It WASN'T a good idea....

'Road to Ventoux' actually gave me mountain nightmares! Didn't help that Thursday's my Childline morning, so alarm goes off at 5.15. On top of that, because I had so much to sort out/buy before I head off, I missed my usual Thursday afternoon nap (no, I'm not heinously lazy, it's just to make up for the early start), so absolutely shattered now.

Just did my final short 'threshold' session on the turbo trainer - my last actual training session before the Etape - which was a bit strange. Knee problems and generally being slightly 'over' the whole training thing mean I'm pretty sure I won't be seeing the Tacx for a while now!

Wore the new jersey, just so I could get a bit of 'wear' in it before popping it in the wash. From the snowstorm of emails going around the Sky team today, it seems it's not just me who's noticed the 'snug' fit of the jerseys. However, although it seemed a bit weird when I put it on, because all my other jerseys are a bit looser, I was comparing it with the fit of the TdF riders' tops today, and they all seem quite tight too. Also, I noticed when I took it off after my turbo session - Jersey = very wet and smelly but; Me = quite dry and not quite so smelly....which I think is probably the idea.

Feeling a bit less stressed out than I was this morning - back to the slightly calmer..done the training/que sera sera mode of yesterday, but I'm sure the nerves will ramp up a bit when I get over there.

The taper seems to have been going well for me though. I've been keeping a crafty eye on my weight etc., and despite the fact that I've been absolutely stuffing myself with carbs, my weight's gone down, my muscle mass has gone up and my body fat's gone down - all reasonably significantly.

It makes me think that perhaps I haven't been eating enough as I've been going along. I will do a final weigh in either tomorrow or Saturday morning anyway, just to get a better idea of how things have gone this week - could be interesting.

Not sure if that was a good idea...

As part of the final preparations, I just watched The Road to Ventoux, a DVD of a recce of the route of the Etape. That thing should come with an 18 certificate!

To be honest, most of it looked doable, and really beautiful - so I'm looking forward to enjoying that...however, the climb of Ventoux looked super-grim....especially the forest section. I knew it was gonna be the hardest thing I've ever done - by some distance - but seeing it 'in the flesh' again wasn't pretty.

Maybe it's a good thing if it reminds me to make sure that I've got plenty left in reserve, and to ensure that I eat and drink enough to get through it. In the end, what I've always said is that when I get to the bottom of Ventoux, I'll only be 21km from the finish - if I get that far I know I'll be able to find a way to get through it, however hard it gets.

The calm before the storm?

I've noticed on other blogs that some of my fellow first time Etapists are experiencing 'taper madness'. I'm guessing that's a form of acute anxiety brought on by the need to reduce training for optimum performance, while simultaneously feeling that you should be doing more training.

I can completely understand that feeling because it's exactly how I was last week - good to know it's got a name! - but I seem to have tipped the other way in the last few days - towards an acceptance that I've done as much training as I could have done, I'm not going to get any fitter now and whatever will be will be.

A big help in that has been my measured fitness improvements from last week's Sportstest assessment. I'm never going to be very fit, but at least I know that I've done my best to get myself in the best condition I was ever likely to manage, and that's all that can reasonably be expected.

So, I've just been ticking off my taper programme - some threshold intervals on the turbo yesterday, and 90 minutes or so of 'endurance' riding today. Day off tomorrow for some yoga, then some more threshold intervals on Thursday - pack the bike up and off on Saturday.

What's proving slightly tricky is adjusting to my new 'endurance' and 'threshold' zones. As they've gone up by ten bpm, I'm having to work significantly harder to keep in those zones, but

the plus side is that I won't be using too much of my valuable glycogen stores until I get up to that higher zone.

As far as pacing is concerned, I think I'm just going to go with how I feel on the day, and use my heart rate monitor as a backup reference point. Essentially what I want to do is stay below the upper level of my 'endurance' zone as much as possible, and stay out of the 'red zone' completely. I don't think I'll worry too much about staying in my threshold zone on the climbs, because that feels a bit tough at the moment.

Encouragingly, although I wasn't pushing things hard at all today, my average speed was up above 18mph, which backs up how I've been feeling the last couple of weeks and makes me feel slightly more confident about broom-wagon issues.

I kinda needed that extra reassurance, because it does now look like the broom wagon will be starting right behind me. There was a bit of an issue with our race numbers in that it was suggested fairly early on that we might get pretty good start positions, but lots of us have actually ended up with fairly ropey ones - 9453 in my case. As I've said before, that's fine and somebody has to have those numbers, but it would have been nice to have those extra few minutes breathing space. Hopefully though, it shouldn't come down to that.

