Time to post an update on how the Stelvio 2019 project is progressing.
Our departure date is set to May 29th, a Wednesday in 54 days and ticking!
Fitness progress
Even though I tried to keep myself active during 2018, the two major surgeries and six months of chemo took their toll.And that is why this is the one single thing that I am afraid of for the whole trip. To not be able to enjoy it because I'm not in good enough form. Not being able to complete the daily dosage of road. And that is why this is the part that I focus on the most and try to work on every day.
(We had a chat about it, and decided that there would be no shame to take the train to skip a leg or two of the trip if my health/fitness or whatever becomes a problem. But the goal is to cycle to distance, so that is really a last resort. But yeah, we will try to make adult decisions...)
I wrote the following two articles while on chemo
- Training for a Cycling Adventure while on Chemo
- Training cycle climbing when all you have is flat roads
and I think that my stubbornness on doing the training sessions no matter how I felt actually made the treatment period easier in the end. Easier in this context is very relative.
The last two chemo cycles really took their toll and in January when I received the all clear from my doctors I was pretty much at the bottom of a pit, both mentally and physically. The nausea continued for some weeks after treatment and tiredness hung on for ... well it still does.. I am beat every day when I come home from work. But at least I am back to doing full days, I can always sleep when I come home.
I am glad that I have friends that push me to the gym for my deadlift session every week. Last week I did my person best at 140 kg. The explosiveness is starting to come back, what I struggle with now is endurance.
Hence commuting!
Commuting
The last 3 week I've commuted to work 5 times with my Kona Sutra. In the mornings it is 30 km slightly uphill and in the afternoons it is slightly downhill. |
| Morning commute, slightly uphill. |
 |
| Afternoon commute, slightly downhill |
In the afternoons it takes around 1 hour and 10 minutes.. I've done it in 50 minutes...
But numbers aside, it feels great to be back on the bike and outdoors! Started to grow tired of the trainer in the cellar!
Interval session comparison
One of the hardest sessions in my training program are the HIIT sessions on my trainer.They consist of 30 second max, 30 second rest... 5 times and then a longer rest of 4 minutes and then 5 more times. In total with warm-up and cool-down its 20 minutes of hell.
| Date | Distance (km) | Average speed (km/h) | Max speed (km/h) | Average Heart Rate (bpm) | Max Heart Rate (bpm) |
| 11:50 on Sunday, 31 March 2019 | 7.90 | 23.5 | 42.5 | 167 | 195 |
| 18:38 on Wednesday, 13 March 2019 | 8.02 | 23.8 | 45.7 | 168 | 191 |
| 10:56 on Saturday, 29 December 2018 | 7.15 | 19.6 | 46.1 | 164 | 194 |
| 14:48 on Wednesday, 12 September 2018 | 7.60 | 20.4 | 45.0 | 163 | 190 |
| 17:50 on Thursday, 9 November 2017 | 10.06 | 29.9 | 51.5 | 171 | 193 |
The last row is from 2 months before I got the news that I had cancer. The output went down after the surgeries and the training with chemo kept the level but no gains. (I don't own power meter so I don't see watts).
Bold dates are during the chemo treatment. The italic ones are now, after treatment. Starting to move in the right direction at least!
Weight progress
I've weighted quite a lot for the last 10 years, 100+ kg to be exact. At best six months before the first treatment with 97 kg.. During the treatments I weighed in at 103... all the time... But now afterwards there was a jump up to 113 kg some weeks ago!I don't know what is going on, but hopefully the increase in training dosage manages to counter the trend.. Today I weighted in at 109 kg.
Gear progress
One of the biggest parts of the project budget was the bike, and it arrived in February. The second biggest part of the budget is all the other gear that I did not own.Things that I am still missing and need to be bought
- Second cycling jersey
- Power bank
- Dry/compression bag for the tent to compress its size
- Airplane ticket home from Venice
Trying to keep the list to bare necessities, but yeah.. We'll see how that goes.. Do I need a pumpsack for the sleeping mat? Probably not... Will I buy one? Maybe, haven't decided.
Next step
With 54 days to go, the schedule is ... well not that full to be honest.
My plan is to continue
- commuting
- strength sessions with deadlifts
- other core training.
- interval sessions
And in 3 weeks the plan is to do a general repetition. a 3 day bikepacking trip in Sweden to test our gear, mental health and endurance...
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