Residual Fitness

Paulo has this new post about residual fitness pn his blog. It gives me hope... Let's hope I have tons of residual fitness!

It seems my leg is getting better and the recovery is faster now. I can see progress every day. I can't walk yet but I begin to be able to put weight on my injured leg. I hope to be able to get back on the trainer next week. Let's see what the Doc says tomorrow.

In the meantime I swim. 2000 yards on Monday, 3000 on Tuesday and 3500 yesterday. Still no kicking though.

Doing nothing

I went to the swimming pool yesterday and Wednesday. The most difficult part is to make it to the pool without falling: walking with crutches on wet floors is not recommended… I use a pull buoy and bands to keep my legs from moving but despite that my right leg bothers me slightly. I hence keep the sessions very short (1000m). Honestly the benefit is more mental than anything else; I need to do something to keep my sanity! We, triathletes, are used to fix or improve things by working. Work works. You’re slow on the bike, train harder. Bad swim technique, swim more and do drills… It is very difficult when something is wrong and the only thing you can do is… doing nothing.

Chocolate

It has been a week already since the race and my injury. But it seems like an eternity to me… Life is pretty boring when you can’t do anything besides sitting on your butt… Yes I am getting better at moving around with my crutches but my range of action is pretty limited. I am trying to treat my depression with chocolate and I think I went through our six month reserve of French chocolate in a week! I don’t see real progress as far as my fracture is concerned (I cannot put weight on my leg yet and it is very painful) but I guess it is time to be positive again (plus I don’t have chocolate anymore).

After discussing with Paulo I decided I’ll try to race anyway. I played with the idea of asking North America Sport (the company organizing the Ironman races in North America) to swap my Coeur d’Alene spot for a Lake Placid one. Ironman Lake Placid takes place on July 20th and it would have given me an additional month to prepare and be in a decent shape. But the timing conflicts with our family vacation plans so I’ll race Coeur d’Alene and must try to be there in the best shape possible. Obviously I am not in the Hawaii qualification "race" anymore and it is tough to re-motivate myself but I’ll try to have fun and enjoy the day.

I’ll try to get back in the pool before the end of the week, without kicking obviously (first time in my life I am going to miss kicking!). And, I’ll take it from there… Step by step.

When I am done with my crutches I can make a stool with them and an old wheel. How beautiful!

Game over...

The MRI confirmed the obvious, I have a proximal tibial stress fracture. The bottom line is that it has to heal like a regular fracture and it usually takes a minimum of 6 weeks:

- 2 weeks no weight on leg. Using crutches.
- 2 weeks partial weight bearing. Gradually increase weight on leg very slowly and let pain dictate whether to cut back or continue. Might start swimming progressively without kicking.
- 2 weeks progressing to full weight bearing. Might start very easy bike trainer session.
After 6 weeks very easy running if no pain, but more likely water running only for a while...

So, 6 weeks means essentially no training until mid-may, ie. a month before Ironman Coeur d'Alene. Of course it also means a huge loss of fitness. There is no way I can be ready for the race. The IM season is over for me. It is clearly a bummer, I invested a lot this year in training and my fitness was very good. It is tough to get over it right now...

Partial race report:

Oceanside started pretty well. I was in the transition area at 5.40am, saw Paulo, Kevin, Danny and Brian. Everything went fine and I was in the water at 6.57am with the 40-45 wave. The water was much warmer than anticipated and it was a relief. The swim went pretty well, few kicks in the head at the beginning but then I was able to find my rythm and felt good despite some pretty good waves in the mid section of the swim course. I was comfortable the whole time and was a little disapointed by my time (34 minutes) only one minute faster than last year. The bike was great and very controlled thanks to the SRM. It was the first time I raced with a power meter and it was a great tool for me as I usually tend to push to much on the bike. My plan was to stay around 245 Watts with some short periods at treshold (285 Watts) during climbs. The wind was much stronger than last year and everybody was slower. I finished the bike in 2h37 and felt very fresh. I compared my heart rate monitor files and my average HR was 10bps slower than last year. The run started pretty well with few miles at 6'40 pace. Then the pain started to flare up and it was difficult to push with my right leg. I was at the mile 7 marker in 47'30" but had to stop at mile 8. I could barely walk at that point.

