I am just done my non-existent peak and going into my imaginary taper for the 2014 Etape du Tour. Truth be told, I haven’t been taking this season very seriously (I declared it a ‘recovery year‘, if you’ll remember), but now that the rubber is about to hit the road, and the Etape just 6 days away, the truth is a little hard to swallow. Here are my distances since I started this journey a few years back:
2011
Objective: Etape du Tour; Kilometers (Jan to event): 6000
2012
Objective: Etape du Tour x 2; Kilometers (Jan to event): 8000
2013
Objective: Haute Route; Kilometers (Jan to event): 9600
2014
Objective: Etape du Tour; Kilometers (Jan to event): 5500
Not all that impressive, but I do think my training has been a bit more ‘efficient’ this year, with the new power meter program I’ve been on. Also, if plotted on a graph, these numbers would actually show the ‘recovery’ I said I was going to be doing in 2014, so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Finally, I still feel like I’ve got Haute Route ‘in the legs’, so I’m cautiously hopeful that I’ll come out of this reasonably unscathed.
The other important number this year is my weight, which has been resistant to my pleas. I will try and publish an ‘after’ photo later this week, but I might need some PhotoShop skills to make it looks any different from the ‘before‘.
Who else out there will be there this weekend, by the way?
The Vicious Cycle 
Your 2011 numbers look like my numbers for HR last year. Room for a lot of improvement. I’d like to do that étape sometime. But I think the plan is to do Alpe d’Huez and/or ventoux sometime this year. Check out today’s Tour stage. Yesterday and today’s stage cover a lot of Les Trois Ballons cyclosportive. And the one section at least 1km at 17-18%!!
If I ever do that one I’ll try and remember the descent Contador crashed on and be extra careful!
Gerry: how many hours is that? (More comparable than km)
217 hours, Jan. I actually estimated the kms because my distance isn’t calculated on the trainer in winter. I was at nearly 400 by August last year, but that was a ‘special’ season, as you’ll remember 😉
Yup, I remember 🙂 I haven’t looked at my times from last year; I think I am now around 270hrs. Looks like you did well at l’etappe — no need for 400hrs for a big one day.
I’ll be riding this weekend Gerry. I’ll look out for you. I’ll be the one doing an (ironic) impression of Lance Armstrong in full US Postal Gear to match my (vintage) bike – a 2004 USPS Trek. (Ironic since I’ve only got my weight down from 115kg to 100kg so far this year so you have nothing to worry about on your stats.)
Speaking of looking out for you, Sky Sports screened a programme following last year’s Haute Route last week in the UK and lo and behold if Rob wasn’t interviewed and you cruised past in the background. Looked like an Epic ride and especially humbling seeing the chap with one leg doing it! I really have no excuse. All the best for this weekend.
Guy
Guy, I’ll look out for you. You will probably be the only one brave enough to be wearing USPS kit, so it might not be hard to find you!
I’m not sure what I’ll be wearing yet, but I think it’ll be the Vicious Cycle gear from Haute Route.
I saw the same video a while back. Rob got some good face time, for sure. It was a great event and we’ll be doing it again in a year or two.
Hope to see you this weekend!
Guy, I see you decided against the Postal kit. Wise choice! Glad to see you finished the race, too. That was a bit tough, huh?