I wasn't feeling 100% sunday morning, but the idea of a long ride with Icio and Gian was attractive enough, so I got up at 7:30 and by 8:30 I was pedaling to our first check point.
Icio was already there, waiting for me at la Moglia, and together we headed to Dogliani.
Icio is currently without a bike computer and never used an heart-rate monitor... this is the reason why sometimes he doesn't know, but just goes too fast. An example is what happened on the small climb where the 'Fondovalle' road meets the road for Vergne: I was leading easy at 30 something km/h on the flat, then Icio took his pull and, without an apparent reason, went up to 40 km/h as the road steepened. The combination of slope and speed were hurting badly my 'un-warmed up' legs, my HR at 170 bpm. So I did an all-out effort and passed him again to take my pull, staying there until the road went down on the other side. As we were both panting, I looked at him with an interrogative face asked him "Ma che cazz.." (you can translate it with "What the fu**...") and he explained me he wanted to do the climb as fast as he could, so that it lasted less and the pain was shorter. I liked the explanation.

We met Gian, who had loaded his bike for two days at the beach (cycling back and forth), and we took the 'Lovera' climb to Murazzano, enjoying every moment of it. This is a 'violent' climb if done fast, for several years it was the scene of a cycling hill-climb race where, the legend says, a local hero beat a recently retired Maurizio Fondriest.
From Murazzano to Montezemolo the road is a motorbiker's dream, with good asphalt, turns, ups and downs: in some cases it has unfortunatly been their 'last' dream (judging by the memorial crosses you can see close to several turns, and from what you can read on local newspapers), but the police is currently paying more attention, they're often there effectively slowing down someone's fastest lap. Once in Montezemolo we stopped at the motorbikers bar. All sort of impressive bikes were lined in front of it, from Harleys to Ducati to 'barely legal' japanese ones. Carbon parts, massive disks, super-soft tyres: the passion for nice parts and exotic bits is something also cyclists know well.
We enjoyed our coffee, then Gian took the road down to Liguria and the sea, while we went back home. Around 108 km in total (you can see it below).

Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa

My testing place is not exactly like a 'cleanroom'

Yesterday, my younger brother Federico and I went trail running. I had had my easy week after the long distance triathlon, so my hunger for 'suffering' was fully restored as I run to our meeting point. We ran across a sleepy town (it was 9 a.m. on a sunday morning, after all) and we went up San Michele climb to get to the trails.

My bro is 8 years younger than me and we have this ongoing 'family' challange, so every training with him becomes a race, at a certain point. He's a much faster runner and has a better technique, but he doesn't do distance as much as I do... so my plan is very simple: I keep his pace for 1 hour or so, trying not to fry my legs, then I just have to get him over 1h 30' and enjoy the rest of the run controlling. That's exactly what happened yesterday, although not so much in an intentional way: it was just so enjoyable to be out in the woods, running under the shadow of trees on twisty trails, that I basically took him too far from home, and our 1h30' run turned into a 2h+ adventure. He might not have enjoyed it so much all the time, but we talked a lot and I realised our 'challange' is a good way to spend time with each other, now that we are grown-ups and have different interests and lifes.

Yesterday I took part to the Italian long distance (4-120-30) triathlon championship. Unlike Sprint distance and, to a certain extent, also Olimpic distance triathlon, at longer events you don't see people who're just there 'for trying'. Most of the athletes I saw on saturday (when we had to put the bikes in the transition area) looked like they were getting ready for a long day at work, not a pleasure ride. They also looked very fit!

The same day I had had some nice time in the area with the family, including a great lunch with deep-fried seafood and a nice bottle of local white wine (Erbaluce di Caluso), flight lessons with Guido and Francesca (friends who live nearby and fly on a nice bi-place... as I work-live-have fun with bicycles, they do with airplanes!). My carbo-load in the evening was a nice plate of trenette al pesto with potatoes. I was very relaxed.

Sunday morning I woke up at 4. I shaved, put on my racesuit, took all I needed for the day and went out in the night, to wait for Marco and Ironmiguel, two friends who took part to the same race and were supposed to pick me up at the hotel. I waited for them slightly longer than expected, and some cars passing by probably wondered what kind of strange hooker was working in front of the hotel, half naked and with a reflective sleeve-less bike jacket. I didn't get official quotation requests, though.

