etape du tour - how much training?

[jonnyp]

Hi, I'm farly beginner/novice-ish,
How realistic would it be to start training for next year's etape du tour?
I'm not an absolute beginner, but just getting back into training now. I can comfortably do about 50-60km now around town etc, but is a training programme to get me ready for the 'etape' next year realistic?

Can anyone offer any clues as to how to start a methodical programme that will get me ready by next year?

Thanks,
Jonny.

[jonnyp]

Or is it just too ambitious to attempt after training for only a year?

[Snoop Doug]

Found this - might be of use - a start anyway.

Bon Chance!!

Le Snoop



Eat, drink and go steady
By Brendan Gallagher
(Filed: 12/03/2004)



The snow started falling as we left Venice and by the time we had reached Corunda in the foothills of the Dolomites it was too thick to contemplate any serious cycling, certainly not if you were Nicole Cooke, the women's World Cup winner last year and gold-plated Olympic prospect for the road race in Athens this summer. Why risk injury so early in the season or catch cold and lose a valuable fortnight of training?

Though an elite performer, Cooke, 20, from the Vale of Glamorgan, is typical of the friendly and supportive enthusiasts you find in the cycling world.


Helping hand: Nicole Cooke has given Brendan Gallagher some tips
And I need all the help I can get after agreeing to complete a 150-mile stage of the Tour de France. Every year, Tour organisers allow a limited number of enthusiasts - 9,000 this year out of 200,000 applicants - to ride the previous day's stage. This year's L'Etape du Tour is acknowledged as being the toughest ever.

After guiding us to her Team Visa apartment on her mobile and making coffee, Cooke turned her mind to my big day on July 11. More than that, she had already made handwritten notes and tried to place herself in my inept and amateur shoes.

"Get the three Bs right, Brendan," she said. "Bike. Body. Brain. Make sure you are totally at one with your bike and you understand how to get the best out of it. Condition the body as best you can, put the work in and give yourself a chance.

"And get your brain attuned to the challenge. Be dedicated now and on the day stay strong mentally. Set yourself targets 10km up the road. Observe the fact that you might be feeling pain, but don't let it win. Tell yourself you will feel better in 10 minutes or 15 minutes. You normally are.

"Do as much training as you can. You will ride with more confidence if you have that background of hard work. I would like to see you completing a four-hour training ride by early April. When you have that strength and endurance in your legs you can start training on big hills and mountains.

And I would like to see you complete a 100-mile day at least a month before July 11. By the end of June you should be capable of a seven-hour ride and if you can complete that the one-off nature of L'Etape and the crowd support should see you home.

"Learn to climb the hills, don't be afraid of them. Get fit enough and good enough to even enjoy it a little. Set your pace nice and steady. Don't follow or react to others. Hands on top of the handlebars to open your chest and help your breathing. Don't push too hard too early. Get some food and drink down you at the foot of the climb.

"Take on more food and drink at the top. Zip up, get ready for the descent. It can be cold. Sharpen up mentally because you will be going quick. Keep spinning your legs even when you are going too fast to pedal. Get rid of that lactic acid. Practise your bends. Outside leg hard down straight, inside leg hugging the frame. Lean and let the bike do the work."

As the weather lifted a little she really warmed to her task. Cooke was busy and needed to do two hours on the rollers in her garage but, yes, perhaps we could just nip out on one of her short training runs after all and do a little work up one of the hills.

Before I could move she had two state-of-the-art bikes up on her team-car roof rack, strapped everything down, revved the engines and we were gone. Like most of the cycling fraternity, she drives fast and cuts corners perfectly.

