Giro d'Italia 2009: Stage Blockhaus May 27

May 27 Stage: The Giro today is in the Region of the Earthquake, Abruzzo, where 300 people died and thousands are still with no houses living in tends. This is the south of Italy, people are happy that the Giro is honoring the land of this tragedy, the race will give them a day of joy, of hope, of smile. This is also Di Luca home region and with the banners they ask him to fly in the stage for them, for the entire region. (see picture on the top left side).

Today is a short stage, only 80 km. They arrive to the top od the Blockhaus. The real climb starts in the small beautiful village of Pretoro. Decorations for the Giro are all over, on small balconies, on the railways of the cliff, along the road.

When I arrived here, after climbing through the steep swithcbacks of this medieval town and after talking to the local people, I realized that this is the steepest part of this long (20 km climb), thn it levels off. I thought this is the spot where if someone wants to attack will do it. The climb through Pretoro has grades between 12 and 14%, then the climb, soon outside Pretoro, actually becomes gradual and steady aound 7-8% until Passo Lanciano (12 km from Pretoro), then it gets a little steeper again for 1-2 km after Passo Lanciano towards the Top "Mamma Rosa" and then it levels off again all the way to the end.

In fact Pellizzotti and then Armstrong attacked and accellerated exactly on the switchbacks of this small town of Pretoro making the all crowd absolutely crazy.

How many hours of training do I need?

Few days ago one of the athletes I coach asked me "how many hours" he would need to train more to perform well at his races?

I thought to share the answer with many of you who may have the same question, in order to re-think your expectations based on the "realistic" time you have for training.

I always plan the training based on the "realistic" time people have to train, if they do not race professionally, considering their working and family schedule.

As always, the number of hours/week you need to train depends on your goals:

1. For a race and/or event that lasts less than 3 hours, you need to train:

• 5-10 hours/week if you just want to finish the race
• 12-15 hours/week at least for high performance and place yourself in the race

2. For a race and/or event that lasts more than 3 hours but less than 8 hours, you need to train:

• 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

Of course, it's not just about quantity, the quality of your training is even more important....

Luisa Sullivan

My favorite ride in Italy on a friend's blog

My Favorite Ride in Italy

Anyone who loves riding and finding undiscovered and unknown places on a bike knows the difference between admiring scenic landscapes and approaching small, hilltop villages by bike rather than from the window of a car. However, when I up the Dolomites passes for the first time, I felt an emotion that I never felt before. With every switchback, the road hugging the mountains, those gigantic ragged peaks looking majestic and intimidating, I felt very small, but also powerful and proud, and like I was in heaven. As I have said when describing my Dolomites tours, you feel a great sense of achievement mixed with the joy of being surrounded by such breathtaking beauty.

I know the Dolomites so well that I can be there for over a week, and never ride the same route twice. However I have my favorite loop that I would like to share with you.
Read the story on : http://italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com/

Giro d'Italia 2009: Why it's special this year

It's a Special Giro this year, why?

• 2009 is the 100th anniversary of the Giro d'Italia, the 2nd most famous and important cycling race in the world after the Tour de France. Even tough this year, the Giro may beat the tour..
  
• The logistic is completely different from all the previous years: it starts in the North, in the city of Trieste, it will go through the Dolomites during the first week, go through Milan but it will finish in Rome, with the individual TT around the Colosseum and along the blvd of the "Fiori Imperiali". This scenario will be spectacular!



• It will feature the longest individual TT in the history: 61.7 km along the Italian Riviera and the cinque terre, from Sestri Levante to Riomaggiore.



• Stage 19 - May 29 - Top finish on the Vulcano Vesuvio will be memorable.



• Decisive stages:



• Stage 10 - May 19 - Mountain Stage with the Col d'Izoard and Sestriere





• Stage 12: May 21 - 61.7 km Individual TT along Liguria coast





• Stage 15: May 25 - Mountain stage in Marche region





• Ivan Basso is BACK. He will be racing the Giro after he has been banned for 2 years



• Lance Armstrong (collar bone fracture permitting) will be racing the Giro, 1st time ever, to win it.
  

