Pros: Bagnères-de-Luchon to Saint-Lary-Soulan Col du Portet, 65km, Mountains

Me: 15/15/15m SST, 5m RI

A super short stage for the pros with three solid mountains. Doing my ‘mountains as intervals’ thing saw me well over the usual one third of race distance, with a total of 45km under my belt by the time i finished. The intervals themselves were fine, apart from the last one which was tough.

I’m away for the weekend, flying South to Victoria tomorrow until Monday evening, so that’s the end of my ‘Third de France’. I’ll write up a little summary later, but for now, happy to be done and dusted and wondering how sore my legs will be when we go MTBing or snowboarding at the weekend.

Pros: Carcassonne to Bagnères de Luchon, 218km, Mountains

Me: 73km Z2, 10/15/15m Z2, 5m RI

Not great. Got the first two intervals done, but, during the second, the wind was blowing somke from some sort of industrial fire. Decided I’d rather not deeply inhale that crap so opted to skip the remaining 40km. Turns out it was a fire in a steel yard, so made the right call.

Legs felt OK after the rest day. Intervals weren’t too hard.

Pros: Millau to Carcassonne, 181.5km, Hilly

Me: 60km Z2, 5/10/15m SST, 5m RI

Well that’s the second week over with and not a day too soon. Despite a bit over 9 hours sleep last night, I still woke up tired. The first 100m from my house are slightly uphill, maybe 2% gradient, which is enough to feel the pain in the legs as they get going for the ride. I wonder what the cause of that is? Am I re-tearing damaged muscle fibres or something? It can’t be lactic as there hasn’t been a chance for any to build up.

Anyway, legs were OK once they’d warmed up. The SST intervals were fine, though the final 15m effort was a little bit tiring. Once that was out of the way I’d 30km still to ride and that was a bit of a struggle. My legs were OK, it was just overall fatigue wearing me down.

Totals at the end of Week 2: 24h27m, 642km, 1364 TSS

Not massive totals really. If I was fit that would be a decent, but not extraordinary, two weeks’ training. However, trying to do the same work from a low fitness base it takes its toll!

Rest day tomorrow!

So, a bit of perspective. Above is a screenshot posted by Pierre Rolland, riding the real Tour de France for EF-Drapac. It’s his totals for the second week of the Tour, so will be an interesting comparison to my last week doing the Third de France.

What’s interesting is the relationship between TSS (Training Stress Score) and Work. Pierre did 1907 TSS for the week, or 2.5 times my TSS. However, he did 32,247kJ of work, or 3.9 times the work I did. Work is a measurement, in kilojoules, of exactly how much physical work you have put into the pedals, whereas TSS is an approximation of the amount of stress that work has placed on your body. So despite Pierre doing almost 4 times the work that I did, it only stressed his body 2.4 times as much as my work stressed me.

The reason for this is that TSS is based on your FTP (your threshold, measured in watts), so that Pierre riding 1 hour at his threshold will generate the same TSS as me riding one hour at my threshold. However, Pierre’s threshold is probably 50% higher than mine, so he will do 50% more work at his threshold. He’s also at least 20kg lighter than me, so along with being able to do 50% more work than me at threshold, that work is moving a system (body + bike etc.) >20kg lighter, so he’s even faster again.

The other notable figure above is his Fitness score of 153. Fitness is measured in TSS per day and is the average amount of work he’s done over the previous three months and therefore also the amount of work he can now do per day without getting tired. At 153 TSS/day he’s three times fitter than me, though as we’ve seen above, TSS is based on threshold etc. etc. so he’s actually way better than that.

Pros: 188km, Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Mende, Hills

Me: 63km Z2, 10/5/10m SST, 5m RI

Tired today, but the SST intervals felt OK. They were shorter than earlier in the week which helps. However, my HR was quite a bit lower than when I first did them a few days ago. Looking back over the week, each day I’ve done SST intervals my HR has been lower. Not sure whether that’s due to cumulative fatigue, or my body ‘remembering’ how to do SST again. After all, in March I could do a straight 1hr @ 280W, whereas now I’m doing up to a total 1:10 @ 255W broken up into 4 parts. Only one more day until a rest day. Woo hoo!

Totals for the week: 13h 03m, 351km, 768 TSS.

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.