7 weeks until Berlin

The most recent week involved a fair bit of travelling in the car as we headed home from the French Alps. With two young'uns in tow, stops are frequent and the service areas, as good as many of them are, aren't ideal spots to get your training in, they don't even let Dads on the bouncy castle!

The week started with a fantastic ride out of Megeve, down into the valley around Sallanches, up the other side, back down and across into a climb up through St Gervais and on to Megeve. A blue sky, sunshine day, meant it would be hot, but we set off before 9, so it wasn't too bad and the crystal clear views across to Mont-Blanc were stunning. The Garmin failed to transfer data, gutting, so I mapped the ride out on map my ride instead.

The first 20 minutes were all downhill, as we descended into the valley. We took in the Côte de Domancy, used as a circuit in races as well as for hill rep training by the likes of Lance Armstrong.

St. Gervais; Seen across the valley, beneath the Mont-Blanc range

It's a 2.4km road at an average of 9.2%, so not too severe, but I believe the pros make it so by sprinting up it. We were on the way down, so it was a cinch.

We then climbed the other side of the valley, stopped to take in the views and then I turned round to head back. We'd been out for an hour and I had the kids and wife to attend to and a nasty climb ahead of me. I felt like I'd almost fully recovered from Thursday's triathlon already, far quicker than the recovery from a marathon, so I pushed myself on the way home and tackled the remaining 650m of vertical ascent, without too much trouble. If only Alpe d'Huez had felt like that on Thursday...

The next day was less exercise focused as I had a forced day out of action with an obligatory holiday tummy bug. I'm sure it was nothing to do with the food, since the rest of the family had also had something similar over the previous week, fortunately it didn't strike me on triathlon day.

Once back in the UK, I've managed to sneak in a couple of short runs and an easy swim, other than that, it's been quiet. Next week it's all on and time to get serious.

Here's a summary of the last 2 weeks' exercise:

Week commencing Sunday 1st August

Total exercise: 3h 20m
Top speed: 55.0 km/h [34.2 mph]
Distance covered: 60.2km

• 48.4km cycling (1 recreational ride...v hilly though as it was still in the Alps)
  
• 11km running
• 800m swimming

Week commencing Sunday 25th July

Total exercise: 8h 40m
Top speed: 55.4 km/h [34.4 mph]
Distance covered: 96.2km

• 82km cycling (1 x race; 2 x training rides)
  
• 13km running
• 1.2km swimming