Missed the last race of the season today due to logistics. It would have been upsetting but it turned out to be a great day all the same. I wanted to compensate for missing the race with a good strong workout over a similar distance and similar amount of climbing.
Air temperature was appropriate for a sunny early October morning; warm in the direct sun, but cool in the shade. When you know the actual air temperature is low then you have to be careful on the bike because the air flow will cool you even though it might feel quite hot when at rest in the sun’s rays. I put on a base layer beneath a cycling tee shirt – but as the forecast was for sun all day I didn’t take a windbreaker or any other clothing. Even in mid summer this year we didn’t have many days clear enough to ride at altitude with this sort of freedom. I figured that I’d reach the highest altitudes early afternoon and the air would be warm enough. It was a good call.
Autumn evening skyline across the valley from Aime
The loop, starting and finishing in Aime, around Moutiers, Albertville, Beaufort, Cormet de Roselend, Bourg St Maurice and Mâcot, is always a bit daunting because it usually causes a lot of physical suffering. It’s 115km and around 10,000ft of climbing. In addition, the heartland of Beaufort can appear to be extremely desolate when you are suffering and that tends to impact negatively upon the morale.
The data below was uploaded in real time from my Sony Xperia Arc telephone, used along with a Garmin Ant+ chest strap for heart rate data. The Endomondo app is slowly improving but still doesn’t give altitude data while riding. I found that after a re-installation it seems to have become much more reliable.
The great thing about the telephone system is that it can do just about everything. The photo of the bike and autumn coloured peaks below was taken with the Sony phone during a pause without interrupting Endomondo or the music from the PowerAmp music player. If a telephone call comes in it autopauses the music – and keeps Endomondo functioning, collecting and transmitting data in the background while the handsfree earpbud system lets you talk without stopping. Endomondo equally can be stopped and started from the handsfree button at your neck level beside the microphone – without interfering with the communications. Arriving at the end of the workout there is no need to transfer data because it has been done already.
Air temperature was appropriate for a sunny early October morning; warm in the direct sun, but cool in the shade. When you know the actual air temperature is low then you have to be careful on the bike because the air flow will cool you even though it might feel quite hot when at rest in the sun’s rays. I put on a base layer beneath a cycling tee shirt – but as the forecast was for sun all day I didn’t take a windbreaker or any other clothing. Even in mid summer this year we didn’t have many days clear enough to ride at altitude with this sort of freedom. I figured that I’d reach the highest altitudes early afternoon and the air would be warm enough. It was a good call.
Riding down the Tarantaise valley to begin with there was nothing special about the day – I didn’t feel particularly energetic. It’s a fairly dull section through relatively ugly areas of degenerated heavy industry. Moutiers is the ugliest town in the entire Western hemisphere. All you can do here is try to stay away from the main roads and think of it all as useful mileage. Despite there being no appreciable headwind it took about 5 minutes longer than normal to reach Albertville. I used this mileage to work on technique. The previous day during a short ride I was amazed to find that my coordination had completely switched over to the new timing – the hip moving backwards instead of forwards during the leg extension. There are a lot of very good sensations related to this.
Passing through Albertville you exit by immediately starting a steep climb towards the Beaufort plateau. I’ve no idea what got into me at that point but I went up that climb like a rocket – between 18 and 20 kph the whole way – something I’ve never been able to do on this gradient before – in 6th gear. The mechanics of the new coordination and use of the core muscles just really good and when hitting this first hard climb there was just an impulse to “go”. I guess that’s what training should be like – listening to your body and working with it. Mentally it just feels much more positive than fighting to make yourself work when you don’t feel like it. It also shows that you don’t need a race situation to push yourself really hard – but it’s probably wise to listen to the body so as not to just run your energy down over time.
Normally, after the first steep climb, the remaining long gradual grind up towards Beaufort is a little bit depressing, but it struck me that this might have a cause that has nothing to do with the environment. When you are in contact with you body and working mechanically well it feels very good. It’s like the satisfying feeling you get as a child when you “join the dots” and see a form appear. New sensations emerge and they feel good. My mental state over this section felt completely different from before and I realised that this was probably coming from inside. Along with the physical strength and sense of integration or connection from good movement, there is an accompanying mental strength. The body tells you “this is right” and the mind, although focussed, remains quiet and just soaks it in like a battery being charged up.
Beaufort was calm and quiet with a patisserie/café open on the main street. Feeling good I decided to stop and have a break – after all this wasn’t a race. Having a well timed break when you are feeling good is different from having a break when you feel knackered. When you are knackered you never recover anyway and so immediately feel just as bad when you restart. When you feel good you can relax because you know that will continue afterwards. Beaufort is completely surrounded by high Alpine peaks so the view is stunning. I sat out on the terrace and enjoyed a small, extremely stodgy hot Beaufort cheese pie. It was delicious! Having started early enough meant that for once there was no pressure to get over the mountains before sundown. I had a couple of large “Americaine” coffees and swallowed an energy gel to compensate for the useless saturated fat I’d just eaten. The really big and steep climb up to 2000m altitude was just about to begin.
