FlavioZappi’s Blog

Hot weather is very unusual in England but when is there you to deal with.

Assuming that you are a trained fit rider with few month of competition under your belt, you should not need much endurance training. I would concentrate on speed work and power training and appropriate supplement and diet to help your fluid loss. Ideally training during the fresh hours of the day…..

Power training with short boost above your threshold for from a short 45 sec to max 5 minutes (no more than 12) , ideally using climbs and various of them during your training with complete rest between them.

Speed work few option:

a) Very short sprints on flat again complete recharge between them no more than 10

b) Motor pacing no more than 50k

c) Criterium racing

Diet and supplement try to eat more fruits and fresh salads than usual, plenty of carbs and less fats again for fast fuel, mineral salts are very popular and easy to buy, but try not to exceed as is always better for our body to source naturally from food.

Was very nice last night see my friends at MK Bowl for the usual Thursday summer series criterium.

I decide to go to the race on my bike, lovely afternoon to ride and I wanted to treat it as a good training so 2.5 hours ride easy steady then 1.15 high tempo with lots of intervals and 2.15 back at tt pace, sharing the work with two other OUCC riders (Seb and Nils) on the way back made the return journey quicker.

I like to do crits as training in the summer because is a good way to pick up speed without the stress of do it on training, but is very important to remember that for road racing just the crit is not enough and need to be combined with a daily training, some people that are searching to get a results they go out in the morning for 2 hours, is just another way, I prefer to train just before the race to get properly warmed up, and after to improve my aerobic threshold.

All together 6 hours, at the end I was pretty tired so I think my two companion from Oxford University Cycling Club.

I felt stronger then last year and I attack solo at 8 laps to go, but nobody came across, and after 3 laps the peloton got me, I was not too tired at the endof the race and the anaerobic workout will for sure be very beneficial together with the rest of the training.

Maybe a little old school my training but I was told at the race that in the past was common to get to the race and back by…………bike.

There is a very interesting way to add “zapp” to your legs, and that is motor pacing behind a car or a motorbike.

If you are doing in a track that’s OK, but you can do it on the road as well, you need to find somebody with a vehicle that knows how important is pacing regularly taking in consideration variation of the course, i.e. small climbing and cornering,.

Safety is a very big issue , therefore you must find very quiet roads, and an expert driver.

Short and fast, this is the key, the first time I did it was when I was “dilettante ” at 19 and after a very hard 4 hours team training with climbs, I was called by my coach in the afternoon to get ready for 5okm motor pacing. Did the job to me, I won for the next two week ends.

Keep this training only for climbing your form don’t over do it or you also loose your form as quickly!