Do those extra miles help your cycling performance?

Do I need those long 4-6 hours endurance rides ?

Are they part of the old school of training ? Is it better to focus on shorter but high intensity workouts?

Here, in USA it's common belief that if you race mainly criterium you do not need to ride longer than 2 hours. In Italy when you register for a Granfondo (90-200 km) the first thing they ask is "Do you have 7,000-8,000 km (4,000-5,000 miles) in your legs?". If your answer is no, you don't want to experience that "look mixed with disappointment and disapproval" that you will get.

Who's right? Again, depends on your goals.
If you participate in road racing (60-80 miles) , which means 2.5-4 hours races with some climbing, for sure you need those long 4-6 hours endurance rides.
You need to be able to ride with comfort 4-5 hours, in order to be able to race 2.5-3.5 hours.
If you are able just to ride at endurance level for 3 hours, after 1 hour of racing you will bonk.

Do you remember from my post back in April? For Events/races longer than 3 hours

• 7-12 hours/week if you just want to finish the race
  15-25 hours/week for high performance and place yourself in the race

Why? The bigger and stronger is your aerobic system, longer will be the period you will be able to ride at high intensity in racing still using your aerobic system and consequently before you accumulate lactic acid and you fatigue.

You cannot rely for too long time on your anaerobic system..... especially if you cannot recover much between high intensity efforts. You max can sustain 20 min at your threshold or 2-3 min a time in your anaerobic zone.

Now. Does this mean that your training should focus only on long endurance rides? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Otherwise you will have the opposite problem. You will never improve or get faster, because your body is not used and trained to clear lactic acid or tolerate lactic acid and you will fatigue as soon as you hit that intensity...

I will come back on this later in specific, but latest studies show that the majority of the physical adaptions that will influence your performance occur if you train at a specific high intensity!

I recommend that during the week you keep your short and intense workouts, but do at least one long endurance ride during the weekend.

These are my 1 million dollar TIPS:

1. Have 2 groups to ride with. Use the group with riders stronger than you for shorter (70-80% of the length of your races) group rides where you can simulate racing environment and where you can push yourself beyond the point you go during a training session by yourself. Use a group with riders at your level or lower for that weekly long endurance ride (120% -130% longer than your races). In this way you will not feel the pressure, and you will be able to keep that comfort pace for long period.


2. Now, endurance does not mean "recovery". Include in your long endurance rides, climbs or efforts where you stay at 75-80% of your max for longer periods, 2-3 times during the ride.

TESTIMONIAL - Incredible but true (incredibile ma vero)!

While I was writing this post, I got an email from one of my athletes in Italy. This is the 1st year I am coaching him.

Today he placed himself in the top 10% of his category (39 on 353 ) and this is what he wrote:
" I do not have comparison with last year for this race, since they changed route, however, I finished after 4 hours and 15 min still fresh while the previous years I was already exhausted after 3 hours and 30 min for the same race with a shorter route and with less climbing..This year I felt good and I could still push all the way until the end" (Massimo Marinozzi, Verona, Italy).

Giro d'Italia 2009 - Tappa 12 - Individual TT

It's Thursday May 21 and today is the stage of the LONG Individual TT along the Italian "Riviera" that everybody was waiting for.

We are in Liguria Region, on the north west coast of Italy, along the Tirreno sea. The TT starts from Sestri Levante, south of Genova and North of Portofino and ends in Riomaggiore, the last of the 5 Terre. The course is 60.6 km long, VERY technical, it features 2 climbs, tons of curves and two crazy curvy descents. All different from a hard but sustained and steady effort of a more typical flat or rolling straight TT course. The first climb is over 15 km long and the 2Nd climb is 8 km long , both with an average grade of 6-7%. The tons of curves require good technical skills of continuous decelerations and accelerations.

When, the evening before, we arrive and leave the high way at the Levanto exit, we realize we are on the TT course. We are on the descent from the top of of the first climb (Monte Bracco) down to Levanto. Wow, we say, this is crazy! The descent is very steep, technical and difficult. The scenery is beautiful as well, as you can see the sea and the golf with the town of Levanto from the top coming down. We also think that they could and should not use TT bikes on this course. Sure, enough, we start seeing team cars driving by with all the bikes with the numbers ready on top and none has TT bikes.

Levanto is exactly half way on the TT course. As we arrive in town and settle down in our hotel we notice how beautifully this small town has been decorated to honor the racers coming by tomorrow.

It looks more like an arrival and not an intermediate destination. They built a huge stage, barriers or along the main street with the beach and see on one side.

