Snake Pass and Mam Tor

With the sun shining on a landscape covered in snow, today was a great day for a bike ride. Our 100km trip took us over Snake Pass (5km at 7% average) and along the abandoned road up to Mam Tor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mam_Tor). The two weeks at altitude appear to have improved my LT power (though I didn't do any specific training on that yet), but my endurance has suffered from not being on the bike for a month: I'm on the couch now, almost in a coma.

Synchro

Easternholiday. Spring is in the air? I hoped to do several endurancetrainings on the hilly roads of the Ardennes, but it started snowing! For a whole week weather was bad. Though on Belgium's highest peaks (Hoge Venen, EASTBELGIUM.BE, 630m) people were verry happy. For once one didn't have to go to the Alps for some ski- or snowboard fun. A Belgian Championship Langlauf was rapidly organised as well. I had some intentions, but finally didn't participate. I had a heavy work-out on the Technogym Skier in stead. http://www.geocities.com/bomer_bvba/fitness.html

Starwalk

First full day on the mountain. Just went for a short run (30min) on the Starwalk trail, which takes you from the hotel to the summit. It's pretty exposed: 2500m altitude, 0% humidity, and no other life forms, just desert.

James Bond

The next 2 weeks will take me to Paranal, Chile for 6 nights of observing on the VLTI. The only training facility there is the tropical pool in the hotel (it's real function is to regulate the humidity in this otherwise desert-dry environment, but you're allowed to swim too). On the upside: the new Bond movie is being filmed there right now, so there might be some Bond girls joining me in the pool...

Manflu

My 2 weeks in Austria turned out pretty bad, at least as far as my physical form is concerned: I caught a nasty version of the flu halfway through, which put me in bed for just about 6 days. The only thing close to training was 2 hours on the ice skating arena at the Rathaus in Vienna.

Mileage

Managed 2 good rides this weekend: 85km flat(ish) in the Cheshire plains on Saturday and 122km hilly (1500m) around Saddleworth on Sunday. Next week is rest week, which I'll spend working in Vienna, followed by a week of skiing in Zell-am-See.

Cyclocross in Flanders

It wasn't a hard winter. Ideal for training. The following pictures, taken on a XC-ride around Leuven (Lubbeek), show one of the rare mornings that had alpine characteristics. Companion Rudi Torrekens (Grand Master, Tyco Cycling Team) used his Canon on the slopes of Bollenberg, Heurbeek, and Grotendries to produce these images.

Club ride 10/02

Great club ride yesterday: sunny, hilly and a great bunch of people. The photo was taken at the top of Brickworks.

Training diary

Today was a productive day: I pre-rode the club road ride that I'll lead tomorrow (up Brickworks) and I made a training diary template which I'll use from next week on:

Stress

We received the first information package, with road books, altitude profiles and some pictures. Images like this one make me very nervous indeed...

Mallorca training week

I'll be joining the Manchester Wheelers and the Manchester triathlon club for a training week on Mallorca from 19 till 26 April. We've rented two nice villa's as there will be 17 of us:
http://puertopollensa.com/canclarissa/
http://puertopollensa.com/villafrancisca/

Let's hope the sun will be out!

Annual Training Plan

My annual training plan is now ready up to the date of the Transalp. It is based on Joe Friel's Training Bible.

Back in the UK

I'm in the UK again, with everything I need for the coming months: race bike, rollers, free weights, hrm, training books,...

Application Rush

We're in!!

Today at noon exactly we managed to obtain one of 500 team starting places for the 2008 edition of the Transalp Challenge. The servers were strong enough to handle the massive attack: all team tickets were gone in 7 minutes! Here's a link to the official starting list: http://www.bike-transalp.de/download/StartlisteJBT08.pdf . You'll find us as K. Stoempers.