TDU Roundup

January in Australia, for a club cyclist at least, means a pilgrimage to Adelaide for the Tour Down Under. I hadn’t been for the last two years, so I was overdue a visit this year and when Stu said he was going down for a half-week, I was in too.

The usual protocol is for our club to ride around 100km per day, stopping at the occasional bakery to refuel and intersecting with the race route to watch the pros in action. Depending on numbers, we usually have more than one bunch, with the fast bunch doing a few more kms (up to 130) and the slower bunch doing 80 or so. Everyone rides the climbs at their own pace - whether that’s all-out to see how fast you can go, or a comfortable effort - and we re-group at the top.

Usually I flit between the two groups, riding at the front of the slow group, or hanging on to the fast group, but this year it became apparent from the first climb that I was the tail-end Charlie on all the climbs, even in the slow bunch! Not enough hard training in the last few months, or really any training at all.

Sure, I’d been riding a few times a week, but not really following anything structured that you could call a training plan, and now my lack of fitness was revealed 😁 Unfortunately there was only one bunch this year as numbers were down, but I managed to find one or two others each day who were around my pace and happy to do a few less kilometers and it all worked out in the end. I’ve ridden those roads enough times to know my way around, so my preference is to let the main bunch do their own thing, rather than me holding them up. Sounds altruistic, but it’s actually me being selfish and not wanting the pressure of trying to keep up! The Adelaide hills are still a great place to ride, even if most of your club-mates are on a different route.

Bushfire aftermath at Cudlee Creek

A few days before Christmas, a bushfire broke out in Cudlee Creek, an area we habitually visit, and riding through there this year was eye-opening. The scent of smoke was still in the air, more than three weeks later, as we rode down roads surrounded by burnt trees and slopes, marvelling at how houses had been saved despite being surrounded by burnt-out land and then being reminded of the toll these fires take by the occasional ruin of a house that couldn’t be saved. One thing is certain - the Country Fire Service did a really good job under pretty testing circumstances.

Thanking the Country Fire Service

October Training Update

Well I’ve been back ‘training’ for two months now and some progress is being made. September was more about getting a routine going again and was a bit hit and miss. The weekly plan was for a long ride on Monday, weights Tuesday & Thursday, intervals on Wednesday and another long ride on Saturday. I was pretty good at getting both weights sessions in and Monday rides were also fairly consistent, but Saturday’s weren’t great, nor were the mid-week intervals.

Still, overall, I did start training consistently with 4-6 sessions per week, even if they weren’t always exactly what I had planned. I had also aimed to get my weight down under 90kg which turned out to be too ambitious, particularly as I skipped too many long rides.

September and October PMC

October’s training has gone a bit better. Monday rides got longer, up to my target of 3.5-4hrs. I got my weekly intervals session in most weeks on the indoor trainer and I’ve been better at getting a long ride in on Saturdays as well. I even entered a local C-Grade crit which didn’t go well 😀

I’ve had to dial the weights work back over the last two weeks though as I found I was just completely shattered the next day. I expect some muscle soreness, so that wasn’t an issue. But my fatigue levels were off the charts the day after a weights session which made it tough to get out and do a bike session. The plan now is to switch weights to maintenance mode for the moment - I’ll do one session a week with 20 reps of each exercise at slightly lighter weights. That should be enough to give the small stabiliser muscles a workout without smashing the larger muscles and leaving me wrecked the next day.

The only problem I had in October was getting a little too enthusiastic int he final week and doing too much work - almost 13hrs in total - digging myself into too much of a hole (the yellow bars) and destroying my motivation for the first half of the following week. Need to keep a lid on that. Slow, steady progress will win out in the end rather than overdoing it and being forced to back off.

Weight still isn’t under 90, though it’s heading in the right direction. At 91.1, it’s down almost 3kg from peak laziness.

This weekend I’m off to Kangaroo Valley for a tw-day training camp with my SUVelo clubmates. I’ll probably get my arse kicked but it should be fun.

Third de France Wrap Up

Well the full Tour is done and dusted, so how did I fare in the end.

Out of 21 stages…

  • I rode 16 as intended
  • I missed one stage due to being away for the weekend
  • I missed one and a half stages due to fatigue
  • I missed half a stage due to a mechanical
  • I missed half a stage due to illness

I completed 17.5 stages out of a possible 21, or really 19.5 given that I can’t do anything about a mechanical and was always going to miss a stage while away for the the weekend.

The fatigue/illness part of things was almost certainly due to starting this whole thing with a very low level of fitness. I started with a CTL of 29 so the fatigue piled up pretty quickly in the first week, as can been seen with the yellow line below.