The good news is that we finally got our race jerseys today. I did attempt to take some photos with mine on, but the combination of self-timer anxiety and mine general discomfort with photos of myself led to several sub-'Kays Catalogue' poses, which are best kept out of the public domain.

Hopefully you can see that the jersey's kinda purty though. The profile of the stage running round the bottom of the jersey looks really good, and makes it appropriately unique to the day.

Interestingly, when it's on, it's those 3 Adidas stripes which give it the real 'British Cycling' vibe and make even me feel almost like a 'pro'.

It's a pretty 'snug' fit, but I guess that's best for moisture transfer etc. It'll definitely be an incentive for me not to put on any of the weight I've lost over the last few months, because even the smallest bulge is painfully obvious!

The only issue which a few people have mentioned is that it's only got a small zip. At the moment it looks like it's gonna be 33 degrees or so on the day, and a full length zip might have given more cooling options. I've actually been trying out a new Craft sleeveless base layer which is specifically designed to keep you cool in particularly hot conditions. So far it seems to work ok, so I'm gonna give it a go on the Etape.

One really good thing about the jersey is that it's got really deep pockets. This is important, because I've got loads of stuff to carry on the ride. If the weather stays like it is, I prob won't bother with arm warmers/gilet/rain jacket etc., but there's still loads of food/electrolytes etc. that I definitely WILL need to take.

As part of my carrying strategy, I tried out my tri-bag this afternoon. Essentially it's a little bag which sits on the top tube of the bike, up near the headset. I squeezed 6 or 7 gels into it, and can prob get a few extra bits and bobs in the side pockets. They're easy to get hold of from out of the bag, and that's a lot of stuff that won't be swinging about in my pockets, which should make me feel less like a pack horse.

I'll be very obvious on the day, because apart from the jersey, people will be able to recognise me by the enormous swathes of tape on my knees. I tried taping both knees today, because my right leg was starting to feel a bit 'flappy' in comparison to the previously problematic left one. Despite looking ridiculous, I think it genuinely helped me, so again I think I'm gonna go with that strategy on Monday.

As you can tell, I've spent this last week or so deciding on final details for the day, and I feel as ready as I'm ever going to be. It's obviously going to be the hardest thing I've ever done, but I'm determined to really enjoy it.

Here are my weights and measures for this week. They're not really going to make a whole bunch of difference now, but as they're my last lot before the Etape, I thought they were worth putting in. Also, you'll note the discrepancy with the kinda 'guessed' measures of the Tanita scales on things like body fat, compared with the measured figures of my Sportstest assessment.

Weight: 10 stone 9lbs - Total weight loss 19lbs

Body Fat: 16.9%

Visceral Fat Rating: 5 (never did get down to 4)

Basal Metabolic Rate: 6820 kJ / 1630 kcal

Muscle Mass: 8 st 6lbs

Water: 57.5%

The only issue of concern here is that my Muscle Mass has been going down over the last few weeks, and it was also something that Garry Palmer noticed last week - that my lean body mass had gone down slightly. Not entirely sure why this is - hopefully it's just a reduction in upper body mass as I haven't really been doing any upper body work at the gym over the last few months - but whatever it is, there's not a lot I can do about it right now. Just something to monitor if I decide to take on any endurance activities for next year.

Before and After

Early this morning, I cycled down to Hampton to get my physiological retests from Dr Garry Palmer.

I first went to see him in March, and you can read the details of the methodology and see the amusing photos here.

Obviously, the idea was to see if all the work I've put in has actually had a measurable effect on my fitness. I was actually pretty nervous about what the results would be, because it's all very well if you haven't done the work and you don't improve much - because then you get what you 'deserve'. However, I've put in hours and hours on the bike - some of it fun, but lots of it hard and painful - and to have not seen any improvements would have been very disheartening.

The one area where I knew I'd done well was in my weight loss, and that's what Garry went through first.

In March, I was 74.8kg with a measured body fat of 14.1%.

While this was 'ideal' for the normal population, Garry had said that in order to be able to take on the Etape in relative comfort, I needed to be working towards the levels expected of a 'trained athlete'.

Therefore, he'd set me the target of reducing my weight to 71.7kg and a target body fat of 10% - ideally I would get down towards 8%.

Today, Garry weighed me at 68.4kg, with a body fat of 8.6% - both comfortably below my targets.