Time passed fast, the horn went out loud and we started swimming. It took me 1h25' to do a relaxed 4k swim (2 laps of 2k with 200m running in between) and be out of the transition area. On the bike, I forced myself to keep an even pace on the rolling, slightly hilly course... I'm normally among the strong mid-pack riders when I take part to shorter triathlons, but I realised that here the level was much higher: despite my slow swim, there were still bikers coming from the back and passing me! I kept my concentation: the goal was to average 30 km/h and I finished the 120 km averaging 30.1.

Then, I took it easy on the first of the 4 running laps (a total of 30 km), feeling very well. Gian was there as supporter, and he really helped me a lot with motivational speeches, telling me who I could pass and their position. I had passed Marco on the bike, but Ironmiguel was still ahead of me. According to Gian, I could close the gap. Infact I was really feeling well and running easy. I upped my pace a little and did a fast second lap, where I joined then dropped Ironmiguel. I faded slightly on the third and I hit the wall around the end of the same lap... by the beginning of the 4th lap, I was really suffering and fighting with nausea (8h feeding on gels and bars, too much even for Schrek!), but I never stopped running and I kept passing people. Around the end, with the finish almost in sight, I turned an thought to see Ironmiguel coming back fast on me, so I sprinted the last 500m... I then discovered there was just a volunteer, dressed in orange, while my buddy had a blue-black top: lack of oxygen and hypoglicemia, but I closed my first ever long distance Tri in 8h22'.
And today I can still walk!!

First of all, have a look at the nice video Cantitoeroad.com people did for Caffélatex KIT, that's really worth watching (please note the Taiwan beer apron!).
Back to my training notes, I came away quite pleased after last week-end Granfondo and, as I usually do after a ride, I took notes on a piece of paper (I stick it inside the brake-lever as 'memo') of what wasn't working properly. The note said:
- check the headset;
- check the saddle bag.
The second was quite easy to do, replacing a rattling saddle bag (not withstanding how thight I closed the velcro straps) with a quieter model that slides under the saddle on a sort of plastic rails.
The headset was slightly more difficult: my carbon fork required to glue (with epoxy resin) an aluminum insert inside its steer tube. That insert had an upper side that stopped onto the steer tube, but it was too wide... so that the stem clamped on it, working during the ride to break the epoxy: my headset started nicely tight, and by the end of the second hour of riding it was moving around like crazy. What I did, I removed the aluminum insert, used a file to reduce its head (see picture)... then, when I was done, I found a nice 3T insert I had lying around, and used that instead (see other picture).

the second aluminum insert is 5g lighter as well...

That fixed the problem for good, as demonstrated during my yesterday's training: no strange movement or vibrations in the steering dept. I'm now happy with the bike, the position, the handling. I did a 1h run after the 2h ride, and I felt good. This is going to be an easy training week, sunday is D-day!

click to enlarge

I took part to Bra-Bra cycling 'granfondo' yesterday. Due to heavy rains and consequent land-slide last week, race organisers had to do some changes and we were spared a couple of hard climbs in the first part, replaced by 20 km of rolling road, where we never dropped below 45 km/h.
Not being a 'real' road cyclist, I was quite stressed by the usual movements and braking in the belly of the peloton, so I was really pleased to get to the first long climb and take my own pace. The full distance was 133 km, and I wasn't so sure of my means... but I had enough energy bars and gels on me to open a roadside shop, so I started eating 30' inside the race. For once, I raced smart: joined the right groups, let those who went too fast for me go, paced myself on the climbs and recovered on the way down. I also enjoyed the view on the wineyards and the sunny day, a sign that I wasn't flat out.
The bike was perfect: I had fitted a pair of American Classic 350 with some Vittoria Rubino Pro Slick (mid-range tyres -120 tpi- veeery reliable) inflated @ 8 bar, leaving the Road-Tubeless at home. Negative experiences in the past tought me to test everything but race with reliable products: at my level, I don't need a winning advantage, I need to arrive to the finish.
I also had a 'real' pump, tools to fix almost every mechanical problem, and clip-on aerobar.
I didn't use the aerobar a lot (not a good idea when being close to other riders, unless you want to make a pile of cyclists) but it proved very useful to get to the next group when I was on my own. All in all it took me 4h 27min to cover the distance, slightly less than 30 km/h in average. I was tired but still ok at the arrival. How would have felt 30 km of running after that? I'll discover it in two week time!

Gaia and her friend just realised that, first, they need to get rid of the training wheels... then they need mud tyres!

The importance of proper tools for the trade...