Third de France CTL Graph

All my missed or shortened stages came in the second week which took the pressure off a bit (yellow line rises slightly) and then allowed me to get a clean, uninterrupted third week. Having said that, the fact that the French weather resulted in shortened Stages 19 & 20 also helped by reducing the workload towards the end.

In summary, my totals over the course of the event were 30h 43m of riding, covering 869km and a total workload of 1711 TSS, resulting in a CTL increase from 29.2 to 48.0. I’m happy enough with that. I’ve taken a couple of days rest and will get a few days riding in before heading off on holidays to Malaysia and Singapore for ten days - not an ideal followup to a fitness gain, but by the time I’m back I’ll still be fitter than I was when I started this Third de France :)

Third de France, Stage 21

Pros: Rambouillet > Paris Champs-Élysées, 128km - Flat

Me: 42km

All done! The pros had an easy ride into Paris and I had an easy ride out and back to Wellington Point. I’d say they got the better deal, although they did deserve it after the last three weeks. I thought about getting Jacqui to drive alongside me and hand up a glass of champagne but I guess it’s only the winner who does that and I definitely wasn’t doing the same efforts as Egan Bernal. Still, it’s been a solid three weeks and I’m looking forward to a couple of days off the bike now.

Me: 44.5km, 1h 53m, 942 calories, 84 TSS.

Pro: No idea. No-one has uploaded to Strava yet - too busy partying 🤣

Weight: 92.2kg - CTL: 44.8 - TSB: -18.9

Third de France, Stages 19 & 20

Pros: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Col de l’Iseran, 90km - Mountains, and Albertville to Val Thorens, 59.5km - Mountains

Me: 5m @ 100%, 10m @ 90%, 5m @ 90%, 20m @ 75%, 20m @ 85%

Well it’s been quite the weekend at the Tour de France! Friday’s stage didn’t get off to a great start with Thibaut Pinot, France’s great hope, retiring early with a knee injury sustained a few days prior. He had been in great shape in the Pyrenees and looked ready to shake up the race to Paris.

Mother Nature had other plans for the race anyway and dropped lots of snow and rain on the descent from Col de l’Iseran. So much in fact that water and ice started flowing over the road less than 10km from where the riders were racing the descent at 70km/h plus. In the end, the race organisers had no choice but to cancel the remainder of the stage, especially as video started emerging of mudslides blocking part of the route as well.

Saturday’s stage was also affected, with mudslides blocking the road down from Cormet de Roselend, leading to that being cut from the stage and a short 60km being all that was left. 25km on the flat to warm-up, then the 33km ascent up to the finish at Val Thorens.

As for me, well I got sidetracked on Saturday and didn’t leave myself enough time to ride my version of Stage 19, so I took advantage of the real life Tour chaos and just added an extra interval to make a combined Stage 19 & 20, riding that today instead.

Most of the riders aren’t going full gas on the longer climbs as they are out of overall contention, so my final intervals weren’t as intense as they might have been. It’s probably just as well, as Friday’s interval session gave my legs a good going over.

All the hard work is now done, and all that remains is an easy ride tomorrow to finish Stage 21.

Me: 55.5km, 1h 38m, 1034 calories, 102 TSS.

Pro: 175.1km, 5j 38m, 6195 calories, 405 TSS

Weight: 92.2kg - CTL: 47.1 - TSB: -15.1

Third de France, Stage 18

Pros: Embrun to Valloire, 208km - Mountains

Me: 68km, 5m/15m/20m/20m SST

Stunning stage last night, starting at Embrun and then running through the Ubaye valley to Col de Vars, which is the first ever mountain climb I did, with Kevin, back in 2010. Some odd behaviour from Movistar, riding on the Izouard and taking a few minutes out of the gap to their own teammate, Quintana, who ended up winning the stage.

If they’d let other teams ride Quintana could have ended up right in the mix over the last two mountain stages, but now he’s two minutes behind the favourites with no chance of getting any more significant time back.

For me, I opted to do the ride indoors as it was pretty much all intervals. Tough ride in the end. y legs felt tired at the stage, so you can see how the longer “easy” rides can be used to sap the legs a bit before the mountains. The final interval was hard going and left me thinking I should have adopted the pros technique of taking it easy most of the climbs. Looking at a few Strava files, it seems they were only riding at around 70-75% instead of the 90% I set myself.

Might try that tomorrow if they take it easy again tonight!

Me: 55.6km, 1h 32m, 1078 calories, 111 TSS.

