23-04-2011 Preparations for the medium fondo Bra-Bra

On Sunday the 1st of May 2011 the 19th edition of the Bra Bra, a competition race over 109 km takes place. Since it will be the first race in which I will participate I tried to train as wise and as good as possible.
For more info about the race please consult http://www.brabra.org/

This winter I started with a weekly course of spinning together with my friend Buzz and held by my good friend and collegue Davide and in dicembre I bought a rolling bench for the bike and a gym, so during the cold nights I exchanged muscle strenght training with some cycling on the rollers. Despite the presence of a TV and my MP3 training on the rollers in B-O-R-I-N-G!!!
When the temperature finally got up to plus 10°C I started to go outside in the weekends with the bike for some base training. The base training consisted of long rides within the 75% of Mhf (maximum heart rate) on a flat course (in my case I went from Bra to Cuneo through Savigliano). After a month or so I started with interval training and the last month have been full of hill climbing. It's a pity I started this blog only today but I am planning to update it after every training complete with data and a description of the training.

Yesterday I did my last heavy training, a "warm-up lap" of the course on race pace and I must say that I am not unsatisfied since my average speed was 30km/hour. If I can hook up with a group going at my pace I hope to get settled in the slip stream and end up with an average of 32k's. 

As you can see in the image there will be a hill after only 10km, not a heavy one but one that will separate the fast guys from the normal ones. I suppose there will be a "time trial" towards the hill (La Morra) and then the fast guys will go up there at 30km/hour to cut the group. I got the advise to go up the hill as fast as I can to find the group that has the same pace as I have. After the first hill the situation will soon be stable and the group with which you are riding will normally be the one with who you will finish.

After "La Morra" the first hill there will be a vey fast descending and a second hill to Monforte, follwed by another descending to Dogliano. The third hill will be a long one and here it will be very important to settle in a stable speed at 90% of Mhf and stay seated. After the descend towards Serralunga there will be the fourth and last hill, "La Morra", the same as the first hill, but climbed up from the other side (L'annunziata). The legs will hurt here!!
Important to eat and drink sufficient during the race. I plan to eat 300g of pasta with honey 2,5 hours before the race and take a carbo-booster 10 miuntes before the start. Then during the race every hour 80 grams of carbohydrates in the form of sandwich with marmelate and/or energy gels.

Today, part from a quick spin with my doughter, I rested and recovered from yesterday's fatigue.
Tomorrow I will start my taper...or at least what I think could be the right taper, I reduce the quantity of km but keep the intensity up.

The plan:
Sunday 24 April:         4 times hill climbing at race pace (90-95% of Mhf)
Monday 25 April:       3 times hill climbing at race pace (90-95% of Mhf)
Tuesday 26 April:       OFF
Wednesday 27 April:  2 times hill climbing at race pace (90-95% of Mhf)
Thursday 28 April:      1 time hill climbing at race pace (90-95% of Mhf)
Friday 29 April:          OFF
Saturday 30 April:      Light spin of 1/2 an hour with one accellaeration of 10sec's
Sunday 01 May:         RACE DAY