Well you know the rest.

DNF

Not the race I was hoping for. My first DNF (did not finish) ever and a pair of crutches to finish the weekend… I’ll post a longer report but suffice to say that after 8 miles of running the pain was just too strong and I just had to stop. The problem was that I could barely walk then and it took me more than hour to get back to the transition area only two miles away.

I can’t put any weight at all on my leg. The pain is very sharp, knee ligaments seem involved now. It does not look good at all. I had too get a pair of crutches to be able to move, and to go, as promised, to Legoland with the kids…

Brain freeze

Brian and I went for an ocean swim this morning at 7.30. The sun was out but the water was very cold. We both had "brain freeze", you know this pain you get when you eat icecream too fast... Well same thing but without the pleasure of having icecream. After 5 minutes everything was okay though.

For those willing to follow the race on line tomorrow there will some live coverage at www.ironmanlive.com
My bib number is 393.

Old but ready to race...

The bike not me! I did a test run today and did not feel any pain. I did not want to push my luck and stopped after 5 minutes. Tomorrow I'll do an ocean swim early in the morning followed by a 30 minute ride and then we will all drive down to Oceanside.

Race preparation

Half Ironman California is approaching fast. The bike is ready. I did a 45 minute ride this morning with the race wheels. Everything is fine. Thanks to the taper my legs feel great on the bike. I don’t know about the run, as... I don’t run. I decided to save my legs until Saturday. I’ll see if my injury is healed during the race. I saw a PT and an ART specialist. It seems to help but the area is still very sensible.

I bought a Giro aero helmet. Free speed they say… Now I’ll definitely look like a dork but every second counts!

I am curious about my swim Saturday. I feel very good in the pool and spent much more time swimming than the previous years. Volume is decreasing in the pool also, on Monday I did a 4700m session, 3500 on Tuesday and 2500 today with some fast intervals.

X-Ray...

I went to an orthopedic clinic on Friday but don't know much more about my injury. It does not seem to be a stress fracture as my X-rays came out clean. The doctor wants to check with an MRI to be totally sure. It seems that sometimes stress fractures are not visible on X-rays. In the meantime I can't run. I also got a prescription to see a Physical Therapist. Let's see what will be his version of my injury story... The race is is less than 7 days... Not good at all.

To improve my morale here are somes highlights of the Las Cruces Camp:

1/ The Sofa, also called the "PS Triathlon International Training Center recovery machine". Only one rule, implemented forcefully by Paulo: "no seating on the sofa if not showered". Below, the recovery machine being used by Jonnyo and Sergio.

2/ Hydratation: because of the altitude and the desert dry air I was constantly dehydrated. I needed a bottle by me even to watch TV! On my last day, we went for a two hour ride and Khai realized Sergio had no bottle: "He Sergio, you forgot your bottles!", "I don't need bottles, it is just a two hour ride...". Sergio is a camel.

3/ Nutrition: as Jonnyo said "we are athletes, we can eat a lot", and we did, Italian, Mexican... The skinny rapper in the middle is Paulo, in between Sergio and Danny.
4/ The Purse: Lyndsey now knows that showing up at the pool for the morning workout with a "red-crocodile" purse is a good way to get a new nickname, Miss Purse (here with, from righ to left, Khai, Jonnyo and me).

5/ Zone 3: riding Zone 3 with Sergio and Jonnyo with a tailwind, flying at 50kph, definitely a highlight for me. The way back was less glorious...

Water, water...