Pro: 216.4km, 6h 5m, 5127 calories, 326 TSS

Weight: 91.7kg - CTL: 46.9 - TSB: -17.4

Third de France, Stage 17

Pros: Pont du Gard to Gap, 200km Hilly

Me: 68km, 5m SST

One small interval today and then cruise along for the remainder. That’s the last of the flat days over with - it’s now into the Alps for the pros, which means lots of longer intervals for me. 2h 45m of sub-threshold intervals over the next 3 days - my legs will be toast!

Me: 67.1km, 2h 37m, 1467 calories, 136 TSS.

Pro: 208km, 5h 5m, 3355 calories, 180 TSS

Weight: 91.7kg - CTL: 45.3 - TSB: -11.5

Third de France, Stage 16

Pros: Nîmes to Nîmes, 177km - Flat

Me: 59km

Pretty straightforward stage today. No climbs but the pros, so no intervals for me. Just ride along for 59km.

Nice ride in a balmy 25C - gotta love a Brisbane Winter. Back on my old bike while I get the broken spoke fixed and definitely noticed the difference. Wheels are about 350g heavier and noticeably slower to spin up, though once they’re going they’re great.

Power and HR were both up, so not sure whether that was due to legs feeling good after a few days’ rest or just a bit of dehydration after not drinking much water all day. Will find out tomorrow with another pretty flat stage before all the action kicks off on Friday.

Me: 59.8km, 2h 21m, 1330 calories, 129 TSS.

Pro: 181.6km, 4h 20m, 3597 calories, 194 TSS

Weight: 92.2kg - CTL: 43.1 - TSB: -5.3

Second Rest Day

The second week of the Tour ended up being a bit of a light week, with one rest day, another Stage missed due to being away and two short stages due to a broken spoke and risk of getting sick. So be it, life gets in the way, and the risk of getting sick is I’m sure partly due to starting this Tour at such a low fitness level.

As you can see from my CTL graph for the second week, fitness (blue) has remained fairly constant and tiredness has improved somewhat. Probably just as well, as the final week is going to be really tough.

Week 2 CTL

Totals for the 15 stages so far: 20h 40m, 558.8km, 1149 TSS

Third de France, Stage 15

Pros: Limoux to Foix Prat d’Albis, 185 km - Mountain

Me: 62km, 10m/15m/15m/15m SST

Great stage last night and well worth staying up for. Lots of attacking and all the top guys cracked at various stages, with the exception of Thibaut Pinot. Alaphilippe showed that the strain is getting to him too, so it’s all down to the Alps later this week with five riders in with a realistic chance. If Pinot wins, he’ll be the first French winner since 1985 and France will erupt! Would love to see it.

After all that excitement, my session was a damp squib. J woke up after the weekend feeling sick and I was feeling a bit run down too. However, felt a bit better after lunch and decided to go ahead with the session, but was starting to feel it again after the second interval so opted to cut things short. 55 mins at sub-threshold takes a chunk out of me, so didn’t want to push myself over the edge into full sickness.

The last week has been a bit hit and miss - some I can’t do anything about like breaking a spoke or being away for the weekend - but tomorrow’s a rest day, so hopefully I’ll feel better and be good to go without further interruptions for the final week.

Me: 28.2km, 48m, 554 calories, 50 TSS.

Pro: 26.9km, 4h 47m

Weight: 92.4kg - CTL: 42.0 - TSB: -9.8

Third de France, Stage 13

Pros: Pau to Pau, 27km - Time Trial

Me: 12min @ 105%

A quick blast on the indoor trainer this morning. Thomas De Gendt managed 105% for 35:36 last night, so I figured 12 minutes was a reasonable target for me. HR monitor opted not to work for some reason, but was a solid effort nonetheless.

Heading away for the weekend shortly, so will miss Stage 14, both watching it live unfortunately, and mimicking it the next day. Back for Stage 15 hopefully, though will need to get the trainer bike ready for the road until I sort out the broken spoke.

Probably easier to do that than having to swap out brake pads to go back to aluminium wheels on my main road bike.

Me: 18.9km, 30m, 356 calories, 39 TSS.

Pro: 26.9km, 35m, 911 calories, 73 TSS

Weight: 92.2kg - CTL: 42.8 - TSB: -16.5

Third de France, Stage 12

Pros: Toulouse to Bagnères-de-Bigorre, 209.5km - Mountains

Me: 70km, 2x15m SST

Didn’t quite go to plan. Broke a spoke in my rear wheel halfway through the second interval, so limped home.