[Toks]

Hi Jonny,

Well well you've definitely got somework to do! But you've got 11 months to go so its definitely manageable. I've ridden the last two etape's and only started seriously cycling two years ago...Its not really rocket science you've just got to ride your bike a hell of a lot... Keep building up the length of your rides slowly. By febuary you should be able to ride 50/60miles quite comfortably (obviously doing the weekly club run will help ensure that)...Try not to hammer it on every ride. You should be able to breath easily and talking should be possible(except for on hills of course!). Then in early spring you should increase the miles even more. By now you should be spending between 8-12 hours riding time in a week. Building up from 70 miles to 100 by the end of may. A 100 might take you between 5-8hrs depending on your fitness level. Once you're not shattered from riding 100 miles you need to do challenging hilly rides. They'll be quite a few people in the club doing the etape so keep checking the forum and well keep you posted.Good Luck
Ps If you get any pains get checked out

[Marek]

A year is no problem to get ready for the etape if you are committed. As Toks says, just train a lot. I found that once you can ride 100 miles and not feel too bad when you finish that it was adequate to get you through.

Chuck in a few hilly rides, mind you there is not much around here to practice on to get you ready for the kind of hills that they could chuck at you.

I have been racing quite a lot this year and I think that this helped by making me do a lot of miles at speed. Maybe that is something to consider.

The most important part of your training is basically getting in the base miles in the winter. You just need to ride a lot at a steady pace over winter and then start to build up the speed later in the year.

Personally if you are motivated enough I think you should have no problem. The hardest thing you may find is getting a place.

On the subject of getting a place is there any chance that loads of us can apply for tickets and then those who don't really want to go or cannot go can transfer their tickets to those unlucky enough not to get them.

Good luck with the training and getting a ticket.

Cheers

Marek.....

[jonnyp]

Hi everybody,

Thanks for the great advice.

I?ll explain a bit more about my situation. I got into cycling pretty much exactly two years ago after I underwent radiotherapy in London. Virtually unable to walk, I wanted to exercise and bought a second-hand Raleigh for about £60.

Starting to exercise very gradually, my first rides were only about 15 minutes (literally). That was when I was living in Hampstead temporarily and didn?t dare cycle further than I few minutes away, knowing that I wouldn?t be able to climb Haverstock Hill if I descended even part of it.

My 15-minute ?training days? were invariably interspersed with ?rest days?. However, after little more than a week, I was going out for about an hour. Quickly, the length of my rides increased exponentially. Of course, I overstretched myself a couple of times, riding too far away from home and having to walk home. The worst of these was very early on in my training, when I had to walk home (with the bike) from Paddington to Hampstead tube station. I really did mess up that time.

A few weeks later, I was back in Poland, where I had been working before the cancer treatment, and unable to return to work for bureaucratic reasons ? there wasn?t a desk for me in the office ? I continued my training in the Mazovian forests around Warsaw. I had a heavy off-road bike, and continued training with that following my original training pattern: one day ?training?, one ?rest day?. And so I built up my endurance to do about 100 km a day (maximum). This, however, did take me all day every day that I went out, because of the low fitness base that I had started out with, and moreover, because I always attempted new routes and had to spend large parts of the day navigating. I rode almost exclusively off-road. I always used a heart-rate monitor so as not to overstretch myself. I would clock up anything between five and eight hours of aerobic and anaerobic activity ? according to my calculations of maximum heart rate etc.

This was all good training, particularly given the stinking-hot temperatures of the Polish summer, which often delivered energy-sapping 35 degrees (shade, of course). I had very strong motivation to pursue this programme; I was facing a bone-marrow transplant in the coming months, and wanted to get as fit as possible for it and help put odds for survival slightly more on my side.

And so it continued until last year, when I had a first bone-marrow transplant. The training I put in seemed a bit excessive, even obsessive, at the time, but I believe it kept me alive. I series of misfortunes during my transplant conspired to give me about the roughest time possible. After receiving high-dose chemotherapy my immune dropped away and I got infected with MRSA, ?the superbug?. Unfortunately, it took weeks for tests to isolate the bacteria, and hence treat me for it. The superbug was unchecked and caused havoc. My heart beat was about 120-130 consistently for weeks. My temperature hovered at around 40 degrees Celsius and threatened to put me into shock and unable to communicate. These conditions combined, I lost 1kg a day for the first two weeks, whereby I reached a precarious position as my body needed energy to regenerate cells and keep me alive and there simply weren?t the resources left to keep me going. I had all kinds of nutritional supplements and energy drinks to keep me going, but all they achieved was violent vomiting. Somehow, eventually, test results revealed the MRSA bacteria and I started to get it treated properly with the right antibiotics. Amazingly, I?d managed to stay conscious through fevers of 40 degrees and a heart rate indicative of aerobic activity for 24 hours a day for a few weeks. Of course, it?s not a medical opinion, but I believe that the cycling I did in preparation for the transplant kept me alive.