Perhaps the most dramatic stat is that in March I had a fat mass of 10.6kg, today my fat mass is down to just 5.9kg, which sounds - and feels - really good.

From the 'sub-maximal efficiency' tests (explained more fully in the original post), my efficiency has actually remained pretty much constant - although it was at a fairly healthy level anyway.

What has improved, is that at my first test, I went 'anaerobic' during this test, so that I would have been using more carbohydrate than fat as energy - something that I'll want to be avoiding on the Etape, because carbohydrate stores are more limited. Today, I went nowhere near being anaerobic, which means I can work harder/cycle faster before eating into my carbohydrate stores.

From the 'maximal exercise tests' - in March, my maximum power was 277 watts. Garry had said I should be looking at something nearer 300. Today, my maximum power was 307 - a 10% increase and again above my target.

My maximum heart rate in March was 183. Today, that had increased to 187.

A crucial measure for me, for the Etape - and for cycling in general - is the Maximum Power/Weight Ratio, as this is what actually gets you up hills.

In March, my power/weight ratio was 3.71 watts/kg, with a target of 4-4.5 watts/kg. Today, my increase in maximum power, coupled with significant loss of weight meant my power/weight ratio is up to 4.49 watts/kg - right at the top of my target range.

Again, crucial for cycling is the VO2 max measurement. It's kinda difficult to explain (ie. I don't really understand it), but apparently it's defined as 'the highest rate of oxygen consumption attainable during maximal or exhaustive exercise'. 'It is generally considered the best indicator of cardiorespiratory endurance and aerobic fitness'.

In March this was already at quite a high level 50.3. However, today that's improved to 63.6 - a 20% plus improvement, which again feels great. In my age range, anything greater than 50ish is regarded as 'excellent', and in fact only around 3% of the population are in this range. On one of the charts I looked at, a VO2 max of above 65 is regarded as 'Olympic'! I'm very much NOT 'Olympic', but it's kinda encouraging that at least on one measure I appear reasonably fit.

Obviously, I'm pleased with that, although if it doesn't translate to speed on the road, then it's not much use to me. I think it may be best to regard my VO2 max as my 'potential' fitness, that I might be able to tap into with more training.

On a practical level, I wanted to know from Garry how I need to pace myself for the Etape. I've been using my heart rate to judge how hard I should be going - generally trying to keep myself in the 'Endurance' Zone, with occasional forays into the 'Threshold' Zone when sprinting to catch a group or climbing.

The sum total of my training improvements is that my anaerobic threshold has risen, so that my heart rate zones have moved.

My endurance zone (which was 142-152 bpm) has now increased to 151-161. My threshold zone (which was 162-172) has now changed to 171-181. That leaves 182-187 as my Speed and Power Zone.

As suggested above, that indicates that I should be riding the majority of the Etape at heart rates up to 171, but during the climbs, it'll be acceptable to be working up to heart rates of 181.

Where possible of course, I should be trying to keep to the lower ends of these zones, rather than the upper extremities.

So overall - the results were about as positive as I could reasonably have hoped. It was almost worth the money just to have the psychological encouragement, and Garry was very reassuring about my chances for the Etape, which is exactly what I need right now.

Le Grand Depart

2 weeks to go, and although I was going to say 'the nerves are starting to kick in', actually it's not too bad and I'm really starting to look forward to the Etape.

Honestly, right now, I wish I could get the whole thing over and done with tomorrow. Not in a bad way, but in the sense that; I'm really not going to get much fitter in the next couple of weeks, I think I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be (ie. not very) and it now feels a little bit like I'm just treading water ahead of the big day.

The anticipation's obviously been heightened by the start of the Tour proper. Today was an unexpectedly interesting day - the crosswinds allowing Team Columbia-HTC to split the field, even though the stage was basically flat. Cavendish is clearly unbeatable at the moment - ITV mentioned a stat that he'd won 82% of the sprints he's contested this year (!), which sounded quite impressive enough until the man himself reminded them that he's come second in the other 18%.

The last week or so has been spent getting final preparations under way. The bike went in for a service, which all feels great, apart from the fact that for some reason they saw it fit to raise my seatpost by about 8 inches, which has meant a few days of fiddling about to try and get it back to it's proper position, and a bit of a strained right hip-flexor in the process.

The bike (should I have given her a name by now?) looks very pretty with her new Michelin Pro 3 tyres - with yellow sidewalls to match the yellow flashes on the frame. She's all ready to go now.