Me: 27.3km, 1h 4mm, 613 calories, 64 TSS.

Pro: 218.2km, 5h 19m, 5188 calories, 340 TSS

Weight: 92.4kg - CTL: 42.9 - TSB: -16.6

Third de France, Stage 11

Pros: Albi to Toulouse, 167km, Flat

Me: 55.7km, 5m SST

Stage 10 never happened yesterday. Had stomach issues all day, so ended up lying on the couch. Had issues last week as well, but that felt more like a reaction to increased workload and consequent increase in consumption of energy drinks and gels. Cleared up over the weekend, then felt crap yesterday. Will have to be careful of what I eat for a few days and hopefully it will clear up.

Anyway, Stage 11 was easy enough. One short effort and then cruise around to complete the required distance. I had an internet outage at home, so opted for the early bike ride while waiting for our relatively useless NBN Co to get their act together and fix the problem.

Blue skies, sun was out and legs felt good. What more can you ask for 😄

Me: 56.3km, 2h 13mm, 1232 calories, 113 TSS.

Pro: 171.5km, 4h 08m, 3201 calories, 131 TSS

Weight: 92.4kg - CTL: 42.4 - TSB: -12.3

Also, it would seem some locals are getting the Tour de France mixed up with my local bike track! 😆

Muzz Graffiti

Third de France, Stage 9

Pros: Saint-Étienne to Brioude, 170.5km, Hilly

Me: 56.9km, 15m/5m/5m SST

Pretty straightforward ride after my early rest day yesterday. Outside this time and off to the park for some SST intervals. Legs felt pretty good so had no issues holding the required effort, though I tried not to get carried away as there’s a lot of these intervals now over the next few days.

Distance ended up well down on what was required as I’d been adjusting my saddle before heading out and had forgotten to re-attach my saddle bag with my puncture kit. Only realised after the intervals as I left the park to complete the filler distance, so opted to turn for home lest I get a puncture and have to call J to come pick me up 😊

Me: 35.4km, 1h 22mm, 776 calories, 83 TSS.

Pro: 179.5km, 4h 45m, 3201 calories, 196 TSS

Weight: 92.4kg - CTL: 41.7 - TSB: -15.6

Early Rest Day

Various things got in the way today and I didn’t get time to get out to ride my version of Stage 9, plus I couldn’t be bothered riding indoors again, so instead I opted to bring forward the rest day. It’s not really due until after Stage 10, but so be it.

The weekend has been pretty good for recovery. I’ve done as little as possible, apart from the required rides. J’s away in Sydney so I’ve taken a leaf out of the cat’s book and spent the majority of my time lounging around the back deck reading. Seems to have worked. Legs are still sore, but HRV has not recovered to normal levels, perhaps showing that I’m coping OK with the increased training load.

Speaking of which, here’s my training load graph since I started the Third de France.

Week 1 Training Load Graph

Blue is the long-term fitness line, which is slowly increasing. Yellow is the fatigue line which is taking a more rapid dive. The lowest dashed pink line is my “you’ll probably pick up a bug” line - if my fatigue line stays below that for more than a couple of days, there’s a very good chance that I’ll get run down and pick up a cold or something. Basically it’s my ‘take a rest’ warning line.

Anyway, so far so good. I’ll continue with Stage 9 tomorrow and then skip the rest day after Stage 10 to get back on track.

Totals for the 8 stages so far: 14h 43m, 420.8km, 801 TSS

Third de France, Stage 8

Pros: Mâcon to Saint-Étienne, 200km, Hilly

Me: Thomas de Gendt Intervals

Barnstorming ride by Thomas de Gendt last night, kicking off a breakaway with De Marchi, Terpstra and King and then gradually dropping them all before holding off a chasing peloton for the win. De Gendt doing what he does best.

Another day with lots of climbs, 7 in total, which meant lots of intervals again. I normally based my efforts off Mike Woods, but he hadn’t uploaded to Strava so I chose to base off De Gendt’s file instead. I opted for the same effort, but half the duration of each of the seven climbs.

9:30 @ 92%

6:20 @ 95%

8:10 @ 100%

6:15 @ 86%

6:20 @ 100%

5:50 @ 95%

2:20 @ 115%

Definitely not fit enough to attempt the full duration of his efforts yet! Ride went well, legs weren’t too bad though my right knee was getting tight towards the end of the ride. Need to do some more stretching.

That’s the worst two stages out of the way, six and eight. There are hard stages later in the Tour, but not 7 intervals in the one stage. Two more days to go to a rest day. Looking forward to it now!

