What's next?

You wait two months for a post, then three arrive at once. ;-)

Since the Alpe d' Huez triathlon I have been trying to think about what to focus on over the next year or so. Immediately after the race I was hoping to get a steady week's training in while staying at our friends' amazing place, Chalet Pomet. Situated in the village of Morillon about three hours' drive from Venosc I was going to get some steady cycling and running in ready to see me through to the end of the season but once again, my foot was not playing ball. I did a very gentle 40 minute run on soft ground and after I finished it was really sore, so I decided that there would be no more running for a while. The day after I took myself off before breakfast and decided to ride the Col de Joux-Plane, which is the nearest big climb about 10 kms away. I completely underestimated it, with it being every bit as high as Alpe d' Huez but considerably longer in terms of its less steep gradient.


Only 8kms to go

 I had not eaten beforehand so was very low on energy the whole way up, but it was a beautiful morning. A couple of other riders were out (who I went past; nice. :-) and I ticked off each kilometre steadily (about 13 of them). The view from the top was magnificent, with the low lying cloud which I had ridden through half an hour earlier providing a lovely sense of scale to the sheer bulk of the mountains all around. Unfortunately the monster that is Mont Blanc which can normally be seen in the distance was obscured, so with the morning temperature being a bit chilly I decided to go back down.

Selfie on the top of Joux-Plane

The descent was a complete scream. With much longer straights than Huez I was able to get up a lot of speed before breaking hard for the hairpin bends. My foot gave me a bit of gip when I hit a bump, with the extra flexing giving me a sharp pain now and again but seemed ok other than that. I did a couple of shorter rides in the week but with my foot being uncomfortable they were very gentle bimbles, so the rest of the time was spent eating, drinking, sightseeing and hitting the hot tub. Normal family holiday stuff.

So what next? Well for me, the season is already starting to draw to a close. A couple of time trials over the next month or so is the only thing in the pipeline. I will withdraw from the Abingdon Marathon as my foot will not take the load at the moment and once again, running will be put on the back foot (nice pun). I have a new job which is going to be pretty full-on for the foreseeable future and  will make training pretty hard to fit in so I have been thinking about what to do, and I think I've come up with a pretty good solution.

Most of the members at the Phoenix always talk about their annual mileage. So how many miles did you complete last year? My best from last year, was 5000miles; pretty good I thought, but that's nothing compared to some of the mileages that other members have done over the past. So I am going to give myself a target, starting in September and see if I can keep to it. It will not matter whether it's a bimble to the shops, commuting to work or training, it will all count. The only thing that will not count is the turbo as it will have to be road miles. The more time and mileage I complete on the bike the faster I will get. Simples.

So, what's my target? It needs to be more than 5000 miles, and something that will stretch me a bit. 7500 miles would be an average of 20.5 miles/day or 144 miles per week. Hmmm, that's pretty tough, but I like the numbers. Let's see.