29 June 2009

Update: 1 week...

Weight: 12-2.0. (Target 12-0). BMI: 24.3. Body Fat: 21.3%. Wk2 Training: Hours: 6:25 (Target 8:00). Bike: 155km

Weight... The final weigh-in before the big day... Down 0.6 lbs to 12-2.0. Not quite reached my stretch target of 12stone (76.2kg), however, I came pretty close and am thrilled with where I have got to.  I started this adventure at the turn of the year weighing 15-7 (98.5kg), so anyhow you look at it, this has been a not insubstantial loss (3st 5lbs or 21.4kg).  I am also now a fair bit lighter than my pre-race weight for the Etape in '07 (12st 12) and the fateful Marmotte in '08 (14st 2).  Hopefully I can go plenty faster too.

Here is my weight charted against my target, as well as the last 2 years:


Training... Quiet week.  Decided on 6-odd hours anhd kept the rides short & sweet.  Most notable was an early week Richmond Park 3-lap Challenge TT.  Very pleased to go round in 55:25 with three sub-19 laps.  This was some 3+ minutes quicker than my PB of last month so some nice improvement.

Weather... The forecast loooks ominous.  Forecast is for as much as 36deg C on Friday!!!  That is some serious heat. Saturday looks a little cooler (29deg C), but with a 30% chance of rain. Yikes.  I think I would prefer 36dec C than descending the Glandon in the wet...

Schedule...
Just a few hours of 'training' left before the Marmotte (feels really really really close now). The schedule is going to be something like this:
Mon 29th - 60min Ride.
Wed 1st - 30min Gym/Spin Class.
Fri 3rd - 45min Ride in AdH.
Sat 4th - La Marmotte (174k).

8 comments:

Rob Chambers said...

Good luck dude!

ShirishK said...

Good luck at the weekend. Have a good one.

Unknown said...

followed you progress for quite a few months... so I wish you luck and zero punctures!.. not sure which is most impressive, the efforts on training or the blog! 10 out of 10 for both ... my own final week of preparation involved a little too much travelling but c'est la vie.... although my aim is to finish I have been looking for a rough guide as to what kind of time to try and follow (for example, at the the top of each climb)to make the silver medal category ... ever come across anything like that?

Richard Allen said...

Guys,
Many thanks. Fingers crossed for a good one.

Paul,
Good luck. If I have time I will try to post something this evening with some target times for Silver. From memory/very approx calc:
Glandon 2:20
Telegrape 5:00
Galib 7:30
Bourg 8:45
AdH 10:30

Richard Allen said...

here are my thoughts on Gold & Silver Pacing (M30-39):

Marmotte........Gold......Silver
Glandon..........2:00......2:20
Telegraphe......4:15......5:00
Galibier..........6:10......7:20
Bourg d'Oisans..7:25......8:45
Alpe d'Huez......8:49......10:30

Anonymous said...

dont look for a time - just enjoy it and the training will do the rest.

really hope you have a great trip.

Karen Popplewell said...

Your weight loss is so impressive. Good luck and enjoy it :-)

RiderJB said...

Hi - good luck, might see you on the slopes or in the bar afterwards !