Thursday, February 23, 2012

Proposed itinerary

Here is the proposed itinerary for our trip to France.  We've got to make our flight arrangements soon since we plan to use points, so I am trying to nail this down with Nathan.
  1. Leave for France on Sunday, July 15.
  2. Arrive in Paris or Toulouse on Monday the 16th (Toulouse is much closer, but we may not be able to get there depending on the airline, etc.).
  3. Spend th 16th getting ourselves down to Bagneres-de-Luchon to our apartment.
  4. Spend the 17th in the Pyrenees checking things out. This is a rest day for the peleton and a jet lag recovery day for us.
  5. See the arrival in Luchon on the 18th. This would be a full day of tour goodness.
  6. See the departure from Luchon on the 19th, then after the hubbub in the morning dies down, make our way to Paris.
  7. Spend the day of the 20th in Paris doing tourist stuff.  I would also like to eat a brioche on the left bank while smoking and staring off into the middle distance if we can work it in.  It just seems like the thing to do.
  8. Spend the day of the 21st in Paris doing tourist stuff, or optionally travel down to Chartres where the individual time trial will be happening.
  9. Spend the 22nd at the final stage in Paris.
  10. Spend the 23rd in Paris or northern France doing tourist stuff.
  11. Fly home on the 24th.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Training setback

Training was going along very well until Saturday when I came down with some kind of bug.  Since I had ridden 3 times already that week, I told myself I'd just recuperate on Saturday and go for my long ride on Sunday.  Well, Sunday came around and I felt even worse than Saturday, so there was no riding that day either.
Long story short, I got in no long ride last week.  I don't think this is going to kill my training plan, but still, I hate to suffer setbacks.  I'll be back on the bike tomorrow night, but Wednesday is a travel day, Thursday night looks like I've got a client event (going to a hockey game it sounds like!), and Friday will be another travel day.  It looks like the best I'm going to be able to do is 3 rides this week, but I should have a good chunk of time for a 4-5 hour ride on Saturday.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

First 100 mile week in a while

Last week I had the first of what will be many 100 mile+ weeks.  I rode 5 times, including a 44 mile long ride on Friday.  This was pretty impressive considering I was travelling every day last week except Sunday and Friday.

This week I'm scheduled for a 4.5 mile long ride, so the ride lengths are starting to get up there...