Fitness, fitness, fitness

I have been reading a book by Chris Carmichael (one-time coach of Lance Armstrong) called "The Time-Crunched Cyclist: Fit, Fast, and Powerful in 6 Hours a Week". I can work quite long hours and so have searched for a training program that I can fit in with my hectic schedule. Committing to 6 hours a week should be doable so Chris Carmichael's program seemed like a good idea. The program asks you to train at a higher intensity to make up for the decrease in volume - meaning a lot of the riding you do is flat out (I suppose a bit like the Sufferfest offerings).

I've bought into the idea and although I will have to adapt my training the closer I get to the Etape to include some seriously long rides, the time-crunched plan will hopefully give me a base level of strength and fitness to take forward. To gauge my progress over the course of the 12 week plan, the book tells you to take a fitness test at the beginning of the first week. It involves two all-out efforts lasting 8 minutes, with a 10 minute rest in between. Let me tell you, after the second effort I went a little light-headed and almost fell over when I got off the bike. I'm glad I don't have to do that for another 12 weeks!

For the test, I hooked myself up to my Garmin 705 which recorded an interesting looking graph. Not need to tell you where my all-out efforts were!