If you've been following my Strava for the past few months you might be forgiven for thinking that I've totally given up on running. Cycling has been the dominant exercise in my life and stomping around the hills has taken something of a back seat.
There is of course a reason for this- and that reason is the TPRNO.4. Yes, the TransPyrenees Race- number 4. It is a long distance, non-stop cycling race that goes across the Pyrenees and back. I was somewhat taken with the idea of it a couple of years ago, and successfully got through the somewhat rigourous entry forms for the TPRNO.2. However, it rapidly became clear that the race was going to cash with the placement part of my MSc. - the bit that I was REALLY looking forward to- and I ended up canning the idea of doing the race.
Happily, I had an excellent placement with Dr. Chris McCarthy at MMU which really propelled my learning. However, the idea of the TPR has been in the back of my mind ever since.
This year, I wondered about trying to get into the TCR- the trans-continental race- which is the somewhat longer brother of the TPR- but with a lot less climbing. The idea of these races is that everyone starts in the same place and has the freedom to navigate between set points. Some of these points are actually "Parcours"- sections of road that are mandatory for competitors, while others are simple checkpoints. The problem with the TCR is that it takes place at the time of my parents Golden Wedding Anniversary- so that ruled that out completely- which swung me back to the TPR.
Now- a couple of quick stats on this. I have to say that I am NOT a natural climber on the bike. Nor am I a rouleur, or anything like that. I certainly don't have masses of power at my disposal, and am a fairly average biker at the best of times. The fact that the race itself advertises itself as "one for the grimpeurs"- ie. climbers should give you an idea of the fact it is *quite* hilly.
Maybe that is a slight understatement.
The race is from Girona and goes all the way across the Pyrenees to the Atlantic- whereupon you turn around and come back to Girona again- via the mediterranean coast. I've been planning the route for a while now, using various online route planners- Komoot, ridewithgps, google maps etc. and the shortest route I can get is about 1850km. With nigh on 50,000metres of ascent.
The winner last year finished in 4 and a bit days- and there is a 7 day cut off, so to finish in the cut off I need to cover about 300km a day, with some days hitting about 6500m of elevation. For 7 days.
Now. I should definitely mention here that until about 4 weeks ago I'd only ever cycled 200km about 3 times, and never gone above 201km in a day before. I've now hit 240 with about 3000m of ascent, and still have *quite* some way to go before I hit the heady heights of the numbers I need to be comfortable with.
Although it is ostensibly a race, the main thing I will be trying to do is complete it in time for the finishers party in Girona, 7 days after the start. There will be many people on very snazzy bikes with lightweight stuff. People camping/sleeping by the side of the road, some crazy routes etc. I will be doing it on my Steel Fairlight Secan with as little stuff as I can get away with. I won't be going around trying to find the lightest carbon fibre everything to make it just a touch lighter- but what I WILL be doing is an absolute load of training to make myself as strong as possible to get up as many hills as possible with the least amount of cumulative fatigue.
I've been out training on hills that are as long and steep as I can around Glossop- and there are a lot of them. But obviously nothing compares to the actual hills and mountains of the Pyrenees.
Those numbers...300km and 6000m a day. Scary.
This is why Im doing more cycling.
However, this is not to say that I have totally forsaken running. As you may or may not have noticed from this blog, I've managed to get to 4 English fell champs races this year, and I should be at Wasdale as well. (I'm cycling there and back, just for good measure- can you tell I don't really care what place I get?!) and will be at Cracken Edge in August.
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| Still running. Thanks to Colin for the photo |
I don't want to lose the "bounce" that your tendons get when running, so am getting out here and there, practicing my downhill speed, and just enjoying myself. Indeed, I have a couple of plans for this autumn and winter once the TPR is done and I'm off the bike a bit more. In the mean time I suspect there might be a few blogs about the cycle training- and then "normal" service ie. more running will resume come winter.
The TPR itself is run by lostdot.cc so there will most CERTAINLY be a dot to watch, painfully making its way across the pyrenees come September/october. If you're interested in looking at more about the tpr- this is the link. Im sure that closer to the time, when I have a number etc. I'll post a link with my dot link.
Til then. Saddle time.
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