Another year on, I?ve watched another Tour de France and another etape du tour and I?ve got a burning passion for cycling. I had another transplant this year ? which wasn?t as horrific, thankfully ? but I?m beginning training again with literally no fitness base whatsoever. Even yesterday, after I?d posted my question I cycled from home to Regent?s Park (18km), and not the 60km I had mentioned, and had to stop for an hour?s rest before I could manage the (much slower) trip home.

So, thanks once again for all the advice. It?s very generous of you to spend your time encouraging a novice cyclist.

Your time hasn?t been wasted. I will take you up on the advice and see how the next few months go.

Cheers,
Jonny.

[David Lombari]

Hi Jonny,
Training on your own can get so boring, let us know if you want company on any furture training rides.

[JayneToyne]

I second that
I think just about anyone in Addiscombe would be happy to buddy up and encourage or help motivate you out on the road or off road.
If you really really want to go for the etap next year and want to work out some sort of structured training programme around any further treatments you may be having then I would be happy to lend a hand.

[jonnyp]

Hi everyone again,

Thanks again for all the replies! I was drawn initially to Addiscombe by the camaraderie of the Club when I was beginning to train two years ago ? as I have described above and since then I?ve encountered nothing but confirmation of the unique atmosphere that you have.

Unfortunately, I live much too far away to participate much. I?m currently living at the north-eastern tip of London close to Epping Forest, so it?s unlikely that I?ll be able to join in the Saturday morning runs with any frequency.

I did, however, try and join one last December. I suspect that I?ll go down in Club history as the first Club wannabe to be ?dropped? on the Saturday morning Club run from Coulsdon South. It was a sodding-wet day, and the turnout was dire for my first (and only to date) Club run. Basically, I was the only newcomer, and a slow one at that. Of course I was instantly welcomed by the Addiscombe ambience and the enthusiasm that you all have for your sport and for spreading the word about the joys of cycling. I was even initiated into the Addiscombe Unofficial Clubhouse?s toilet on the London-bound platform at Coulsdon South.

So, only another eight to ten members turned up that day and we set off, me at the back of the second group. I?d been there about an hour before we left, and I was soaking wet. For the same reason, I gather, everybody set off slightly faster than normal, in order to keep warm. A gap emerged quickly and within a matter of minutes I was chasing ever-decreasing dots in front. The crunch came when I arrived at the crossing where the brave and stupid cross one of the lanes of the dual carriageway. I saw the last members cross, but when I got there, traffic held me up. By the time I was over, so was the game. I went flat out down the hill, but couldn?t see a soul on a bike. I carried on vainly, realising with every minute that it was becoming more of a lost cause.

I?d left home before 7am to make this jaunt, so I carried on regardless, even though the weather was constantly telling me to pack up and go home. I ended up at Gatwick, and thought that that maybe justified my time, buying a 6-zone travelcard and travelling probably 30 miles by train. I plodded back to the start and took a train home.

I?m sure that some of you will think it a bit extreme to travel so far to join a club ride; It is. It?s just that I?d been reading the website for a year-and-a-half and had decided that Addiscombe is the kind of club that I wanted to join. I?d love to join you on some runs in the future, and I will. I?m just going to have to build myself up slowly to be able to keep up the pace.

