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2010 Etape du Tour. Training. Distance vs Height vs Fitness = Is there a formula?

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  • October 18, 2009 at 11:29 pm #12002
    gandberg

    Here is a question. Training for the Etape is never going to be a doddle. And over here we dont get the same kind of mountains that one would encounter during an Etape, so my question is this:

    What is the equivalent distance to build up to riding next years Etape route?

    I mean, I know the total distance is about 108 miles, but this includes three significant mounds, with about 3500m of climbing. So what I’m getting at, in a muddled rambling way, is that is it possible to just train for, say, 150 miles in a day and would that be an acceptable level of fitness to take one up the three hills? I’m sure some of you can render this into sense and give me science based answers. Everyone like quantites and figures, these prove things with reason and enable us to sleep better. Without science we’d all still be going to Church, praying the sky won’t fall in, things like that. Wouldn’t we?

    Anyway, I look forward to your answers.

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  • November 4, 2009 at 12:53 pm #631545
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    Barry Fry-up

    yeah, a bit of MTBing is a
    yeah, a bit of MTBing is a good call. get over to Afan, it’s not too far from you and you can spend hours climbing there… 👿 👿 👿

    November 4, 2009 at 12:19 pm #631543
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    johnny

    I found that doing some off
    I found that doing some off road riding was a great help too, as the climbing is very sustained at anaerobic threshold levels- This is the level you need to be able to sustain, especially on the steeper climbs.

    I would also say after last year, that some warm weather conditioning would really help.-It may end up raining on the Tourmalet, but if it doesn’t you’ll really benefit from riding in heat beforehand (and you’ll have a tan…)

    October 27, 2009 at 8:33 am #631541
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    Richard70

    gandberg wrote:I’ve just

    gandberg wrote:
    I’ve just bought a house, and will have room for a turbo trainer. Not room in the budget for a mighty Fortius though 🙁 Missus thinks central heating systems come first…

    Just read on the Tacx forum that they just filmed the Etape route, http://www.ergovideo.com/Etape2010/ 😀

    no idea if they will have the ride ready for me to suffer on yet though. I would look for a cheap 2nd hand i-magic trainer, I have a few friends that have those & they work also with their software Not sure about Elite they maybe worth a look also.

    October 26, 2009 at 9:57 pm #631539
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    gandberg

    I’ve just bought a house, and
    I’ve just bought a house, and will have room for a turbo trainer. Not room in the budget for a mighty Fortius though 🙁 Missus thinks central heating systems come first…

    October 26, 2009 at 1:05 pm #631537
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    Richard70

    Think about how long its
    Think about how long its going to take you to ride rather then think about distance. Those climbs are going to take most riders way over an hour each to ride so look for building up that engine to the level that you can use fat as your main fuel. There are quite a lot of smaller steep english style hills before the first mountain which is very steep near the top! The Soulour is not so steep & has some places to rest. The Tourmalet starts easy & then just gets harder & harder. Im using a Tacx fortius to train for it, but they have the wrong side of the Tourmalet.

    October 20, 2009 at 11:50 am #631535
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    gandberg

    Well, started the effort
    Well, started the effort already. Along with usual weekend on or offroad riding, rejoined the local council gym, to while away the dark weekday evenings watching pretty pop tarts on mtv but whilst listening to Anthrax or Minor Threat. The scales there showed me as 135kgs, compared to my own bathroom where they say 139. Hmm.

    I’m quite determined to beat this Etape, time to get fitter than I’ve ever been.

    It would be good to have a road.cc type party over there too, post ride, take over a small corner of a campsite, start singing ‘we are the champions’ or even, ‘ooooh, Champs Elysees, bab bab bab baaab’!

    October 20, 2009 at 9:30 am #631533
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    Tony Farrelly

    you never know…
    you never know…

    October 19, 2009 at 11:59 am #631531
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    dave atkinson

    worth bearing in mind too
    worth bearing in mind too that the first climb, the marie blanque, is really steep. *really* steep. the top 3km is something like 10.5% followed by 13% followed by 12%, it’s properly hard. make sure you’ve got the gears to get you over the top without killing yourself, if you spend too much time in the red early on then you’ll pay later on the long climbs.

    DaSy’s right about TTing: the main thing you need to make sure is that you can put in the effort for the required amount of time. it doesn’t matter too much physically if you’re burning along on the flat or puffing up a hill if the load on your system is the same.

    October 19, 2009 at 11:47 am #631529
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    Anonymous

    If you can cover a century at
    If you can cover a century at a reasonable pace you should be okay.

    The mountains don’t have to make too much difference, if you get your pacing right. They will mean you take longer to cover the distance, but if you keep at a nice steady pace, down below your lactate threshold (an ambiguous term I know, I mean the threshold at which you start to accumulate lactate, so zone 2 really), you will get up and over them without too much drama.

    I have found that the best training for long continental climbs, that you can do in the UK is to do long flatish TT type efforts. Maybe aim at 1 to 1 1/2 hours pushing fairly hard, around tempo. This is much more like the effort you will put in on a long climb, than going up and down a short UK climb.

    You want to be training to be able to maintain a high work rate for an hour and a half. It makes no difference if this is done up a mountain or on the flat, if the work rate is the same. The only thing that is worth adding is that mentally it can be quite daunting if it is your first major mountain climb, as you will not be prepared for the relentless nature of it, so it may be worth getting over to France to do at least one climb before the day, just so that you exorcise the fear of the big cols.

    October 19, 2009 at 11:33 am #631527
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    Jon Burrage

    Talking of the etape. I am /
    Talking of the etape. I am / will be (hopefully) a first timer there…how do I enter, when etc?!

    October 19, 2009 at 11:30 am #631525
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    dave atkinson

    You’re in Worcestershire so
    You’re in Worcestershire so you should be able to get to some pretty decent hills without much trouble, no? can’t be that far to the gospel pass, that’s a ten-mile climb from the South and nearly 400m to the top. not steep, but nice and long, and if you want steep you can go back over it the other way. then do it again. and again. and again and again and again and again and again. et voila, 3,600m of climbing 😀 😀 😀

    October 19, 2009 at 11:10 am #631523
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    stever

    I’d say you need both. Do
    I’d say you need both. Do some 100m+ rides and do some shorter more intense hill sessions. I found a 500′ hill and did laps of it. It’s no preparation for spending an hour and a half climbing, but it’s a quick way of getting 4000′ or more of climbing in. And when you’re doing your regular rides, look for the hills. That’s as sciencey as I’m getting 🙂

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