Saturday 3 July 2010

Stage 3

Stage 3 completed including the infamous 7 sections of pave which I took very steadily, my primary focus being on not falling off and doing myself some serious mischief, objective achieved.

Felt much better today than yesterday, down I am sure to a great extent to the SKINS recovery clothing I'm wearing to sleep in every night. I had a bad feeling about today as I wasn't in very good shape after yesterday's very hot stage but I recovered well and I was really pleased how today went, though it was a long and challenging day. Rode at a very steady pace, which has been my plan all along. The average speeds and time by the way include all stops, I start my watch when I set off in the morning and leave it running throughout rather than pausing things at all.

As you can see from the pictures there were a couple of memorable scenes today, the wildflowers at the sides of the pave were truly beautiful, the finest mixture I have seen. There are already a few camper vans appearing at the sides of the road on the sections of the pave so those people will be there for a few days before the peloton comes thorough. It was nice to be clapped and cheered by a couple of people as I bashed my way over the cobbles, it's an interesting thing about the human psyche how people enjoy seeing others suffer and will applaud it!

Suffered my first *uncture of the trip today, always happens when it's wet doesn't it. A sharp flint had embedded itself in the tyre and down it went but it was soon fixed and I was on my way, may change the tyre but it's Ok for now.

Shorter stage tomorrow so am hoping to make it to the finish a little earlier but one can never predict how each day is going to go, fingers crossed for a good one. I hope all is good for you all back home and that you are enjoying The Tour now it has started, I'll watch the recordings when I get back! :-) Must admit I'm a bit jealous to be missing it all!

Photographs from Today:

Lovely market day.
Time to hit the pave – ouch!
Fabulous wild flowers.

Today's Weather:

Much cooler, rain showers, breezy, massive thunderstorm mid ride, filthy by the finish.

Ride Time: 10:30hh:mm
Work Done: 4085kJ
Training Stress Score: 259
Intensity Factor: 0.522
Normalised Power: 159W
Variability Index: 1.34
Ride Distance: 131 miles
Elevation Gain: 4959 feet
Maximum Power: 598W
Average Power: 119W
Average Heart Rate: 118bpm
Average Speed - True: 12.4mph
Acute Training Load: 119.2
Chronic Training Load: 96.3
Training Stress Balance: -9.3

2 comments:

  1. Glad your not Nik, he phones me to come and pick him up when he gets a puncture

    ReplyDelete
  2. Now I'm sure that isn't true! :-)

    ReplyDelete