Paulo and Jodi before the torture session in the NMSU long course pool

Not being a swimmer (at all) the numbers are very impressive for me, I swam approximately 22km in 5 days in Las Cruces. On top of that Paulo prepared a 4700m session for today (in LA for me) so it is about 27km now! I really suffered from the altitude during the camp, especially in the pool where I had the impression to be out of breath all the time, being surrounded by fast swimmers did not help.

But as Sergio's swimsuit says, HTFU...

Back from HTFU Camp

I am back home after 4.5 days in Las Cruces for the HTFU training camp with Paulo's posse. It was a lot of fun and hard work. The bad news is that I injured myself before the camp (right lower leg) and cannot run. I am going to see a Physical Therapist tomorrow. I hope it is nothing too serious and I'll be able to race in Oceanside as expected...

I'll post more later about the Camp but for me it was 22 hours of training packed in 4 days and a half! If you want to know how it is to ride behind Jonnyo (2nd at Ironman Canada 07) and Sergio (2nd at Ironman Florida 07) check this video (a bit long)...

Las Cruces

The bike is packed. Plane tickets are ready. I fly tomorrow to Las Cruces (New Mexico) to spend 4 days with the HTFU crew for a short training camp. Some pros, some age-groupers and of course coach Paulo should make things interesting!

Need motivation?

If you need motivation to get out on your bike that should do the trick! Simon Whitfield behind the camera...

Winter?

Great week and great week-end. I rode 2h25 this morning with few steep climbs. It was foggy at 6am but ended up a perfect morning. After our usual Sunday morning walk to the farmer market to buy our vegetables and fruits for the week, we all went to the beach (Point Dume beach). We had lunch there and the boys played in the waves for a while. I went for a 20 minute open water swim to get used to the wetsuit again and test the water before the race in Oceanside. It is cold! My hands and feet went numb for a while but after few minutes everything was fine and I had a good swim.

It was a good week as far as training goes: more than 20 hours in total, 15000 meters of swimming, 9+ hours of biking and 6+ hours of running.

Yerba Buena

Beautiful 5 hour ride today, the weather was great with temperatures up to 75d. I even got sunburned! I climbed Yerba Buena (picture above), my favorite climb in the Santa Monica mountains. I finished very strong and then ran 30 minutes.

Swim Start

Swim Waves are up for Half Ironman California! This race is slightly different than many Ironman races because the swimmers start by age group waves and not all together. The main reason for that is the narrow channel in which we swim for the first 500 meters.

I'll have the pleasure to start at 6.57am, that's pretty early to jump into 55 deg. waters (less than 15 Celcius)!!!

Running

A lot of it! Monday the plan called for 50 minutes in Z2 followed by 8 strides, tuesday 1h20 including the dreaded 5 x 8 minutes in z4 and today 1 h 45 in Z2. My legs are stiff!

Solid week.

Last week was solid with 18h45 of training despite a day trip to Phoenix:

Running : 5 hours
Cycling: 8 hours 45 minutes
Swimming: 5 hours

Sunday, my 5 hour ride (160km) was done in almost perfect conditions, slightly cold at the start (48 degrees) but warm after a while (70). A strong wind started to blow after few hours, of course it was a headwind and it made up for a very hard last hour. The transition run felt good.

And now I just have to start again for a new week…

27 days...

It had been a while since I could find the time to swim four times in a week for a total of 15000 meters. I did it this week and it is obvious that under that I maintain my (low) level but don't really improve. But on thursday on my fourth session of the week I had a great 3800 meter swim with 8 x 200m in Z4 at a speed I was very happy with! Few weeks at this volume and intensity (Z4 in the water in painful for me) and I should see some pretty good results.

This morning I went for a 2 hour ride with 60 minutes tempo (z3). I felt very strong and Watts were often in z4 for a low RPE. Tomorrow 5 hour ride (with 4 x 20 minutes tempo) followed by the usual 30 minutes transition run.

