Les Briques

04 February 2007

A brick is what Geoff calls them. Bricks in a wall. Building the foundation for a racing season with miles and miles, or divinding by .6, kilometres and kilometres. With Geoff’s help, I’ve been back on the road with an Octalink bottom bracket and a carbon Weyless crank. Not perfect, but the small chainring, a 39, has been sufficient to spin out 200 miles in the last week and chug my way to the top of the Col de Madeloc, and the Col de Llauro.

1000 miles since we’ve arrived and about 40000 feet of climbing. That’s enough to change a person.

My pants don’t fit again. Janet mentioned she was happy that I was wearing my long sweater yesterday, hiding the depleted butt portion of my pants which are looking more and more like something I picked up on the sale rack at St Vincent de Paul’s.

When you live in the Mediterranean, it’s hard not to eat a Mediterranean diet. Lots of olive oil, fresh veggies, some beans and a nice mixture of seafoods are a contrast to my normal winter diet.

As the weight comes off and I get more miles in, I notice the false flats aren’t so demanding anymore. On yesterday’s ride, after a few hours of easy tempo riding and a climb up a col, I was back on the road leading to Amelie les Bains and feeling recovered! I took a pull at the front of our three man group and raised the tempo a bit. No longer riding on the rivet after hours in the saddle, I felt comfortable with an increase in effort. These are subtle things, but cycling and training is a subtle business, the gains are so slight after hours spent in the saddle. But the difference between 12.5 and 12 mph on a climb might be the habit of having a pain au chocolat every morning, or, as Geoff might say, ‘plunking your ass in front of the Tele every night.’

So I’m making progress, but I still get dropped by good climbers on the cols. This is fine; it motivates me, makes me a tad pissed off and gets me to think twice about desert or excited about the next ride on the bike. Each decision, a brick in or out.