…and a few more things are starting to fall
in to place or build momentum: eg. equipment, nutrition strategies, overnight
stopping points and most importantly, training.
Several times recently, I’ve been asked the question: “ So how do you train for this?” With the collection of
colds and minor ailments I’ve been putting up with the past few months, I’ve
been sorely tempted to quote the old Irish joke of “well, I wouldn’t start from
here!” given the planned training time and sessions that have gone by the
wayside. Nevertheless, regarding my projected fitness level, there’s a clear
difference between not quite being in 100% condition and seriously
underprepared - so I’m going ahead with the planned 18th May start
date.
For those that are interested in such
matters, I’m building a ‘base’ with 3-4 aerobic endurance rides a week,
interspersed on alternate days with interval training sessions – the latter
being held on a variety of local hills which take between 1 and 7
minutes to climb at close to maximum sustainable power. The aerobic endurance
rides are 75-90 minutes duration. Ideally these sessions should occasionally be
3-4 hours in length but lower back gremlins have prevented me from doing those
kinds of rides for more than 10 years now. Fortunately, I can still get most of
the training effects that I need from the shorter rides.
I’ve cut back on gym-based strength
training to allow a small drop in upper body mass and improve my power to
weight ratio. Although that upper body strength (and core function) is
essential when aiming to ride up 25-30% inclines, I’m hoping the residual
conditioning from the last few years of training - mainly as a track sprinter at Masters
level - will stand me in good stead. It’s all relative though as I’m dropping
from 77kg (in January) to a projected 72kg in May along with a small but
significant drop in body fat of 12% to 8-9%.
The biggest challenge from a training
perspective, however, is mimicking and preparing for the specificity of the
cumulative fatigue. Not just the multiple hill efforts (up to 12 in any one day)
but also the daily/overnight recovery process.
As much as some of the particularly
‘savage’ climbs instill an uneasy ‘fear factor’, I believe the biggest hurdle to overcome will be the daily recovery requirements and in some ways that can’t be
reproduced until the 'event' itself.
I am planning two dress rehearsals over
the next two weeks of one half day of 5 climbs and one full day of 10 climbs to test out my current physical level as well as practice logistics.
This will include driving stints in between climbs and evaluating the
turnaround time of parking, unloading, warming up etc.
All of which will be important fact finding
missions but I’m very much aware that come Day 3 or 4 onwards of the route
itself, I’ll be going into the unknown!
Hello Steve,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the strange little community of people tackling the 100 climbs. I'm taking a slightly slower approach (100 climbs in a year and a bit). Hope all goes well with the preparation. One thing I've found with the five climbs I've done so far (hoping it will be 9 by the end of next weekend)is that you need to make sure your car/ van is well organised to reduce faffing time at the start and finish of the climbs. Very useful in bad weather or when you are tired.
Hi David - thanks for your comments. Good point about the 'faffing time'. I've prioritised it as a key area and will have the stop watch on that during the rehearsal days. Good luck with the rest of the climbs!
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