Yesterday we were supposed to have a group training ride along the Delaware River from Lambertville, New Jersey to Frenchtown and back for a total of 35 miles.

But Mother Nature had other ideas; namely torrential rain and hurricane force winds.

As an alternative Tommy and I decided to go to Knapps and try out the CompuTrainer.

Pete, the owner of Knapps, told me that we could simulate our ride up the Tourmalet in July on the CompuTrainer and this would be a way to benchmark our fitness and measure progress.

When we get to the shop, Chris, a personal trainer, is there to get us set up. He explains that rather than do the whole Tourmalet ride, which would be 80 miles, he has programmed in a 24 mile ride that has an undulating terrain ranging from downhills to 1.9% grade all the way up to 9.9% grade that would be comparable to the final climb.

The literature on the Etape for this year says the Tourmalet averages 7.5% grade so Tommy and I thought this would be a good test.

We are all plugged in and the iPod is in the docking station and off we go.

The Computrainer is connected to a PC which is connected to a flat screen TV which is connected to the thigh bone. The thigh bone's connected to the hip bone. You know the rest.

Up to 8 people can be training and competing against each other simultaneously. It displays your heart rate, cadence, percent of the climb, distance, watts, mothers maiden name, you name it. It can show you the profile of the climb or a scenic 3-D view like your Garmin GPS. It can even do a colonoscopy.

We are on this thing for about 10 minutes and Tommy is already ahead by a mile so I program in the shortcut on the trainer and Tommy doesn't notice until too late that I am ahead in points for the King of the Mountain jersey.

It is fun and hard and keeps getting harder and harder. Tommy finishes in 1:41. Even though I struggle on for another 40 minutes I am encouraged because I am leaving my bike at the shop for some equipment changes. I tell Tommy that I had to circle back because I didn't get a musette at the simulated feed zone. He believes me.

Tommy's bike was something he found in his barn which looked like it had a 21 cog and no front derailleur. He shifts from the small chainring to the large chainring using just his finger to guide the chain. This is what it must have been like in the old days before derailleurs were invented. It also explains why Tommy has a shorter, dirty index finger on his right hand.

I have standard gearing on my bike: 175 mm cranks, 42/52 chainring and a 25 cog in the rear.

During the ride I had a hard time when the climb was 9 or 9.9% grade and I was maxed out on heart rate at 154 (just at my threshold). Alex at Knapps is putting a compact crankset on my bike this week which will have a 34/50 chainring. They are also ordering me a larger, younger heart from Specialized. They told me it is the same model that the Astana team is using this year.

I will go back next Saturday to compare and I am hoping that this will help me with the steeper parts and raise my average speed.

At yesterdays rate I expect to spend over 6 hours climbing the 3 mountains at the Etape du Tour.

SIX HOURS OF CLIMBING. Holy crap batman!!!

Yesterday I was fresh when I got on the bike and it took me 2:20. It may take me much longer after two mountains and 75-80 miles under my belt.

I was telling someone in work about the Etape du Tour. They said it sounded like fun and asked me how many days it would take. Maybe they know something that I don't.

This workout on the Computrainer was the hardest I have had since Army basic training. I haven't suffered this much since racing in the hot summer heat in my wool jersey and shorts.

It seems odd but after this excruciating workout I insisted on buying my very own Computrainer so I could suffer in the comfort of my own home.

This blogging exercise is harder than training on the bike. Here are some important tips I picked up since starting a blog.

1) Know where your blog is. This is essential if you hope to have any chance of blogging more than once.
2) Know the password to your blog. Surprise, you created it, now what the heck is it. I can't find the paper I wrote it on. Maybe if I go for a ride it will come to me.
3) Have a purpose or theme for your blog. Mine seems to be to add extra administrative tasks to a schedule that is already overflowing with important work.

Take last Sunday for example:

Get up and let dogs out and retrieve the newspaper (dogs refuse to do tricks this early in the morning). Let dogs in and feed them while making coffee. Give dogs leftover foam from the morning cappuccinos. (Is it me or do these damned dogs seemed to be getting an extraordinary amount of attention.) Take cappuccinos and paper into bedroom where Robin and I and the dogs lounge around for about an hour.

Get up and walk the dogs four miles, have some breakfast then perhaps a nap because even though it is only 11:00 the dogs and I are too tuckered out and confused to find my blog and remember my password.

