the atmosphere was great. The trouble was 2 chocolate cakes and a coke was not sufficient to get me home. The climb out of Chambery was savage and I was running n empty when I reached the top. Out of nowhere an American support van pulled up and bestowed heaps of energy bars and isostar on me! That really saved me from a disaster and was very much appreciated. Whilst in Chambery I met a guy who had cycled from Calais over a few days! Now that sounds like fun!!

As for running, I actually started to run quite well. Frank will say ‘I told you so’ but the gaps in training (probably trained every other day with no set plan) seemed to help me stay fresh and when I ran I was flying. I did a couple of 10 mile runs as easy 5 miles and then open up for the return 5 miles at 6 min miling. I also did a couple of runs off the bike and a very hilly 8 mile effort.

It was hard to keep any structure to swimming. There was always an inflatable or a kid jumping on you! I swam in the lake a couple of times without a wetsuit and that was great fun. It was quite choppy though, and I swallowed my share of Lake Annecy!

So that’s it really. I am in ok shape and now commence a few weeks of bike time trials and short sharp runs (if the Achilles can take it). I have a 25 mile TT on Sunday and also Cambridge Triathlon on 15 August. Not sure how the Vit will go but I hope to go around 4:25 if the weather is good. It just feels so cold here after 30 degrees for 2 weeks.

Train well folks and best of luck to the Ironman racers at The Outlaw, Switzerland and IMUK.