Winter Training and the Exercise Test - 24th Feb 2011
Saturday training with the ‘big boys’:
Last Saturday’s training (19th Feb), was the toughest yet.
It was mild for the time of year, dry, with a moderate westerly wind. Only four of us turned up. The first road race of the season, an inter-club Criterion, was taking place the next day and many of the regular Saturday trainers were taking part.
As it happens, my English mate Ian Cushway entered the ‘Crit’, after much prevarication and actually finished with the main bunch. He had been worried about his form but wanted to test his fitness. I am here to tell you that apart from one ride before Christmas when he really struggled, he’s been going like a train. He’s much stronger (and younger) than me and I was sure he was up to the event. He completed the course, staying with the main group all the way to the finish and averaging around 38kph for the 60-odd kilometre road race. I was very impressed, and not a little jealous.
But I digress, as usual - back to the training ride:
So, the four of us: me; Yves (big strong fellow – 35); Loic (ex-footballer, mid-30s); and Daniel (lightweight, good climber, 58); set off for points West.
We made our way to Malsetroit, a beautiful medieval town some 35kms from my house, riding at at a steady pace. Yves, the self-appointed route leader, explained his plans for the ride to me along the way. After a few false starts (my French still isn’t what one might call ‘fluent’), I gathered we were going to ride in a ‘chain’ along a circuit the other side of Malestroit. Yves explained that we were going to do three laps around part of the Malestroit Sportif course (see my blog for 4th July 2010) and include some ‘chain’ work.
Those of you nice people who have been reading my blogs religiously will remember that I explained the concept of riding in a chain last year, so I won’t go through it all again.
Suffice to say that working in a chain of only four means that you are on the front, and therefore exposed to the headwind, for a relatively much longer time than if you are in a big group. I looked forward to it with some trepidation.
The Chain Session:
We reached Malestroit relatively fresh having done little more than a warm-up along the way (averaging about 24kph), and began to wind up the speed a little. We took it fairly easy through the town and then got down into the chain along a straight, flat stretch of smooth road between Malestroit and the little village of Saint Congard, a run of about 5 kms.
We reached an average speed of 38 kms, driving hard into a modest headwind before turning left towards the pretty village of Saint Laurent. We slowed a little to recover our strength and returned to Malestroit. Our average speed dropped to around 31kph during the return to Malestroit, but this leg was peppered with the occasional sprint to village signs; just to keep us honest as it were.
One thing to mention here is that Daniel really struggled to maintain his place in the chain and had to pull back and just draft at the back of the group. It meant that with only three of us in the chain (two strong relative ‘youngsters’ and an old fart), it was even tougher.
The lap was about 17kms long.
On the second lap the average speed of the chain fell to 36.5kph; not bad considering Daniel was unable to help. I actually found the technical side of this work to be really interesting, if tough. Very tough! I did manage to stay with the ‘big boys’ though, much to my surprise and delight. I even won the sprint into St Cognard at the end of the chain leg. I spotted the village sign, put my head down and blasted the 500m to the sign. I can’t tell you how gobsmacked I was win and to find that none of the others had even attempted to stay with me for the sprint. Am I stronger than I think?
Unsurprisingly, the average speed during chain of the third lap fell again (to 35kph), and this time I failed to win the St Cognard sprint. Apparently Yves and Loic had saved themselves for the end and really left me for dead. I kidded myself that I had let them have the final sprint as a goodwill gesture, but truth be told....
I did win one of the sprints on the return leg to Malestroit, but I don’t think the others were really trying – hey ho!
The full training ride was 128kms at an average speed of 27.5kph, (that’s over 17 mph) and that average includes a load of stop/start stuff when we met at the start point and during ride itself. So, although it’s nothing to write home about (ha, ha), we worked really hard at times and it was such good training.
The exercise test – Ploermel Hospital - 22nd Feb:
In my last blog I promised to tell you about the cardiologist-enforced exercise test at the hospital. Well I turned up expecting to be ‘beasted’; my GP had told to prepare for the worst and that I would have to work far harder than I would ever do during a Sportif – yeah!
It turned out to be a simple incremental ( ‘step’) test. I was hooked up to an electrocardiogram (ECG) and a sphygmomanometer (blood-pressure cuff), sat on an ergo-cycle (static exercise bike) and told to spin at between 60-70 rpm. It was easy enough for a warm-up.
After about 5 minutes my blood-pressure was taken, the resistance on the trainer increased and I was instructed to increase the cadence to between 70-80rpm. The test continued in increments (80-85; 85-90; and finally 90-95). By the final level I have to admit I was blowing a bit but the intensity was still sub-maximal. My heart rate peaked at 158 bpm, about 90% of my max.
Then, to my surprise, the medic said to relax and the resistance came off the bike – the warm-down had started. There was another blood-pressure test before the Dr Genati pronounced my heart fit enough to receive my race licence.
He charged me 75€ for the privilege!
I popped in to my GP yesterday to get my race license signed. At least he didn’t charge me for that particular piece of French bureaucracy but what the hell, I’m in France and I need to do as the French do!
Club Dinner (25th Feb):
Tonight is the pre-season club dinner. I’ll be handing in my race license application (plus the 50€ license fee!), to the club secretary and we will discuss the upcoming season. I’ll try to do most of the same races this year as last. I’ll then be able to compare times and will soon discover whether I’ve really improved or I’m just kidding myself.
I’ll be in touch.
Hi Kerry
ReplyDeleteGood to have the blogs back. As always, an interesting read.
Cheers,
R.