Breaking July training records 100h!
Another batch of training closer to the beginning of the season, let's look back on the month of July and the record breaking 100h of training and 1000km+ I accomplished.
As we bid farewell to the warmest month on record, it's time for me to reflect on the past weeks and the extensive hours of training I've dedicated myself to. Following a challenging start to the year with rigorous training throughout June, I anticipated that July would present its own set of trials for my physical regimen. However, we emerged victorious, marked by two successful races: the Étape du Tour de France at the month's outset, and the Trail des Gets just before the final week, culminating in my last training camp. So, let's retrace each week's steps and delve into what went right and wrong:
Week 1: Étape week
The month started in the département de l’Isère down south from where I live. We were on our first training camp outside of Prémanon which was greatly appreciated by everyone on the squad. We were in Villard de Lans, a small French village on the plateau du Vercors, a place we regularly head to in the summer months before most of our team and trainers are based there and it makes logistics much easier for everyone. But it’s also a great place for training, with lots of well-kept quiet roads for some long roller ski sessions and a good range of mountains to go running in. Not to mention the biathlon range and roller ski track we had at our disposal.
The first week wasn’t too intense because on the weekend I had the Étape du Tour, I’ve written all about my experience during the race and you can find out more down below.
Week 2: Time for some rest —> Tour de France is in town
I had been waiting for this week to start ever since the Tour de France route was announced back in October of last year. 5 stages were planned to be held in the Département de la Haute-Savoie, a record for a single region. I’m a massive fan of road cycling so I was very excited when I found out we would be at home resting during that week. This meant I’d be able to watch most of the stages happening around the home. And that’s exactly what I did after a chilly night spent up in one of my friends’ alpage, with some of my teammates, we cycled up to the top of the Col de Joux Plane (which I rode over a week before during the Étape du Tour) to watch the pros ride by.
It was quite a special event to witness, we had joined up with some of my local friends who had set up quite a camp at the top of the col and were ready to party all day long. The passion and friendliness between cycling fans is really special and you can feel it when you are watching a stage on the side of the road. I cycled up with my camera to try and capture some pictures of the riders as they rode past, but as expected, when they arrived the pace was much different to mine a week before. The energy the pro cyclists have after such a hard day is insane. But I still managed to capture some decent enough pictures to share with you guys.
The next day Jeanne and I had ambassadorial duties to deal with. The stage started in the ski resort of Les Gets, a town for which I’m an ambassador. This meant I had to dress up all fancy because I was invited as a VIP to attend the start village of the Tour de France. It was a busy day, I talked to a lot of people, mainly des élus (also known as local representatives), about the cycling infrastructure around the town, the different events being held this year and also about my results last winter. The highlight of the day was when Jeanne and I were invited up on stage to talk with Christian Prudhomme, president of Amaury Sport Organisation, and director of the Tour de France. An intense day which finished off with a great rest watching the cycling.
Week 3: Trail running race
Back to a high volume week with 21h planned on the training calendar. A volume of hours I’m used to doing but with the 11km trail running race on the weekend I had to be careful with how I planned my week so I wasn’t absolutely toast on the weekend. I started the week slowly with a couple of slow MTB rides and a gym session because after a rest week if you start too hard you’ll damage yourself and you won’t be able to finish. The main training hours were accomplished from Wednesday to Friday with some big rides, long roller ski sessions and more gym work. A good rest day on Saturday and then it was race day!
I’d managed to convince one of my teammates Théo to come and race with me because I knew he’s better than me at running and he would be a great comparison after the race. 11km of trail running with about 550m of climbing, it’s a route I’ve raced before because I took part in the first edition of the event a couple of years ago. I finished just under the hours two years ago so this year I set an objective of under 55mins.
The race set off really fast on a long road section for about 2km before climbing straight away on a really steep singletrack. It was quite intense I’m not going to lie. I manage to stay with the lead group up until the first uphill section where I lost a bit of time. Onto the flat at the top and I was about 1min behind my teammate, my pace was good but next to the much taller people I was losing a lot of time on the top flat section. The last 3kms are a very fast downhill back into Les Gets, I finish in 54:29, so just under my objective. I was happy with my performance, however, I lost a lot of time on the last downhill and finished 3mins off from Théo.
Week 4: Record breaking hours
Monday morning after the race and it was straight off to Prémanon for one last training camp before the end of the month, lots of hours on the training plan and some hard sessions to finish the week. I wasn’t feeling great after the trail race, my legs were very sore, especially after the hard and fast last descent. Luckily Rachel, my prep coach, had adapted my training for the first two days so I had some time to recover.
We accomplished some really nice long sessions on roads and trails I hadn’t taken before. One was done on Les Haute-Crête du Jura, which gave us a really nice view down onto Lake Léman and the second was a long roller ski session, nearly 50km, we were too slow and cut short by our trainer :(. The week was long and hard, if you would like to find out more head other to my strava account. 26h in total during the week, which is a record amount of training hours for me so I was quite pleased with myself. To be able to consume this amount of training volume in a week is quite intense and it involves being very professional with yourself. You have to eat properly, go to bed early and definitely can’t forget to stretch in the evening.
I’m allowed a week off now before I’m off to Italy for another training camp without the French team this time, just with some training buddies. This last month was very hard, probably the hardest training month I’ve ever completed. But it’s important to raise the amount of volume year after year as I grow older and stronger. The aim is to go for the same amount of hours during the month of August, which on paper should be reasonably easy however we have a couple more race weekends coming up and this first week being an off week means I’m going to have to put in some big training days over the next three weeks of August.
If you would like to see a more detailed version of what I got up training this month be sure to head to my strava or follow me on Instagram: @Jacques_jeff. And until next time, stay safe!