Tour de France - My Performance Management Chart

I have no idea whether this is of any interest to anyone but I'd never see the performance management chart of a cyclist who has ridden the Tour de France route and I thought it might be fun to post mine. The chart below takes me up to the present day and covers the period commencing in February of this year.

You can clearly see the long steady CTL build as I slowly built up my training and then the sharp peak at the end of May where I and a mate went and rode the 4 day 400 mile Tour du Nord which was my "mini Giro" preparation for my tour de France ride. This took my CTL to it's pre tour peak of about 114 which I'd reckoned would be high enough and this proved to be correct.

After the Tour du Nord I eased off a lot so that I didn't start out tired and I allowed my CTL to fall to my planned pre Tour CTL of just above 80 which I know is high enough for me to comfortably go out and ride 100+ mile days. Doing this was mentally difficult as I was essentially detraining (TSB of +37 when I started the ride) prior to my departure but this also worked well. The result of this was that in weeks 2 and 3 I did not suffer too badly from fatigue, having started very rested and paced the ride carefully, and I was able to maintain my planned wattages throughout the ride.

Once the ride started it was just up up and away for the ATL and CTL and down down down for my TSB which got as low as -112 in the end but I was still able to ride 100+ mile days perfectly happily.

So, that's what the Tour de France does to a performance management chart and I have shown that, for me at least, a starting CTL of just over 80 is high enough to ride the route of the Tour de France successfully, having previously had it no higher that 114. Much of my training was indoors, but that's another story! ;-)

Tuesday (not) Training

After the exertions of the last 4 days I reckon I deserved a rest day today and maybe tomorrow also :-) Time now to let my TSB recover from it's shockingly low level today after the Tour du Nord, it is down at -68.7, unbalanced indeed.

The effect of the Tour du Nord can be clearly seen on my current PMC below, my current CTL has risen to a high level at 111.9 with an ATL of 166 TSS/d. These figures will become the norm during my "Leading The Tour" ride and I am pleased to say that I felt this morning that I could certainly have got back on my bike and continued riding.

In terms of practical preparations for "Leading The Tour" things are going well and I had some excellent news today. Sports Tours International have kindly agreed to collect a lot of my gear from a local station and to transport it to Rotterdam for me which will make a huge difference to my travel arrangements and comfort. Now THAT is what I call good customer service.

There have been further exciting developments on the sponsorship front for the "Leading The Tour" ride and again I will share details when things are finalised in the next few days. It is looking very promising that in additional to the promised clothing sponsorship that I may also be going to be supported by a major manufacturer of pro tour racing cycles and also a cycling shoe manufacturer of similar stature. This is all coming as a complete surprise and bonus to me and is not something I had ever expected, all hard to take in really but I'M LOVING IT!

My main focus now is to stay fit and well, to maintain the fitness I have carefully built as you can see above, and to arrive at the start fit, well, and raring to go. The 3 keys to the entire ride are going to be pacing, pacing, and pacing.

Sunday Training

Another week of training comes to a close with a ride through this little village on the Northumberland coast.

Just about 7 weeks left now and this has been another good week. I've held my CTL pretty steady this week and allowed my TSB to rise a bit. It's all working out fine and I'm well on track with my build and have so far avoided digging a big fatigue hole for myself.

My last day off was last Monday and the day-to-day training is going well, I felt really pretty good today after yesterday's 100+ TSS MultiRider session which is very encouraging.

Hoping the weather will pick up a bit because I would like to get another century ride in next weekend if possible, then just 2 weeks until the Tour du Nord which will put the seal on my endurance training.

After that it's just down to maintaining the intensity before I roll down the start ramp in Amsterdam, Cancellara will I am sure be watching closely to see the kind of time he need to be aiming for ;-)

Ride Time: 01:51 hh:mm
Work Done: 1516kJ
Training Stress Score: 129
Intensity Factor: 0.835
Normalised Power: 255W
Variability Index: 1.12
Ride Distance: 35.41 miles
Cumulative Distance: n/a miles
Elevation Gain: 1929 feet
Maximum Power: 591W
Average Power: 227W
Average Heart Rate: 138bpm
Average Speed: 19.1mph
Acute Training Load: 104.8
Chronic Training Load: 89.9
Training Stress Balance: -12.8

Sunday Training

Another good ride today, solo this time, and my oh my wasn't it cold and windy. It is definitely not supposed to be just 7 degrees centigrade at this time of year but I'm afraid it is.

This has been another good solid week of training with a continuing shift towards the establishment of my endurance ready for July. The current plan is to do one long ride at the weekend with the second ride of the weekend getting progressively longer in the run up to the "Tour du Nord" which will determine exactly how good or bad my endurance fitness is!

This week has seen my CTL pass the 90 mark and I want that to fall back a touch now to avoid getting overly fatigued, day off tomorrow I think so that will be a start. Have been pleased though with how I've responded to my day in day out regime, been feeling fine and haven't taken a day off since Monday so that's the kind of pre tour regime I need.

Nasty experience today caused by a lunatic overtaking a stream of cars approaching me from the opposite direction, he seemed completely oblivious to the fact that I was even on the road. I managed to avoid going off the road but this was a salutary reminder to ALWAYS keep your eye on the road ahead, if I'd had my head down in an aero position or been peering down at the chain rings or something I'd have been done for.

TSS total for this week has been 794 with 9740kJ of work done, a really solid week.

Ride Time: 02:03 hh:mm
Work Done: 1500kJ
Training Stress Score: 119
Intensity Factor: 0.761
Normalised Power: 232W
Variability Index: 1.15
Ride Distance: 37.27 miles
Cumulative Distance: n/a miles
Elevation Gain: 1955 feet
Maximum Power: 638W
Average Power: 203W
Average Heart Rate: 129bpm
Average Speed: 18.1mph
Acute Training Load: 120.5
Chronic Training Load: 90.3
Training Stress Balance: -31.1

Friday Training

Hi

Computrainer
50 MINUTE L3 SESSION @ 250W
Goodness me, what a difference 24 hours can make. Rode tonight at the same power as last night but for 50 minutes instead of 60 and I felt so much better. It's almost certain that last night's discomfort was dietary in origin, I must have been short of carbs for some reason. Felt perfectly comfortable all the way through and rode with a significantly lower average HR and lower maximum HR in spite of the same load. L3 on the road tomorrow on my new ZIPP wheels so that should be interesting, I'm definitely going for some serious engine building before re-introducing L4 and L5 stuff steadily over the next couple of weeks. More encourage tonight.

If you are interested in Power Training I've included below my current PMC for information, my current CTL is 88.7 which, if the weather is half decent should get pushed well over 90 TSS/d after the weekend.