If you want to ride and watch 5 stages of the Giro between May 13 and 24, join our Tour and email to keith@nonstopciclismo.com or luisa@davanticycling.com - It will be unforgattable!

How much exercise to maintain, loose or prevent regain weight?

Do you know that :
66.3% of adults in USA are overweight or obese and the cost of treatment of weight reduction
is estimated to exceed $117 billion annually ?

• Benefits of weight loss: reduced risk for
CVD, decreased blood pressure, improved
Lipid profile and glucose tolerance

How "much" exercise ?

ACSM is “American College of Sports Medicine” made a
retrospective analysis of all the research studies after
1999 and came up with these latest 2009
recommendations on:
• how much PA (Physical Activity) for:
– Prevention of weight gain
– Weight loss
– Prevention of weight “regain” after weight loss

For example : To Loose weight

PA of 420 min*wk -1 -> 5-7.5 kg weight loss (>3% loss)
in 12 weeks
• Additional Energy restriction is needed:
Deficit of 500-700 Kcal * d -1 for 12
weeks to loose 7.5 (8%) and 5.9 kg (6.5%)respectively.

These are useful guidelines. Read more on

http://www.davanticycling.com/documents/HowmuchPAforMaintain-Looseorpreventionofweightregain.pdf

and forward to friends, relatives, parents who need weight management. Let's save lives.
YES, "enough" physical activity can help preventing diseases and kill our National health bill.

Luisa

Strength and Power are two different things

Most of the time riders do not know the difference between Strength and Power.
Power is Force (strength) * velocity. So, power depends not only on the amount of force you are able to apply to the pedals but also on how fast you turn those pedals when you apply that force.
In fact, the best power is the best combination between the amount the force applied and the velocity you are able to produce applying that specific amount of force.

Low power can be the result of a huge amount of force at a very slow velocity or of very high velocity and a small amount of force.

The tyranny of the cadence
Do you know that for every rider, for a certain gear on a certain terrain, there is the "perfect" cadence that will provide the best power for the force the rider is able to apply to the pedals when he/she turns them at that specific velocity. If your cadence is higher, you may see your power dropping, because the cadence is too high and the force applied to the pedals decreases.

Therefore, just trying to increase your cadence is not always beneficial, there is that "cadence" threshold, above which your power will drop.

So, when you climb, for example, try the same portion of the climb, different times with different gear ratios, and pick the one that allows you to ride that portion in the shortest time.

Does Caffeine enhance Performance?

Does Caffeine Enhance Performance?
Several research studies showed improvement in endurance performance followed by caffeine intake. Caffeine increases endurance and speed, but not maximal VO2max and related parameters.

How much?
A minimal dose of 5 mg/kg of body weight (BW) is necessary to induce performance enhancement. However, higher doses of 9 or 13 mg/kg of BW did not show a greater enhancement than the dose of 5mg/kg of BW.
So, a person weighing 60 kg needs to intake 300 mg of caffeine 1 hour before the event to have improvements in his/her performance. Considering that 1 cup of brewed coffee contains 115 mg of caffeine, one pill of caffeine supplement contains 84 mg of caffeine and 1 “espresso” contains 80 mg of caffeine, a 60 kg person would need to drink 3 cups of brewed coffee, or 4 espresso shots OR take 4 pills of supplements or any combination of these drinks (example: 2 espresso shots normally included in 1 largo Latte at Amante + 2 pills of supplements).

There is no advantage to ingesting higher doses of caffeine than outlined above for performance. In fact, ingesting large amounts of caffeine can have deleterious health effects.


Read more on :
http://www.davanticycling.com/Creatine&Caffeine_doc.pdf

Have a great week!
Look for my next posting Monday, February 23!