Hey everybody, as I said in the end of the last update this post is going to be a little different. I’m going to take you through a taper day for me here in Switzerland. I picked this particular day mainly as its the most interesting day, although its still pretty boring.
5am: Wake up. Thanks to go old jet lag I was wide awake. Pretty much when I’m jet lagged in europe, my body just wakes up after 8hrs sleep which I can live with. I’ll now try to replicate the 5-5:30am wake ups all week leading into the race as thats the time i need to get up race day. Being adjusted to waking up then will make race day that little easier. I have 1.5hrs to kill before breakfast so a few cups of coffee is consumed, facebook people back home and watch some TV shows on the laptop.
 |
| A familiar sight on taper |
Come 6:30 and I make my way to to breakfast. Its a buffet here at this hotel so its get in as much as you can within reason. 2 plates of eggs and chicken meatballs, a couple of croissants with nutella and some apple strudel taken in to make my stomach happy. Then its back to my room for more Facebook and TV. I plan most of my training to be done in the afternoons mainly due to the time differences to back home. The mornings are the only real chance to communicate with home, which when you in a non english speaking country by yourself can stop you going totally mental.
 |
Schwingen: Swiss wrestling
|
Around 11ish decided to pull my finger out and start to build up my
bike. My rooms fairly small so left it packed up to save space. This is
the time I find out Ive lost the screw that holds the cable on my front
brake, easy enough to get but thanks to no sunday trading todays ride
will be without a front brake. Once thats all done its a small lunch,
then get ready to ride.
 |
| Before |
 |
| After |
 |
| No Front Brake |
Left for my ride just after 1pm. The session planned was just a nice
super easy spin around Lake Zurich with a few little efforts thrown in
to wake up the legs. Legs felt fairly good, quads were a little tight
when I put the power down but its what I expected. As you can see from
my
Strava file
the pace was very pedestrian like. Some of that was due to not wanting
to take any risks with swiss traffic, which actually slow down for you
and give you room. Something I’m not used to at all.
 |
| The Lindt Chocolate Factory |
Once back from my ride recovery drink consumed then shower time and a quick feed. This was followed by a good 30min on the foam roller while watching GP Quest France and the Vuelta on German Eurosport. Once the Vuelta finished I head off down town for dinner. Went to this little Italian Cafe just of the Bahnhofstrasse, one of the most expensive streets in the world. I found this place last time I was in Zurich and they have the best pizza ever, better than I even had in Italy itself. The also have a pretty lethal tiramisu as well which I’m pretty sure you could blow over .05 after one.
After dinner it was back to the Hotel room. Packed my bike back up into my bike box as I’m of to Zofingen on Monday. Then its more TV and time spent on the foam roller till around 9pm when its time to sleep.
There you have it, a bit of a look into a day of tapering. As you can see pretty boring with a lot of time sitting around resting. Today I'm off to Zofingen which is 1hr train trip away.
Until next time
Hopper
No comments:
Post a Comment