Monday 12 July 2010

Stage 11

Am at rather a low point at the moment. The heat is really getting me down and there seems to be no end to it in sight. I'm pretty tired at the moment having covered well over 1000 miles in temperatures rarely below 30 degrees. I'm getting increasingly concerned about the very hard stages to come. It's not that I fear the climbs themselves as I have done many of them before but it's the combination of the climbs, the heat, and the now well established fatigue that worries me.

In the end I'm just going to do my best to plough on and take each day as it comes. I found today, which was supposed to be easy, very wearing. Much of the terrain for the last 2/3 of the ride was on busy roads and was generally very boring indeed. It was hot, windy, and miserable from where I was sitting, and tomorrow is much hillier than today and is also 15 miles longer, not a nice prospect at all.

Anyway, enough gloom and doom. I'd wanted to see a lavender field during this trip and I managed that today as you can see from today's small photo collection, very beautiful and the smell was wonderful. As each stage passes I'm a step closer to Paris but as things stand at the moment I feel I have a huge barrier to get over, which I have, it's called The Pyrenees. In reality what I have to do now is no worse than I've done before when I rode the Raid Pyreneen but the circumstances were different then. I wasn't as tired, it wasn't as hot, and the general atmosphere of the trip was very different, but that's another issue I'll have to deal with at a later date.

Anyway, off to sleep now, hope all is well for everyone and thank you for following what, for me anyway, is an epic tale.

Photographs from Today:

Start village square.
The main climb of the day, the Col de Cabre.
Quite a tour route!
A place name to conjure with, surely I don't look that bad!
My new bike :-)
Lavender field.
The finish line in Bourg-les-Valence.

Today's Weather:

One again extremely hot and dry which is really starting to get me down now. Even the wind, when there is any, is like a hair dryer.

Ride Time: 08:46 hh:mm
Work Done: 3103kJ
Training Stress Score: 194
Intensity Factor: 0.513
Normalised Power: 156W
Variability Index: 1.34
Ride Distance: 115 miles
Elevation Gain: About 5000 feet
Maximum Power: 745W
Average Power: 117W
Average Heart Rate: 112bpm
Average Speed - True: 13.1mph
Acute Training Load: 215.6
Chronic Training Load: 130
Training Stress Balance: -90

4 comments:

  1. Hey quentin. 1k at a time, don't look too far ahead, you will do this. Mike

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  2. Chin up Quentin. You're doing brilliantly and the blog's an inspiration.

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  3. Quentin, try not and think too far ahead. Take each stage as it comes (I know it's easier said than done). Thinking too far ahead only leads too doubt, worry and you'll start to question yourself. We are all here behind you urging you on from a distance (wish I was there with you). Rest as
    often you can, and get as much sleep as you can. Don't tax that head of yours. Your an inspiration to us all.

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  4. come on Quentin, just like the other guys are saying, take it 1k at a time and try to stay positive.

    You can do it!!

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