We hear that they will close the roads even to cyclists as early as 10:00 a.m. the next day. So, the next morning, the day of the TT stage, we get up early and at 8:00 a.m. we start riding the 2nd half of the course from Levanto to Rio Maggiore.

Soon outside the town we start the 2nd climb of the course. Wow, all the fans are already all lined up along the switchbacks of the climb. It's a nice climb, it goes up regularly but always around 6-7% grade and it's almost 8 km long. Once we arrive at the top there are huge tends of the fans set up with food and drinks. They will eat and drink all day long.

We need to stop for pictures. The views are absolutely spectacular!!

Soon after the top, the descent is kind short and leads to a rolling beautiful road that winds and curves all along the cliff. There are only cyclists on the road and team cars. It's beautiful!

We also see Davide Cassani (the official commentator of all the cycling races for Italian TV RAI (ex pro racer) in a car and we also see few pros, followed by their team cars, riding to test the course. We reach a beautiful spot where there is an astonishing view of Vernazza and Corniglia (the 2nd and the 3rd of the 5 Terre) (see the picture here on the side below.

Soon after this view point the terrific and terrifying, at the same time, descent to Riomaggiore begins. It's narrow, curves tightly hugging the edge of the cliff with no protection. We cannot imagine doing this descent racing at all speed. It requires unbelievable focus, concentration and skills. We pray that none would crash.

We also feel sorry that the pros racers will not have any time to enjoy and appreciate this amazing scenery.

We go back in town just in time, the police starts stopping the cyclists, but we are good enough to sneak through their cars and motorcycles and elude their attention and make back to the hotel.

Quick shower and we are ready to hit the road to watch the racers coming by. Keith is lucky enough and he will drive the PezCycling (http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/) car to follow Zabrinski during the race. Mike and Allen decide to hit the beach for a nice swim before watching the race (they come from California) and myself with Katarzyna and JP go for a "gelato" in downtown where we start seeing the first racers coming by welcomed by an am zing crowd all cheering and screaming. Then we start walking up along the climb we did earlier in the morning. It's incredible hot.

We stop along a steep section in the shade and there we will stay for over 3 hours watching all the top 50 racers in the GC coming by. Below you can see good shots of Simoni, Lance Armstrong, Leipheimer, Menchov and Di Luca.

Everybody arrives fatigued already on this climb, it's a tough course for a TT and the heat is also making a huge difference. The most composed looks Basso, the fastest looks Bosisio and Menchov.

Some spectators near us, have the table with the starting times (from the Gazzetta dello Sport) and we all start making calculations to predict the winner based on the time when they start and the time they come by. Too much fun!!! Actually we end up not too be too far off. Who arrived with the best time at the first steep part of the 2nd climb got one of the first places.

Another hot but incredible and memorable day!

Giro d'Italia - Stage 15 - May 24 - Forli'-Faenza

This has been my best stage ride and watch of this year Giro.

It's Sunday May 24, stage 15
and we are in the region of Emiglia Romagna. The stage starts in Forli' and ends in Faenza for a total of 161 km over a total of 6 climbs "colli".

I rode the last 71 km of today stage and 120 km total. I climbed the last 4 "colli" of today stage: Colle Albano, Valico la Valletta, Colle Casale e Colle Trebbio.

We decided to watch the race at the top of Colle Trebbio, the steepest. Who will be leading at the top of that mountain will win the stage, since it is almost all downhill from the top of Colle Trebbio to Faenza, the finish of the stage. We got close in our prediction.

It is one of those super hot days and those steep low elevation climbs will be killers for the poor racers. Temperature will get to 35 degree C, which means over 100 degree F with high percentage of humidity.

Hundreds of cyclists are already on the road starting 6:30 a.m. to reach the destination spot form where they will be watching the race coming by. They are trying to beat the heat.


We leave from Riolo Terme, 20-25 km from Casola where the section of the Giro route we ware going to ride begins. At Casola we turn left for Zattaglia. The first climb to Zattaglia is 6 km with a grade between 4 and 6%. We climb at steady state since we know we have many km to go. It's still not too hot, so it's pleasant, we still talk and laugh while we climb. The small road opens to beauiful views of the rolling hills country side of Emiglia Romagna. We descend to the small village of Zattaglia. Soon there is a right turn for Brisighella where the second climb Valico Valletta begins. Wow, this narrow and small road starts to go up steep right the way, grade above 10%, completely under the sun. We stop talking, breath regularly and remember to keep drinking. These are 3 killer, steep and hot kilometers. The descent is crazy steep with part at 18% with a lot of curves. The "panorama" on the open valley is spectacular. Still not many cyclists on this part of the route. At the bottom of the descent we turn left (just follow the Giro signs.... it's easy..) and after 2 km of flat road we reach Brisighella. It's an adorable small medieval town at the top of a hill. We need to stop at John Paul's (JP for us) favorite gelato bar: Carletto . I only get an esepresso, we fill-up water bottles and restart. Boy, now it's hot and it's only 11:00 a.m.