Until recently I have had literally and absolutely zero fitness. I?ve been attacking it gently and slowly on several fronts by swimming, running, cycling, and most recently in the gym. I have a bit of a training dilemma, because doing all of those activities obviously means that I have little time for any particular one. At the moment my plan is just to chip away at my lack of fitness. I think my general fitness would improve faster if I concentrated on only one. I think running would be best, but I like cycling most, but it?s the least flexible ? in terms of time and equipment constraints. I?m lifting some light weights to rebuild my wasted muscle tissues and I?m also doing some land rowing and stationary cycle in the same gym. I?ve built up to doing about an hour of interval cycling ? two mins at 90rpm followed by one minute at 110+ to push the heart rate up and build endurance, work on the lactate threshold etc. I keep the resistance minimal ? mirroring my real cycling. I?m invariably using the lowest gear while I concentrate solely on fitness.

I?ve read your kind advice, and the jury?s out at the moment. The Etape next year may well be too much given the time I can commit. I?ll find as much time as I can to build up the cycling, but I?ll see how it develops in the coming months, before making any firm decisions.

Sorry, I will reply to your kind notes, but for now ? I?m 33. I?ve been fit in the past and used to be able to do a 90-minute half marathon. The disease I have is a Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, like the (former?) Club member, but there are many different diseases coming under that umbrella. Mine is CTCL. They are all blood cancers, and completely different from Leukaemia.

Cheers,
Jonny.

[AodanH]

As a rough guide the average person would need a minimum of 2,000kms in the previous 6 months (based on cycling as the only sport). Obviously this has to be built up stepwise a sensible manner with the emphasis on longer rides. Some will do as much as 4,000km but they will be chasing specific times/standards.
With more scientific methods/specific coaching/cross training you may be able to get away with less.

[jonnyp]

Sorry, made a mistake.

Meant to say "all blood cancers and NOT completely different from Leukaemia."

A case of late-night sore computer eyes.

Cheers,
Jonny.

[jonnyp]

Sorry, made a mistake.

Meant to say "all blood cancers and NOT completely different from Leukaemia."

A case of late-night sore computer eyes.

Cheers,
Jonny.

[jonnyp]

Yeah, thanks, I can get on now because I forwarded the link from my hotmail account - which I can't access here because of the firewalls.

Yes, I should have been able to keep up with the group for a while longer, but I think a lot of it was to do with not being warmed up whereas most others had just arrived (on two wheels), and the fact that the traffic was busy when I tried to cross the dual carriageway. Also, because of having to go there by train - I didn't put my proper shoes, pedals and cleats on - and stuck with trainers and toe-clips. To get to Coulsdon South I have to change at Liverpool Street and get to London Bridge overground - not very hospitable territory for cycling shoes. The floor at Liverpool Street is treachorously-slippy.

Just gotta make sure I put in enough miles on my own first to be able to keep up with the 'slow' group when I rejoin this December. I don't think I could face the humiliation of being dropped a second time.

When I spoke to my Dad by phone that evening he asked what I'd been up to all day so I told him that I'd cycled to Gatwick. Not completely true, I know, but he seemed pretty impressed and I didn't want to disappoint him.

There's a club - is it Epping Forest Mountain Bike Club or something similar? They wear the bee-coloured jerseys and go out on Saturdays as well, I believe. Unfortunately, my mountain bike is still in Poland. I left it there as non-essential kit when I flew back to the UK last January for chemotherapy before my first transplant. I'm back at work now, so I might be able to afford a new one before too long. It'll be nice to do a bit of forest riding as well. I think I read somewhere that the Epping Forest club has a small group that goes out on the roads in winter when some of them find the Forest too impassable. Again, I'll have to build myself up a bit before I attempt another group ride. I've read that East London Triathletes (based in Walthamstow) have a spin out on Sunday mornings as well.

I'd also put in a couple of (spectator) visists to Herne Hill on Saturday mornings and seen a couple of Addiscombe jerseys in attendance. Track trainging looks good too.

But, of course, I definitely want to make it out from Coulsdon South again whenever I can, and I look forward to it!

[JayneToyne]

BIG up the track training!

i can vouch for the grin creating properties of track riding.