And by the way today is March 1st which means that my first race of the year is approaching fast: Half Ironman California on March 29th in 27 days and few hours!!!

Training Update

Training is going well. Last week was a 17 hour week despite one day skiing and another one in Santa Rosa for the Tour of California. This week should be a 19 hour one. My running is improving and I had a great session on tuesday with 5 x 8 minutes in z4 (sub 6.30 pace). This morning though is was tough getting into z4 on the trainer, low watts for high pain...

Ang again new pics of the Tour of California, taken from the Credit Agricole car by my client.

Long ride

Great 5 hour ride this morning and my first 100 miler (160km). The last two hours we had a strong headwind, I was happy to feel pretty strong at the end. Brian and I followed by a 30 minute run at 7'15 pace for the first 21 minutes (cool down after that).

Below are two pictures from the Tour of California.

Jens Voigt's Cervelo

Whose bike is this?

Tour of California - Stage 2

I spent the day with the Credit Agricole team on Tuesday for Stage 2 of the Tour of California. I just have pictures of the start as my camera’s batteries died after that! As always the scene is a bike fan paradise, beautiful bikes everywhere and some “celebrities”.

Cipo is back and LOVES the attention

Cancellara getting ready

It was cold and rainy and not a very good day at the office for the riders who had a tough time leaving the warm buses to head to the start line. It was funny to hear them hesitating about equipment choices: jacket or vest, knee warmers of not, hat under the helmet or not… Each rider ended up with a different choice.

Here is Patrice Halgan ready to go on his Look.

Training Update

Last week was a pretty good week despite a two day trip to NY: 18 hours in total, with 60km of running, 265km of cycling but only 11km in the water. I clearly lost some fitness after my 10 day “virus break” but everything is back to normal except for my speed in the water (I lost few seconds per 100m, I was slow, I am slower). On Saturday Brian and I did a 4h30 ride with some serious climbing followed by a 30 minutes run that felt pretty good. On Sunday I woke up early (5am) to do a two hour trainer session before waking up the family to go to ski at Big Bear where the kids had a blast.

This week started pretty well with some great workouts. A 1h15 run on Tuesday with 5x6 minutes in Z4, I felt great and my HR was above 170. The day after, my legs were sore for the 1h30 Z2 run! This morning, on the trainer at 5.30am for a 90 minute session with 6x6min in Z4. I stayed above 285 watts all the time with the first three intervals at 290/295 watts. I was very happy with that.

Tour of California

Not a lot of time to give news but here is a picture of the Second Stage of the Tour of California in Santa Rosa taken yesterday. It was a rainy and cold morning. On the photo Thomas Vokler (Bouygues Telecom) is having is front wheel checked by his mechanic, he was a little worried by the lateral play of his light Campagnolo wheel. I'll post more pics later.

How not to finish a marathon.

The video below is painful to watch, it shows the last minutes of the first marathon ran by a Japanese runner, Kayoko Fukushi, in January 2008. Fukushi is Japan's national record holder for the half-marathon. She ran the first half in 1:10.32 (!!), and then covered the second half in 1:30.32 (very slow for her)! While I would not like to finish a race in this state I would be very happy with a 2:40 marathon!

I am riding again

It took me 10 days but I finally got rid of this virus. On Saturday I went for a 2 hour easy ride, just to test myself. It was nice to be outside, even if my legs felt weak. The warm weather was nice though, almost 80 degrees.

Today I rode 4 hours for 130 km. I felt great for the first 3 hours and pushed too hard for a while. I exploded and the last hour was tough. On top of that I had not taken enough food with me and I bonked big time. But again it is so nice to exercice again and to have some energy in my body!

