After a slow and interrupted start to the year, the last few weeks have been pretty good and my training has been progressing well. I’ve been aiming for three weeks on, 1 week off - so three weeks of increasing amounts of work, then an easier, recovery week - and it’s been working well so far. I’ve another ‘on’ week this week before my second ‘off’ week since getting my knee sorted out.

I’ll be spending most of my time in France and Italy climbing which is pretty tough to prepare for here given that there are no decent mountains within range of Sydney. The closest are the Blue Mountains, but they’re still a two hour drive from my place and the climbs are still nowhere near as long as those in the Alps. I’ve had a think about it and figured that the best thing to do is to ride long efforts at a certain power but at low cadence. My current FTP, or best average power for one hour, is around 290W, so a good rule of thumb is to climb at around 80% of that, or around 230W. Given my weight and available gearing, I’m likely to be climbing at a cadence between 70 and 75rpm, so I’ve been doing longer rides at the weekend aiming for sections at 230W+ at a cadence around 70rpm. In a 4.5hr ride on Friday I did a solid 2hr continuous section in the middle at an average of 234W and average cadence of 73rpm and felt OK afterwards. I’ll build on that as the weeks progress.

I’ve started back on interval work as well the last two weeks and my knee is holding up well to that which is a big bonus. At the moment I’m only doing 5 x 5min intervals at 280-290W but I’ll increase the duration gradually to give my knee a chance to adjust slowly. They’re still bloody tough!

My weight is fluctuating between 85.5 and 97kg which still leaves 7kg to try to shed before getting to France, so I’m going to have to start being really disciplined with food over the next couple of weeks. I’m going to buy new super-light wheels for my bike which will make a difference as the ones I have are solid, heavy training wheels. A new bike would shave off 2kg or so, but I don’t have a spare $5000 at the moment so that will have to wait :-)

Anyway, it’s nice to be able to report some decent news for a change and to string together a few consistent weeks without complications, so long may it continue. The best news is that I’m already as fit and as light as I was the last time I went to France, but I still have eight weeks to get fitter and lighter.