Sunday 15 August 2010

Training Again

It is now just over three weeks since I finished my Tour de France ride and I can now definitely say that I feel properly recovered, it has taken some time and my CTL, in spite of a full 2+ weeks of no training, is still up at just under 100 and my ATL is starting to climb steadily. If the planned 2012 ride comes off I will be better prepared for the lengthy recovery period which has taken longer than I expected though probably not longer than I should have expected!

I’ve been surprised at the continuing interest in my ride since I returned and it was lovely to be invited for a complimentary visit to the Alnwick Castle and Garden with lunch at The Treehouse. Lorena and I still have to take up this very kind invitation but hope to do so next week and we very much appreciate it. I have to take my bike along for a couple of photos as I think they want to put some pictures on their website as a local interest story which is smashing.

I recommenced my training about a week ago and have been posting my workouts onto FaceBook which is very convenient. I’ll no longer be doing the daily blog postings I did covering my Tour de France ride training but will be doing something probably weekly to record how things are going and also I’ll do a short write-up of any significant other activities. Having ridden The Tour at a very moderate intensity for much of the time and having had at least 2 weeks away from training of any sort there has been considerable loss of fitness as I had expected. I have now started work to regain lost ground and am beginning to enjoy my training, if “enjoy” is the right word!

I have developed a new 12 week training plan using special .erg files which is intended to restore much of my aerobic power and to raise my FTP significantly as it has dropped as a direct result of a lack of threshold type training, very annoying this detraining business but at least it’s reversible. I’ve also set a series of targets for the next few months and over the winter which I hope are achievable and if they are they will bring me to the sort of level I want to spend the winter at and I’ll then build from there.

There has already been significant interest in my 2012 plans and I think already this is sufficient to make it a runner which is great. Over the autumn and winter I’ll be looking into potential sponsorship arrangements in support of the ride which I’m hoping is going to be fantastic.

Just out of interest I compared some heart rate data files (identical .erg files) for a couple of very steady aerobic training sessions done just 6 days apart, it always amazes me how quickly some adaptations occur, it’s a shame the really important ones aren’t this quick!

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