A good friend of mine of the Westchester Triathlon club, Rich Izzo, had a pretty "good" ride on the East Coast. When he says rather warm conditions it is more like 35 degrees... His report: "Left westchester at 3:30am saturday in rather warm conditions. Had no rain just a bad crosswind from the south the whole way. The ride became tiring at the end, no Monty to suck wheel off of this time. Rolled into Sag (Sag Harbor on Long Island) after riding for 9hrs (with one long break- breakfast with the folks at the 3hr mark). Today's ride began at 6:45am in order to beat the snow, and wind. Well, I beat the snow but I only have one thing to say about the rain and wind I got for 15m before the ferry in Port Jeff- tough. However the ride from Bridgport home can only be described as the hardest ride since IMCDA. There was a headwind the whole way which made the day before feel like a tailwind and the wind gusts were off the charts. There were downhills that I was doing 6mph. It was laughable.If IMH's wind is like what I experienced today, I would rather have bamboo shoots put up my fingers than to do that bike course on a bad day.All in all another sag trip done- 241m. Next month I expect company".

For us, with a 75 degrees day here on the Left Coast, we went for a hike in the Santa Monica mountains this afternoon. Because of the rain we had in the last weeks there is water in all the small creeks and the boys had alot of fun.

Couch potato

After a weekend living the life of a perfect couch potato thanks to this virus that has decided to call my body home, I know for sure that this kind of lifestyle is not for me… It is really depressing to spend a weekend reading and watching TV (a lot of TV) without getting out (except to bring my kids to their soccer games)…

I feel better this morning though. There is light at the end of the tunnel and I might try to exercise again tomorrow. Let’s wait for Paulo instructions.

I must admit that I am in panic mode right now. My fitness will be gone. I am late on my program. Half Ironman California is less than 2 months away. I have busy weeks coming and won’t be able to train optimally:

- Week of February 11th: trip to the East Coast for business. It is going to be very difficult to train whatsoever during this trip, add the fatigue of the trip and the hotel food and you have the perfect week…
- Weekend at Mammoth: I will land from the East Coast on Friday and will jump in the car for a 5 hour trip to Mammoth Mountain for a three day ski weekend. It will be fun and great for the boys but not so for my triathlon career…
- Tour of California: back home on Monday night (18th), early flight on Tuesday to San Francisco to accompany a client of mine to the Tour of California and spend the day with the Credit Agricole team. Again while fun the timing is not great.
- After that I’ll have three weeks to get ready for the HTFU Training Camp in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I’ll stay there five days only but this should be a lot of fun to train with the group of athletes coached by Paulo, including Jonnyo.
- Half Ironman Race in Oceanside California on March 29th.

Virus

I still feel pretty bad. I had more Advil in the last few days than in the previous 10 years! But as the doctor said "it is a nasty virus and there is nothing to do except letting it go its course". Followed by "It will be 100$". So I don't know when its course will be over but it is getting very annoying.

I asked Paulo if 4 or 5 days of sickness would involve an important loss of fitness his answer: "yes" (not what I hoped for). "But the rebound will be very quick" (that's better).

The only sport for me this weekend will be te Superbowl I guess...

Sick again...

Bad case of flu. I had to call in sick today. I could not even get up this morning. I hope this is not going to ground me for to long... I guess this is the problem with having kids, they were sick last week.

The pictures above were taken in 2006 at the top of the Galibier in the Alps, the day before "La Marmotte". With time to kill at home I organized my old pics and found these. Good memories, good group of friends from the Westchester Triathlon Club in NY.

Back to this chlorine smell...

I started swimming again on Monday (3400 meters) and today (3500 meters). It took me a while to get over the apprehension and fully finish my stroke with my right arm but it went fine. I did not touch the paddles yet as I do not want to stress my lat too much, too soon. It is good to be back to the pool again, even if in the back of my mind I enjoyed a week without swimming! I hate swimming!

My running is visibly improving, this morning session hurt (5 x 6 minutes in Zone 4) but I feel faster and I recover well from these intense workouts. I am curious to see the results during a race as I had never tried any kind of interval training in the past. I would get out and run without really paying attention to my pace or heart rate. With Paulo I push myself much more in all sports.