As far as getting my body ready to go, I've been concentrating on the 2 week programme of speed and power exercises recommended by Dr Garry Palmer. This mostly consists of short hill repeats, and bursts of 'Time Trial' efforts - all of which I've been doing in Richmond Park.

Also had a good 60 mile club run on Sunday which helped improved my mood. I felt good all the way round - was up near the front of the group on the hills and into the wind, and definitely felt strong going upwards. Where possible, I was trying to keep my efforts in 'the big ring', to augment my power training, and that all seemed to go pretty well.

I've also been doing my best to continue with the management of my sore knee. For the last week or so, with the help of the physiotherapist, I've been taping it in order to pull the kneecap over towards the inside edge of my leg to try and make sure it follows a less destructive line of travel during my pedal strokes.

As alluded to in an earlier post, I've also made a couple of purchases which I'm hoping will help. One was a new pair of Specialized Body Geometry Comp Road Shoes. Specialized shoes seemed to offer the most opportunity to alter your foot position, and I bought them with a pair of insoles, which also come with 'shims' to place on the footbed of the shoe, which are aimed at correcting the position of my feet.

According to the physiotherapist, they do seem to do a good job of correction. They were a tiny bit uncomfortable the first time I wore them, so I had some concerns, but that's eased off now and they feel much better than my old Pearl Izumi shoes. In the old ones, my big toes used to get forced forward into the toe of the shoe, swiftly rendering them numb...in the new ones, the footbed of the shoe 'kicks up' just after the ball of the foot, providing a sort of natural wedge to stop this happening. So all in all, so far I think they were a really worthwhile purchase.

As I said, I'm starting to look forward to the Etape now, and I'm really going to try to do my best to enjoy the day and take in as much of the experience as I can. I think I'm really privileged to have been given the chance to do such an amazing thing, and I really want to make the most of it.

Obviously this is all tempered by a fear of failure, which I guess is only natural. However, I know I've put in the training, I know I can do the distance, and I know I can do it in the required time - so it's important to remember that any fears are really just fears of an unforeseen accident or mishap, and there would never be anything I could do about that.

One thing that's given me slight concerns in the last month is that early on in the process, it was suggested that we'd probably get good start numbers on a kind of 'vip' basis ' - not that I would ever claim such status, but because of our link with Sky etc. For ages, our team hasn't had start numbers on the official Etape website, but they've turned up in the last week or so - unfortunately all in the region of 9450 and higher....ie. right at the back, nearest the broom wagon. There was some suggestion at the workshop last week that our numbers are still 'TBC', but I have a slightly uncomfortable feeling that the numbers are what they are, and I'll just have to start quickly! If that's the way it turns out, then that's the way it is - someone's got to have those numbers, and I certainly wouldn't claim any 'right' to have a better position...just would have been 'calming'!

Part of it of course is that having bored friends and relatives about the Etape for the last 5 months - through sheer childish enthusiasm rather than hubris or pride - to not finish it would be really crushing. Anyhow, I'm trying to 'visualise' success rather than failure, and as I say, my key aim at the moment is to do everything in my power to enjoy the experience.

This weeks weights and measures:

Weight: 10 stone 10 lbs

Body Fat: 16.4%

Visceral Fat Rating: 5

Basal Metabolic Rate: 6889kJ/1646kcal

Water: 58%

I think these stats suggest that maybe I've reached my 'equilibrium'. I'm not going to lose much more weight now, and this is no time to be starving myself. I've lost 18 pounds during my training, comfortably exceeded the target weight loss set for me by Garry Palmer and fallen just 3 pounds short of my own most wildly optimistic target, so nothing to concern me there.

I'm going to see Dr Palmer on Thursday to get my 'after' stats - where hopefully I'll see some fitness improvements from my training. That should be really interesting.

Hot Hot Heat...

I did have a thought when I started writing this blog that all the titles should be band or song names, but gave up on the idea as too difficult....turns out it would have been easy - I've had loads of ideas the last week.

Anyway, that was apropos of nothing - although it may have seemed easier over the last couple of weeks because there haven't been so many blog updates.

I promise that's not because I haven't been training, but more because I've been busy with various other things which have meant that I haven't been in much.

The bulk of my training in the last few days has been 'threshold' sessions - whether that be Time-Trial laps of Richmond Park (including my first one under 20 mins...not particularly impressive in the real world - but good for me..) or short hill climb repeats.