The 3rd climb: Colle Casale is 8 km long with 6% grade average. The first 2-3 km are the steepest. Then it levels off . It has the same characteristics: small road completely under the sun with no shade at all. Near the top, there are more cyclists, a group of American cyclists are pushing their tandem up trying the take advantage of a small area of shade on the left side of the road. When we get at the top there is nothing to recover: no place in the shade to rest, no cafe' for more water. They are still mounting the barriers for the Giro. Just a quick stop for a picture and we run down the descent hoping for more cooler air. At the bottom there is the cute town of Modigliana. It's only 12:30 p.m. and there is only 1 climb to go. So, this town is the right spot to stop for lunch. We spot a nice cafe' with outdoor sitting in the shade with a lot of cyclists. I don't want to cool down too much but I realize that there will be a LONG waiting on top of the Colle Trebbio, since the race is expected to be there not before 4:30 p.m.

• So around 1:20 p.m. I start slowly the last ascend: Colle Trebbio. It's 6.7 km long but 8% grade as average. It's 35 degrees C. and I do not want to experience a heat stroke. I start slow and, oh God, the first 3 km are steep between 12 and 15% grade. I insert my 28 in the back and decide to take easy through those steep parts. There is NOBODY on the road and only few fans along the road. It's too hot and people decided to arrive later. After the first 3 km it levels off. Two guys from Rome (I could tell from their accent) say to me:" Oh now you can relax, just get a coffee....). I know, then, that the worse is over. The 4Th and 5Th km are almost flat.



• Now a real fun story comes. This is a typical Giro story. I am 1 km from the top. It is kind early, around 2:00 p.m. since the Giro is supposed to come by the top not before 4:30 p.m. and I am literally the only person riding on the climb and I am wearing my pink jersey. Well, two fans with motor scooters start escorting me hammering their horns, simulating the arrival of the "gruppo maglia rosa" as it happens at the real Giro. I cannot laugh more. All the spectators already lined up along the last 100 meters from the top go crazy when they see me arriving between these two scooters ... They all scream and cheer... It is absolutely funny.. When I arrive all the crowd is complimenting and offering me food and water.... I feel a celebrity.... I get even interviewed by RAI but they apparently will not broadcast. I seat on the grass in the shade. It's only 2:30 p.m.



• Around 4:00 p.m. everybody starts getting anxious to know what's happening in the race. There is a small TV under a tend up the hill, but I do not want to loose my first row spot here. I spot 2 guys with a radio on the other side of the barrier. I use my secret weapons (woman, foreigner and cyclist...) and here we go, they start updating me with every thing they hear about the race on the radio. We know that there is a small leading group. It's around 4:15 p.m. and we hear that Basso attacked on the Colle Casale and the crowd explodes in "Basso, Basso.....". We`all start making calculation to predict when they will be arriving at the top of Colle Trebbio where we are. We hear that Basso keeps gaining time on "gruppo maglia rosa" with Di Luca. We all get very excited!

It's 4:45 p.m. and we start hearing the helicopter. Here they are! They are CLOSE! All the police motorcycles arrive and we know the leading group is here. They cross the top exhausted, their faces say everything about the heat and the fatigue of already two weeks of racing. A Lampre racer in the leading group has a flat, just in front of us. Just at the top, what a bad luck... and his mechanic takes for ever to replace his rear wheel. We scream and boo the mechanic, the crowd screams "fire him"!!!.

It's 4:50 p.m. and here Basso comes by, but soon behind him (2-3 minutes later) Di Luca and Menchov arrive... Di Luca with his usual fighting expression on his face. They are going "all-out". We predict that Basso will be caught. After that all the others arrive so scattered, Armstrong and Levi Lipheimer are few hundred meters behind Di Luca. It takes almost 1/2 hour until all the racers come by...

• It's almost 5:30 p.m. when the car "end of the race: Fine della corsa" comes by and we can finally GO!



• I have no water and I have 25 km to go. At the bottom of the descent I catch the wheel of 3 big guys.... I use another secret weapon. With a sweet voice I let them know I am on their wheel asking for directions....and they all proud say "No problem, we will show you the road... come with us....". I know then I could make back to the hotel in Riolo safe and in no time!!!



• What a great and memorable day!!!