Saturday Training

Hi

VeloTron

The weather here is utterly dreadful with lots of snow and temperatures not getting above freezing, I'll not even think about training outside in this.

Decided just to do some steady riding on the VeloTron and covered about 25 miles at around 210W, no problems. Must confess I'm starting to get just a bit concerned about the lack of road time currently possible and I'm hoping this is going to change soon but it's not looking very promising.

Looking back at last year's records my training time recently has been significantly lower than for the same period last year but the intensity of my training has been very similar. The plan is that come the decent weather I will be starting in a generally fresher state ready to build my CTL ready for the Tour de France trip in July, I think I need to be hitting the TdF with a CTL at a minimum of 90 and possibly up to 100 a week before departure.

We all know what the pros do, they go and ride all or parts of the Tour of Switzerland, The Giro etc. etc. to get themselves ready for The Tour. I don't have that luxury but I do have a plan. I'll build my CTL steadily over the late Winter and Spring and then about a month before the TdF I'm going to plan a 4 day training "camp" of my own. My plan is to ride 4 100 mile days one after the other to really boost my CTL. I'll do this by riding a large loop with overnight stops pre-booked and I'll take in some good climbing territory as part of the plan.

Based on my experiences in the 2009 Tour of Ireland this plan will give me a good boost in fitness and endurance, I'll then work steadily over the following 3 weeks before winding down for The Tour itself. It's gonna be great!

ATL: 62.3 CTL: 67.8 TSB: 5.1

[Uploaded 19/12/2009 20:58:49]