News and headbutt from Down Under

Good sport news from Australia, Frenchman Wilfried Tsonga is in final of the Australian Open (that is tennis!) and the Credit Agricole team is doing pretty well (well until today) in the Tour Down Under (that is cycling now) with Mark Renshaw winning a stage and wearing the leader jersey for few days. We all know sprinting is dangerous but this Italian guy is pushing the envelop… Check this video (at the end).





Very good 1h30 run on friday with 2 x 20 minutes in Z3 (approximately 150bpm for me). I felt very good and did these two intervals at 6'45 / 6'55 pace per mile. Pretty fast for me at that intensity. Today the rain stopped in LA and I had a great 4h45 ride (about 90 miles) followed by a 20 transition run.

Can't swim

I can't swim. I tried again on Tuesday and had to stop after 100 meters. While in the pool I did 500 meters of kicking but the morale was not great.

The legs are OK though; 1h15 run on Tuesday with 5 x 6 minutes in Zone 4: painful, really painful. Today the 2 hour run felt great. I took a plane to San Francisco for business after my run and came back home tonight. The return flight was bumpy to say the least, because of the storm in LA we went through pretty scary turbulences! I was happy when the wheels touched the tarmac.

90 minutes trainer ride tomorrow with Zone 4 intervals (threshold) and I'll test again my lat in the pool.

Latissimus Dorsi

First a summary of last week: approximately 19 hours in total, with 5 hours of running, more than 9 hours on the bike and 14200 meters of swimming. A good week indeed.

Second, on a less positive note, I had to stop my swim session this morning (in the local Ymca's pool shown above) after 100 meters because of a sharp pain in my right lateral back muscle (Latissimus Dorsi). I preferred to stop immediately instead of training through pain. We'll see tomorrow if the pain is still here.

Rock Racing

As usual, I did a long ride on Saturday morning (4h30) with some climbing (Latigo and Yerba Buena) followed by a 20 minute transition run. I was tired on the bike for a while but felt stronger at the end of the ride. My legs felt surprisingly good on the short run though. It is very cold on the East Coast but here we still enjoy a perfect weather, great for training!

Today early two hour ride (with 60 minutes in Zone 3) on the trainer, in my garage watching the 1995 Ironman Hawaii DVD. What a finish in the Women race! Paula Newby Fraser, lead the race until the last half mile and then hit the wall (hard) and could not even walk for 20 minutes.




In the afternoon we went to Malibu and passed the infamous Rock Racing team on the PCH. It was 3.30pm and they were just leaving Santa Monica. Pretty late for a ride if you ask me… Sevilla was in the group. Apparently they did not get their team bikes yet as each rider had a different one, but all of them had masked the brand. I'll check what they ride during the Tour of California in February.

The art of coaching

In his blog Paulo has a good piece about fatigue and how to take it into account when designing a training plan. Here is an extract: “When designing a training plan, the time intervals between consecutive training sessions should be selected in order to respect the timings of adaptation to training for the different training methods used. Working out these timings is possibly the most difficult part of planning and it is the "art" part of coaching.” I have to admit this where I am impressed so far by Paulo. I clearly train more than usual, intensity is picking up in the three sports, I do not get rest weeks anymore and not even rest days (in the past Mondays were off) but I feel lot less tired than during my self-coached years!


Breakthrough for me in the pool yesterday with few 100 meters in less than 1’25; that is not fast for a swimmer but for me that is like flying! Today 3800 meters sessions including 16 x 100. For the first time ever, I finished all the 100s in 1’30 or less.

Double run

Not much to report today. Wednesday is my double run day, 50 minutes this morning, 70 minutes at lunch time. As usual, I felt very good during the second session. I like a lot these back to back runs. Tomorrow morning, at 5.30am, 90 minute trainer session with 9 x 4 minute intervals in Zone 4. It is going to hurt, especially knowing that with a power meter there is no way to cheat!

I am in!