Me: 53.2km, 1h 33mm, 1061 calories, 127 TSS.

Pro: 204.5km, 5h 16m, 5879 calories, 386 TSS.

Weight: 92.2kg - CTL: 41.7 - TSB: -15.8

Third de France, Stage 7

Pros: Belfort to Chalon-sur-Saône, 230km, Flat

Me: 77km, 5m SST

Quite sore legs this morning, though HRV was back to normal. Lunch didn’t agree with me and it was pretty gusty out so kept putting off going for a ride. Supposed to be 3hrs cruise, but couldn’t be arsed today so eventually opted for an hour on the indoor trainer with a sprint finish.

Me: 33km, 56m, 557 calories, 44 TSS.

Pro: 239.2km, 6h 27m, 3488 calories, 169 TSS.

Weight: 92.1kg - CTL: 38.9 - TSB: -14.6

Third de France - Stage 6

Pros: Mulhouse to La Planche des Belles Filles, 160.5km, Mountains

Me: 53.5km, 15m @ 75%, 5m, 10m, 15m & 5m @ 80%, 10m & 15m @ 95%, 30s hard finish.

Non stop intervals today. Based on yesterday’s intervals I worked out that just riding to the park, doing the intervals and riding straight home would put me over today’s required distance, so I opted to do them on the indoor trainer instead. At least then I could program in the required intervals on TrainerRoad and watch the stage replay, rather than having to pay constant attention to my Garmin if I was outside.

Unfortunately SBS On Demand have been a bit slow putting the stage replays online and I was stuck with the highlights which finished after an hour, l having me to rewatch the Stage 5 highlights to finish the ride.

A breakaway went early, so the peloton got a reasonably cruisey ride until the last two climbs when things heated up. Same for me, with the early intervals at 80% and the final two at 95%. The last one stung and I pulled the pin with about 3 minutes to go, bringing forward the short sprint to mimic the 24% gradient the pros were finishing on! Could have finished it if I was fresh, but legs are starting to complain at harder efforts.

Saturday tomorrow - no 6am conference calls. Looking forward to a lie-in 😄

Me: 68.2km, 2h 5m, 1253 calories, 114 TSS.

Pro: 178.7km, 5h 9m, 3148 calories, 263 TSS.

Weight: 92.1kg - CTL: 38.7 - TSB: -9.7

Third de France - Stage 5

Pros: Saint-Dié-des-Vosges to Colmar, 175.5km, Hilly

Me: 56.8km PZ1, 5m @ 225W, 10m @ 225W, 10m @ 250W, 5m @ 250W

The first of a few days with a bunch of efforts thrown in. To guage how hard I should go for the intervals, I opted to check out Mike Woods’ Strava file to see how hard he had to ride the climbs on last night’s stage - 85%, 85%, 93% and 93% as it turned out - and that’s the target I set for myself. This approach might come back to bite me in the arse tomorrow as there’s a mountain-top finish and the GC riders will be going for it! Fingers crossed!

The ride it self was OK. Intervals weren’t too bad, though 250W was a decent effort. Part of the annoying thing about being unfit is comparisons to your fit self. Last March (2018) I knocked out an hour at 280W with the same heart rate as I now get for 10 minutes at 250. Legs felt OK, though I can feel the tiredness starting to accumulate. I’ve ridden a bit over 10 hours in the last 5 days, which in itself isn’t a massive amount. It’s only when you compare it to the 82 hours I’d ridden in the whole of 2019 prior to starting 3DF that you see the problem 😄 One thing I definitely notice is that despite a decent nights’ sleep, my heart rate is elevated all night and my HRV is quite low, both signs of fatigue.

Tomorrow is a brutal stage - non stop intervals for me. Will see what shape I’m in after that!

Me: 53.9km, 2h 9m, 1166 calories, 112 TSS.

Pro: 178.8km, 4h 16m, 3148 calories, 193 TSS.

Weight: 91.7kg - CTL: 36.9 - TSB: -4.2

Third de France - Stage 4

Pros: Reims to Nancy, 213.5km, Flat

Me: 71.1km PZ1

Another long day today, though no intervals this time. Legs felt OK, though guts didn’t feel great even before I started. Ended up a few km short as a result, opting to skip random riding to make up the shortfall. Still, at 2h45, that’s 50% of the pros 5h25, so I’ll count it.

Me: 68.1km, 2h 45m, 1395 calories, 112 TSS.

Pro: 200km, 5h 25m, 2959 calories, 151 TSS.

Weight: 91.8kg - CTL: 35.1 - TSB: 2.0