As the title suggests, the last few days have been very hot, with temperatures above 30 degrees making training pretty difficult. I did a 'hard' - albeit flat - 40 miles yesterday with most of it being at threshold heart rates. I was pleased that I could maintain this level for most of the ride, and in the end my average pace was around 18 mph, which is a good sign, as that includes a fair bit of slowing down for lights and traffic, and easy warm-up/warm-down periods.

It felt ok when I was on the bike, but as soon as I got in I suddenly felt very fatigued and needed a lie-down. I'm pretty sure this was because I just hadn't drunk enough - a continual failing on my part.

It was a good lesson, because although the temperatures are unusual for England, it wouldn't be unrealistic for temperatures to be the same or even higher for the Etape itself. It's clear my hydration strategy needs honing and improving.

By coincidence, we got more really useful advice on that - as well as loads of other good stuff - at our second Etape 'Workshop' at Sky this afternoon.

We had presentations from Andrew Croker - who's ridden all Les Etapes; Pro rider Yanto Barker and the guys from Cyclefit.

Between them, they talked about nutrition and hydration strategies, the practicalities of an Etape, and also tips from Cyclefit's recce of the Etape Route.

It was all surprisingly reassuring - Andrew particularly reinforcing the idea that my strategy of 'just finishing' and not worrying about times etc., is a perfectly reasonable aspiration for a first-timer.

Today's riding was just easy 'recovery' stuff, although it was again very hot. I did use some of it to cycle down to Sigma Sport to treat myself to some pre-Etape purchases - of which more in later posts - and then I cycled up to Sky for the workshop. I left the bike there, because it's due to be serviced tomorrow and I'll pick it up on Thursday after my next physiotherapy session.

The knee was a bit sore yesterday, because I had a small crash after being cut up by a car on a roundabout - nothing major, just fell on to a grassy verge after being understandably unsettled by almost being mown down. Would have been no big deal except that I didn't get a chance to unclip before falling, so there was a bit of twisting on the knee as I hit the ground. Not too bad today though, and I'm hoping some of my purchases could help to ameliorate the situation.

This week's stats:

Weight: 10 st 12 lbs

Body Fat: 16.1%

Visceral Fat Rating: 5

Basal Metabolic Rate: 1675 kcal / 7008 kJ

Muscle Mass: 8 st 9 lbs

Water: 58.5%

Speed and Power...

...are clearly the things I'm going to have to work on from now on, as I'm definitely feeling the lack of them at the moment.

I did another hour-long set of threshold intervals on the turbo-trainer on Saturday, as these seemed to really help me with the climbing at the Dragon Ride. I always feel like I want to give up when I'm halfway through the second set, but for some reason things seem to get a bit easier as I carry on, and so far I haven't given up yet.

Sunday was my first Twickenham Cycling Club run for ages - illness and then rehab have got in the way over the last couple of months, but it was a lovely day, and I was looking forward to it. We headed down to Abinger Hammer, and had a stop for a cup of coffee, although we'd only done about 20 miles and in a way I wasn't really ready for a break. From there, half the group headed back, but a couple of people suggested heading out a bit further, and coming back via Leith Hill and Box Hill. I knew I needed the training, so I joined that group, with the caveat that I might be a bit slow.

As it turned out, I was never quite the slowest, and because it was a reasonably fit group, the ride was exactly what I needed - quicker than I would normally go on my own - forcing me to push my heart rate into my threshold zone for long periods.

I missed out on joining up with groups at the Dragon Ride, because I didn't know whether I was going to be able to do the distance, so I didn't want to blow myself out early by trying too hard to hang on to a fast-moving group. Yesterday's ride made me a bit more confident that I can maintain a decent level of performance even when I'm pushing myself reasonably hard. On the etape it may well be worth occasionally pushing myself a bit harder if it means I can get onto a group that is travelling at a comfortable pace for me, as that'll mean I can save lots of energy by drafting.

All in all, a good hardish (for me at least) ride which gave me exactly the kind of training I wanted and needed. Pretty much 60 miles, and on the second section of the ride the average speed would have been up around 20mph - a good workout.

This week's weights and measures:

Weight: 10 stone 10lbs (maybe 10 stone 7 is within my reach by the Etape)

Body Fat: 16.5%

Visceral Fat Rating: 5

Basal Metabolic Rate: 6887kJ / 1646kcal

Muscle Mass: 8 stone 7 lbs (eh? this is always really volatile, and I don't always understand what's going on with this one...why does it go down so much?)

Water: 57.9%