Each time I’ve done this circuit my legs have hurt like hell from the start of this climb. It’s a 20km “Hors Catégorie” climb. The first time I did it I had deep pains in the upper quads right from the start and had to crawl along at 7kph. That’s scary when you realise that it will take about 3 hours to get to the top and you are suffering like hell and feeling miserable. Today there was no pain – almost certainly due to technique. Starting off again after the break I was a bit sluggish as expected but that soon corrected itself. Even on the steep sections the pace settled into a steady 12kph and before long the only plateau at the massive hydroelectric dam came zooming in towards me. Normally it’s like struggling though hell for eternity to get to this point but today it just came all by itself. The final kilometre up to the summit I managed to cover at around 16kph without even stressing my heart which hadn’t gone above 166bpm all day. One year ago I’d done exactly the same circuit and amazingly the results were almost identical – ave heart rates both 139bpm max 165 and 166bpm respectively and overall time around 4hrs 40min – with less than one minute difference over 115km and 10,000ft climbing. Sure, this time I’d climbed faster and gone slower on the flats, but the main difference was the “feel good” factor, both physically and mentally. I don’t think I’ve succeeded in getting as fit or powerful as I was last year but the improvement in physical awareness seems to more than compensate.
I took a customary pause at the top of the Cormet de Roselend – where the bike photo was taken. My guess about temperature was spot on and it was warm enough for descending even from 2000m altitude without extra protection. The roads were dry and clear so the descent would be fun. Accelerating up to 72kph I overtook 3 vehicles on the first section – which would then mean working like mad over the flats to try to stay ahead for the next steep and twisty descent. One 4×4 had obviously taken the bait and managed to overtake me on a slight uphill bit before the end of the flats. Bikes handle steep tight descents better than cars and so this guy was pushed to his limits to stay ahead and had me buzzing him the whole way down. It probably took about 10km for him to shake me off. Great for polishing your descending skills! I didn’t take any risks though, just worked on playing with body position relative to frame position to see what seemed to work best. Also worked on keeping good hip/leg coordination when standing up on the pedals to accelerate out of the turns- which is not so obvious. Bourg St Maurice was busy so I didn’t stop there and just carried on towards home. My legs were a bit sore in general from the effects of the previous climb, but rather than backing out and taking the flat cycle path home I decided to climb up to Mâcot. During the climb the legs proved to be strong and okay, even permitting a sprint up the final short 100m vertical climb from the Isère river back to Aime.
The rest of the day was now screwed! All I could manage was to be a vegetable watching TV shows over the internet – and weighed in at only 66.5kg before launching progressively into an eating frenzy. A workout like this burns over 5000 calories so that about triples the food requirements for the day. I compensated by eating a lot of organic fruit and of course drinking lots. Most of the weight loss is dehydration. Apart from the coffees I’d only drunk 1 litre and probably sweated off between 3 and 4 litres – which explains the weight loss.
Everything about the workout felt great. It was really enjoyable. Having started the day feeling disappointed about missing the race, all of that had been forgotten. There was another sort of success today – bigger than happens in any race. I felt like I’d mastered some part of myself and all of the persistence throughout a long a difficult season had brought a different and unexpected result – much better than any podium or performance hunt could bring.
Technique
During this long workout I realised that because the motion of the hip is actually very small (although definite) compared to the motion of the foot or knee, it is very easy for the timing to flip around without realising that it has happened.
Sit and put your hand on your leg about mid thigh. Keeping the hand there, push the arm straight and feel the shoulder move back under pressure. Now release that pressure and feel the shoulder come forwards. Now visualise that the shoulder is the hip and it’s the leg being extended. That’s what correct hip motion feels like. It gets complicated because the foot isn’t fixed but it’s moving a pedal. The result of this is a tendency for the hip to follow through instead. Put your hand on your thigh again but this time let the hand slip forwards as you push and you will feel the shoulder go with it.
Logically, it might seem that more power could be generated if the shoulder (pelvis) didn’t move and just acted as a stable platform to work against. The trouble with this is that it prevents us from accessing the full range of the motion of muscles and the core muscles – the lower abdomen and posas and their antagonists – the glutes and hamstings. The body is designed to have a large range of motion at the level of the pelvis with the leg reaching way behind on extension when running. Perhaps the main benefit can be felt when both legs are being used – one leg extending and the other flexing. It’s with the shoulder (pelvis) fully extended behind that the greatest pull can be engaged when flexing. This then takes the strain off the pushing leg when pedalling and shares the load. Not only is the load shared on both sides of the body but it is shared over a much larger range of muscle use – which can only assist circulation and avoid local fatigue. In addition, if you let your shoulder move backwards then lock it and push again against an unmoving hand you will feel your core muscles and can apply power from your centre instead of the small arm muscles. The same thing applies to the the leg being extended with the hip coming backwards aligning the skeleton strongly and letting the massive core muscles be used for extra power.