Pros: Bourg d’Oisans to Valence, 169.5km, Sprint.

Me: 58.5km Z2, 5m SST, Sprint.

Had a relaxing start to the day and headed out for a ride just after midday. Nice weather and nice to have a plain Z2 ride again. All went well, legs felt OK albeit a bit tired and slow to get going and it was only when I got home and uploaded the ride that I realised I’d forgotten to do the 5m SST. Didn’t forget the sprint though - happy enough with 10s > 1000W too.

Pros: Bourg-Saint-Maurice Les Arcs to Alpe d’Huez, 175.5km, Mountains

Me: 58.5km, 20/10/20/20m SST, 7m RI

The last of the big days in the Alps for the pros with a mythical finish atop Alpe d’Huez. Lots more sub-threshold intervals for me. I really wasn’t looking forward to this at all as I was pretty tired from the last two days of intervals. Going to bed at 2am after watching the stage, followed by waking at 7.30am for work conference calls, meant I didn’t get much rest/recovery either.

I put if off for as long as possible, but it wasn’t too bad in the end. The first 2-3minutes of each interval were a bit of a struggle to maintain the power, but then the legs remembered what to do and it was OK from then until the last couple of minutes, which were hard work mainly as my lower back was getting tired/tight. Glad that’s over and I’m looking forward to some easy sprint stages.

The hardest part of the Tour is finished for me. There are still intervals next week when the pros hit the Pyrenees, but not the same volume as required in the Alps. My fatigue will still increase, simply from riding every day (and because I was starting from such a low fitness base), but the worst of it is done.

Pros: Albertville to La Rosière Espace San Bernardo, 108.5km, Mountains

Me: 36km Z2, 20/20/10/15m SST, 5m RI

Another big day in the mountains for the pros. The scenery around Bourg-Saint-Maurice was spectacular, so I think that sorts out where I’m going to go after my few days in Andermatt in August!For me, the scheduled intervals put me well over the required third distance, with 56.7km done. The intervals were hard - not the actual effort, but the cumulative fatigue as they went on. I’d dialled the target effort back by about 5W from yesterday, but the last two intervals were tough - had to concentrate to stay on target power. Made them all, so a solid 65mins of SST in the bag.

Another tough day tomorrow and then it’s back to an easy sprint stage ;-)

Pros: Annecy to Le Grande Bornand, 158.5km, Mountains

Me: 53km Z2, 15/20/15/15m SST, 5m RI

No messing around today. Last night got serious for the pros with the first day in the Alps and four big climbs. That means lots of sub-threshold intervals for me. Things went pretty well until the last 15min interval. I cracked half way through - my legs went bang at just under 9 minutes. I haven’t done any intervals in almost three months, so jumping straight in with a planned total of 65mins was perhaps a bit ambitious! More of the same on the cards for tomorrow too!

Pros: Rest Day Me: Rest Day

Well, normal work day, groceries, cooking dinner etc. No sitting around with my feet up getting massages like the pros ;-)

Feel a bit slack taking a rest day when I missed two days last week, but things are about to ramp up now as the pros head into the Alps, so I need the break.

Pros: Arras Citadelle to Roubaix, 156.5km, Cobbles

Me: 52km Z2, 3 x 5 x (1m Z3, 1m Z5, 1m Z1), 5m RI

The pros are riding a mini-Paris-Roubaix, featuring 15 cobbles sections. The dynamics of a cobble section are (very roughly) a fast run-in as the main guys want to be among the first few onto the section, the section itself is ridden at a hard pace and then things ease up when the section finishes. For me, that translates to 15 bouts of a minute Z3, a minute Z5 and a minute Z1, split into 3 groups of 5.

Pros: Dreux to Amiens Métropole, 181km, Sprint Stage

Me: 60km Z2, sprint finish

No riding today. Out for dinner & drinks last night and in tourist mode with visitors today.

Week 1 Totals: 11h23m, 291.1km, 595 TSS (training stress score)

Pros: Fougères to Chartres, 231km, Sprint Stage

Me: 77km Z2, sprint finish

Bastille Day! Went to a nice French restaurant last night ;-)

Nothing too exciting today. A bit chilly here this morning so headed out a bit later. We have friends coming to visit for the weekend, so had to be home to drive out to the airport. Managed to get just under 75km in.

Pros: Brest to Mûr de Bretagne, 181km, Hilly

Me: 60km incl. 3x5m SST, 5m RI (rest interval), 2 uphill sprints to finish

SST means riding at a consistent pace with no interruptions, so pretty hard to do on the open road. The Murrarie crit track is just up the road from me, so that’s a good place for intervals. It’s a 1.4km loop but the going around in circles isn’t an issue as I’m focussing on my power output and making sure I’m hitting the required numbers.

3x5min was a gentle introduction before the real “mountains” next week.

In the Tour, climbs are categorised according to a combination of distance and elevation gain. Cat 4 is the easiest, then there’s Cat 3, Cat 2, Cat 1 and finally HC (hors catégorie/outside category) as the hardest. An HC climb will take the pros up to an hour and they’ll ride it just under their threshold power.

Not having many mountains nearby I’ll have to mimic the effort, so I’m going to translate an HC effort to a 20min SST interval (SST = 90% of threshold). Working back from there, I’ll do 15min SST for a Cat 1 climb, 10min SST for a Cat 2 and 5min SST for a Cat 3. I’m not going to bother with Cat 4s.

I’m also not going to bother trying to space the climbs according to how they appear in a stage. I’ll do them in the right order, but will take a standard 5min Z1 between each climb, and, if I haven’t completed the required distance for a stage, I’ll finish the remainder at Z2.