Sunday 11 July 2010

Stage 10

Stage 10 completed and it's been another very long, extremely hot, and very challenging day, hopefully tomorrow will be a little less draining but in the end it will be what it will be.

I think I'm getting an excellent recovery result after these very hot days from the SKINS ICE recovery gear which I find extremely comfortable overnight. It's hard to really nail down where benefits come from when there are so many possible factors involved. However, there is no escaping the fact that after wearing them I do seem to be far better recovered that I would otherwise be and I don't seem to have the dreaded dead-legged feeling in the morning that I've had in the past. So, on the evidence so far this product has a big thumbs up from me and I'll be continuing to use it.

The category 1 Cote de Laffrey climb this morning was truly ghastly. For one thing the average gradient was 9%, for another thing the climb was an unrelenting 7 kilometres long, and finally it was in full sun throughout at around 33-35 degrees. I have never sweated so much on a bike as I have so far on this ride, the heat has been utterly relentless.

The highest climb of the day was the Col du Noyer which was incredibly beautiful but again horribly hot, again the tar was melting on the road. The views from the start of the descent were spectacular and the upper part of the descent looked mildly terrifying but I took my time, no heroics, and got to the bottom safely. I want to visit this area again in a more relaxed way with Lorena, she would love it here.

Well, another hard stage done and am hoping for a little respite tomorrow, I seem so far to be holding up pretty well all things considered so I'm going to keep on doing what I'm doing in terms of riding (keeping the wattage low), recovery (SKINS gear and a good diet), and hydration (drink all the time).

Thank you again for visiting, more fun tomorrow.

Photographs from Today:

Do I really look that bad?
View from the Col du Noyer
Col du Noyer ascent, surrounding scenery.
General scene from mid ride.

Today's Weather:

Very hot again, around 33-35 degrees. Very little breeze, heat very debilitating.

Ride Time: 10:29 hh:mm
Work Done: 4195kJ
Training Stress Score: 315
Intensity Factor: 0.583
Normalised Power: 178W
Variability Index: 1.42
Ride Distance: 109.4 miles
Elevation Gain: About 10,000 feet
Maximum Power: 637W
Average Power: 126W
Average Heart Rate: 118bpm
Average Speed - True: 10.4mph
Acute Training Load: 218.3
Chronic Training Load: 128.4
Training Stress Balance: -82.4

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