Rather alarmingly, I have realised that it’s less than three weeks before I head off to Marrakech. Strava tells me that I have climbed a maximum of 1400m in any one session (the climb is 2500m) and the event organizers tell me that there is a high probability of death on the descent. Prepared, most definitely…..
I was discussing with the owner of De Vere cycles, the legendary Maurice Burton, the benefits of acclimatising to both height and temperature, especially when planning for a long gruelling ride such as the Marrakech Etape. He is a former British Champion and still regularly races. Anyway, Maurice was adamant that the only way to successfully climb long hot mountain stages was to get used to the altitude and the temperature difference. This is probably why the other “teams” are going to Marrakech a week in advance, not the evening before!!
Armed with these sage like words, team TuffCall, decided to head off to the Surrey sunshine and climb box hill – Several ascents of Box Hill and sunblock was the plan.
Anyway, upon arrival, the trusty Garmin was showing 2 degrees Celsius and there was a blizzard. The descents were quite challenging to say the least! Despite the freezing wind / snow / ice etc. we battled on make 7 loops.
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Undeterred, we battled on but I could not help but think that Maurice’s words of wisdom might cause me to rethink our training regime.
Finally, we called it a day and had a well earned rest
This week, training is going to be restricted to the turbo trainer with the heating turned to maximum.
'Tuffcall' 