What could be inappropriate about this during the TdF?
I used to be in the ‘stretching (along with lunch) is for wimps’ camp but I’m re-thinking that one as a fairly gentle run on Monday brought back the pain in my left knee and introduced a new one in my right heel.
The knee is the Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS) again – stupidly I didn’t keep up last week’s stretches of the left quads. The foot – I think – is Plantar Fasciitis from a tight calf/achilles and should be sorted (spot the theme developing here) by stretching the right calf.
At least I can comfort myself that I must be working some muscles with the current training – but if it’s only those two muscles, I’m in trouble.
That meant no cycling until Wednesday. To avoid aggravating the injuries with anything too long, I did my ‘standard’ training circuit – 45.1km with 319m of climbing. I managed a PB with a 30.9kph average. I was stopped 5 times for lights and once for traffic calming so I guess that would have been over 31kph without slowing down and accelerating 6 times. I’m happy enough with that (but it would be good to get the 31 recorded properly).
Friday was 48km with 575m of climbing at a steady 25.8kph but felt pretty good. Saturday was another 49.5km with 556m of climbing, at 26.6kph.
| Week | Single session hill reps | Longest ride (km) | Total km | Total meters climbed
|
| 1 | 10 | 64 | 139 | 2178 |
| 2 | 12 | 79 | 162 | 2504 |
| 3 | 15 | 52 | 143 | 3038 |
| 4 | 20 | 62 | 138 | 3045 |
| 5* | 15 | 53 | 105 | 2212 |
| 6 | 25 | 103 | 164 | 2823 |
| 7 | 50 | 133 | 1450 |
* +2 hours turbo trainer
I’ve been wearing my vintage Festina shirt recently the hope that it might encourage people to offer me performance-enhancing drugs – but it’s not working.
If you’re new to the sport and wondering about that, see here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/07/98/tour_de_france/134842.stm.
I had broken through the 65kg barrier (before my birthday weekend), my resting pulse is down in the mid 40s and my BMI about 20. I guess (hope) I’ll soon get to the point where there’s not too much more training that I can do usefully but I’ll carry on for a while and then try to keep it ticking over for a couple of weeks of tapering ….. with continued stretching.
(an Old Man in Lycra) 