First week of training under the belt.

Hello everyone,

I have now been down in my training base of Boileau Sur Mer for 8 days, and what a great start to proper training it has been. We arrived with a slightly bumpy descent down into Nice airport. Me and Pete flew in together, and on arrival we met up with Paul and our generous host Justin. These three decided they wanted to get in a sneaky afternoon/early evening ride. I looked at the clouds and decided I would not risk getting wet and the bike covered in rubbish so opted for the easy way out... an hour on the rollers! Once I had finished I had a shower and had a bit of food, then the door opened. Before me, 3 utterly drowned and shaking guys. They had climbed up from Monaco in torrential rain and then had to descend 500m (6k), in the dark and cold. I really did think they were in trouble of hypothermia! After an hour or so all of the drowned rats found they had feeling back and the possibility of a disaster averted.

So not the best of starts, but the next day promised no rain, just the early morning we had wet roads. I dressed in all my new winter kit almost wanting it to be a bit chilly but it just wasn’t. Very warm under all my layers. Always good to be too hot than too cold. After that first ride we have had zero rain and super consistent wall to wall sunshine, truly incredible! Could not have asked for better conditions! We have been able to ride up to and slightly over 1000m without any really bad road conditions. Occasionally above 800m there are patches of snow on the north facing sides of the mountains but roads are all clear for riding. Couldn’t ask for a better start.

Just one example of the awesome place we are riding and the weather! This is from near La Turbie looking over Monaco.

We also had two guys stay with us for 4 days of riding, I kept to riding by myself so I could control the pace and effort I am laying down on the climbs. The more people that are about the more likely I would be to get carried away with the knee feeling alright and start to chase peoples attacks and get a bit competitive. Each day I have upped the mileage, Thursday being the highest so far at 110k. Yesterday was forecast to be a little wet towards the afternoon with the weekend even more so, so I made the decision to ride an extra day Friday like a recovery ride then chill in the apartment for the weekend. Rest is the most important session of your week, I always remember that one although as any athletes training for a goal will know how difficult the rest part is!

So Saturday is here, and I am lucky that there is some cloud cover as I look out across the Mediterranean. That is helping me to be happy I am in rest mode, and to be honest I do feel a little tired too. I find on proper rest days where I do not have to work I am almost looking for something to do, trying to keep busy but not to get busy by eating loads of bad food, those silly snacks are easy to graze on. I fully believe you need to eat plenty of rest days to help your body repair and replenish your energy store and keep your metabolism moving well, but this need to be done with good healthy food. Just because you have done 6 days of hard work training, healthy eating does not mean lose the plot and go crazy with the snacking/grazing. Days off are also a good time to get some admin done with possible races, training camps, organising travel to these places. As I live on a very tight budget I spend a lot of time trying to do these bits and pieces at the cheapest cost possible. I too try to make my energy bars on these days, cook bulk meals ready for the freezer and another day when time is tighter, all good uses of time for the rest day.

Me braving the chilly Med.

After said rest day/weekend the weather forecast for next week is looking to be just as good as we had last week. Even a degree or two warmer, so if I get the go ahead I will be trying to put one or two efforts up some climbs. Possibly some longer intervals built around lighter days of more steady zone 2 stuff. This is all ready to look forward to, even if I just stay in the zone 2 riding I have 10 days left to make the most of the incredible surroundings we have out here in France. Lets hope the knee remains good and pain free.

Thanks for reading.