back to basics

In 2002 I rode from Bourke to Bourke Street, over 1000kms in nine days. In 2003 it was Adelaide to Melbourne; same stats.

In 2004, five and six I endured three tough rides around Tasmania, up the east coast, across the central plateau, defying the weather on the west coast, and up Mount Wellington to round things off. Each time over 1000kms in nine days.

In 2007 I went to France and rode the Tourmalet and the d’Aubisque. In 2009 in was the Tourmalet, Peyresourde, Aspin, Agnes and Plateau de Beille.

I trained harder for the earlier rides than for the later ones. Form and fitness kicked in pretty rapidly once I got serious. Which leaves me wondering why I feel so crappy this time.

Yes, I just had a week’s respiratory infection and head cold. Yes, I didn’t keep up the k’s last year. Yes, I’m closing on 60 and maybe it’s just much harder to find form and fitness as the body ages … and, dare it be said, deteriorates.

Perhaps I am not paying enough attention to what’s required. Which is why The Lance Armstrong performance program is no longer on the good bike books shelf but on my bedside table instead.

Lance didn’t write this one; his coach Chris Carmichael is responsible and it’s an emetic  paean to The Boss—Lance does this and Lance does that—and a shameless promotion of the CTS (Carmichael Training System). But … it also has a powerful message for me: it’s back to basics, and in my case that’s “a decent aerobic base”.

The one time I did the training regime—seven weeks to the perfect ride—I bought a heart rate monitor and got into the zone: I worked hard at the cardio stuff before (or while) banging the hell out of my legs with lots of kilometre-based drudgery.

So-o-o-o-o-o … I am determined on a new course of action. Seven weeks with the HRM. This time I start as a Beginner, not an Intermediate. Even before reading the book I wonder about being on a bike in every Cycle class at the gym.

So this morning I’m at Cycle for 45 minutes, spinning and grinding my way up imaginary hills. It makes Pump straight after harder than usual.  

As soon as I get home I wash the old bike I took from behind someone’s shed years ago and set up as a training machine. I harness it to the Tacx trainer and pump up the tyres. I hunt down the HRM paraphernalia. Batteries needed. The HRM and me.