Big news today, I got a Community slot for Ironman Coeur d’Alene. So I’ll be in Idaho for sure on June 22nd. Apparently I won’t be alone as there are 2584 participants registered; it is going to be a crowded swim! Hopefully we’ll get better conditions than in 2003, when the temperature reached 100 degrees during the run.

3800 meters swim today and 1 hour trainer session.

A good week

Big week of training for this time of the year, more than 18 hours total with 14100 meters of swimming (a lot for me). I could not use my arms anymore after the 3800 meters session on Friday, the 16 x 100m in Z4 killed me!

Regarding running, my legs clearly felt the introduction of Zone 3 and Zone 4 sessions. But globally despite this increase in intensity (so far all my running was in Zone 2) I felt fast and light. Good sign.

On Saturday the 4h15 minutes ride was perfect with almost no wind and a bright sun. I averaged 32kph and the 20 minute transition run felt pretty good. Today, Sunday, two hour ride on the trainer with 50 minutes in Zone 3.

The weather in Los Angeles is still great, it was 70d today and we enjoyed a great family walk by the beach in Malibu.

Block 1 done, time for block 2

My first block of training is done: 8 weeks from November 12th to January 6th. For the number crunchers out there, here are few statistics: 120 hours of training, 405 km of running, 1725 km of cycling and 55 km of swimming. All that despite few days of sickness and the holidays... That is a lot for me even if I am still behind as regards to pool time.

The new block started this morning. According to the weekly program I got from Paulo the main change will apparently be the introduction of higher intensity work in the three disciplines: some running in Zone 4 (that will hurt), longer Zone 4 intervals on the bike (will hurt also) and much longer pool sessions (up to 3800 meters this week for example). I’ll also start to run after my long rides of 4 hours and more (transition runs i.e. 20 minutes only).

Talking about long ride, my Sunday morning ride was one to forget… Rain, debris and mud everywhere on the roads because of the storm, and… three flats!

OK, my debris were not that large but still...

I had to call Joanna to pick me up in the mountains; not a great way to finish the week. I rode a little bit more than 3 hours instead of the 4 hours planned but was very tired.

Back to the water...

Thanks to the perfect coordination of apparently all Los Angeles area pools, I enjoyed a two-week break from chlorine: all pools were closed for yearly maintenance. Yesterday though marked my return to swimming: 3000 yards yesterday, 3100 today and 3000 tomorrow. It is tough to start again and today my shoulders are sore!

Coach Paulo has me doing three effort tests this week: one run test on a treadmill, a bike test on the trainer and Saturday a 30 minutes time trial test on the roads. I’ll share the results when I have something smart to say about them (i.e. when Paulo gives me some feedback)!

Few late thoughts on Christmas…

Christmas morning was of course only about watching the kids opening their presents, witnessing their pure joy is always the real Christmas magic. It got me thinking about some of the presents that brought the most joy to me as a kid. I guess I did not really change as bikes were my favorite! I remember in particular a present I got when I was a kid: a brand new Eddy Merckx road bike. My parents bought it in a supermarket and it was not assembled. My father spent few weeks putting the bike together in an empty bedroom upstairs. I remember very clearly checking the progress on a regular basis. The bike was metallic blue, steel frame, two rings in the front, 8 speeds in the back (I think) with shifters on the down tube. I was so proud of it. It is still somewhere in my parents garage. I used that bike a lot!

I also remember very clearly a bike I had before (I guess when I was in 1st or 2nd grade). It was a used red steel frame, single speed, with a flat handle bar. One day my father picked me up after school, it was a Saturday, and we went to the bike shop. During the trip I tried to guess why the bike was at the shop and what was new on it. I did not guess but I remember being so excited. My parents had asked the mechanic to change the handle bar and put a bar with drops, like a race bike. Again I was the happiest kid and so proud of my bike. I had to be because I remember very vividly this moment, especially the trip to the bike shop!