Holy cow, where did the time go. I just dozed off reading the paper and now it is already time to watch cycling on Versus with Phil and Paul and Bobke while I have a lite snack. It has to be lite because I still hold out the possibility that I may get on the indoor trainer after I fix whatever that thing was the Robin asked me about last year.

But first, walk the dogs and then feed them.

It seems to me after reading this that these dogs are holding me back. I could have been way more successful in just about every one of my life's endeavors had it not been for them. And, well, all of the naps, etc.

So, in retrospect it seems that the dogs and I are just lazy and focus on eating and none of us wants to go out in the cold, snowy, icy weather to train.

Whew, I feel so much better.

January 24 - In trouble again

Beech Mountain, North Carolina




So, after the intial excitement around doing the Etape du Tour and creating a blog I discover that there are blogs from some of the other 8000 people also planning to do the ride this July.

Apparently these other blogger/bikers (blokes as I call them) are a lot less serious than I am about preparing.

For example, none of them had a holder for a box of Cheezits like the custom cage I had built for my bike.

I have also read where some of these blokes, with no thought for their health or for the welfare of their bikes, have gone out to train in the cold and rain.

However, I have made one important investment regarding the trip and that is my own special helmet design that looks like a French beret since I believe that looking good is half the battle.

Me and the group have exchanged some e-mails about our own training regimen for the trip. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the best way to train for a trip is take other trips.

Tom and I kicked off the new year with a four day trip to Las Vegas. Training there consisted of consuming large quantities of protein and carbs (steak, wine, the usual suspects). Tom and I included several hours mountain biking on our rented Specialized Stump Jumpers with full suspension out at Redrocks. We didn't want to overdo it since we had to get back for a tour of the Ferrari dealership and had to keep feeding the meter (I mean slot machines).

Next up we are considering a trip to Beech Mountain in North Carolina in March. Beech Mt is 5500 feet as compared to the Tourmalet which is about 6900 so this should be good training if there isn't snow on the roads.

If there is snow on the roads then plan B would be to trade the bikes for skis and do the Tourmalet in the winter.

Next we are thinking about a weekend doing hills out in central Pennsylvania in April. The hills aren't anything particularly challenging but the funnel cake is to die for and I am hoping to be able to take some with us to France and stuff it into our special needs bags that will be waiting at the private feed station run by the tour company.

Any way, I rode yesterday in the freezing cold. It was also dark, in part because I went out so late and in part because I was wearing my Oakley sunglasses. Robin was worried because I was also riding my black bike and wearing black tights, gloves and jacket. It was all ruined with the white helmet.

If only I had completed the prototype beret-helmet in time for the ride.

Anyway, I hope that the folks at Cheezits, French Berets, Ferrari, Specialized bikes, Las Vegas, Oakley and the Amish are all noticing the great advertising opportunity here. I look forward to hearing from them.

Could it be true? I get to ride in the Tour De France...

This year for my birthday Robin has given me a gift and a challenge. Having been involved in cycling for many years she thought it would be great if I could do the Etape du Tour with several friends. The Etape is an opportunity for cycling/racing enthusiasts to do a mountain stage of the Tour de France several days prior to the actual race. There are typically 7000-8000 participants.

This year the event starts in Pau and covers 184 kilometers going over two category 1 climbs before finishing at the summit of the Tourmalet in the Pyrennes in the south of France.

An ambitious goal given my age and fitness would be to finish this in about 9 hours.

But, I looked at some videos on Youtube of previous events and to my horror I discovered that it will not be enough to simply finish; there are actually time limits just like in the actual Tour.

So, if you do not arrive at certain milestones at certain times you are prevented from continuing.

Sort of like traveling to Mt. Everest but not making it to the summit.

As a consequence, I will need to get more serious about training especially since there will be four of us on the trip and two are younger than I am and they are former professional racers. The fourth member of the team will provide moral and comedic support since as the least experienced he will make me feel like Lance and will keep us laughing along the way.

First order of business: instead of getting out of bed and starting my training I felt the burning need to start a blog.

The theory being that once I go public I will be forced to complete the Etape regardless of any physical shortcomings.

There will be lots to do between now and July and I thought it would be fun to chronicle the preparations and missteps along the way.