#10in10...The Training...

10in10 Training Camp in May

All the training for the 10in10 ride was left up to the individual riders.... In retrospect this was probably a major error. 

Prior to the ride itself we had only ridden out all together on two previous occasions.... The first time was for a 50 mile jaunt over the Purbecks...however, unfortunately John and Lorenzo were only able to complete half of that ride due to a previous commitment... 
I have to admit that during that first ride together concerns regarding the ability of the team as a group to complete the 10in10 started to creep in.....

About a month later in May we had a training camp in North Dorset for five days.  During those days my concerns seemed to be confirmed... There was a big disparity between the overall fitness and riding ability of the team....  

I blame myself for this....If I had insisted that we all trained together on a regular basis then the areas of weakness in the team could have been dealt with early on and probably the entire team would have completed all the 10in10 route including the Splugen Pass and the Ghisallo.... 

The problem had been in trying to get everyone together to ride when they all seemed to have varying work responsibilities....being the only rider in the group who has everyday as free time it was obviously somewhat easier for me to train for it...although having said that for this ride I tried something that I had never tried before and it only took an hour a day five days a week.....  

Anyway as everyone followed their own training plan to a greater or lesser degree I can only really tell you about what I did as a form of training for the ride...

After all the riding I did last year whatever the weather was like in order to achieve my mileage goal, there was no way that I wanted to go out and ride when the weather was wet...I had had enough of that and anyway I just don't enjoy riding in the wet. 
It's one thing getting caught out in the rain on a ride but completely different forcing yourself out into a pouring wet day. Unfortunately the early part of the year was not good weather wise so I realised early on that I was not getting much worthwhile training in.....

I decided that what I would do would be to train indoors on my static bike and target the areas that I felt would be important...Speed/Pace and Power. 
Riding indoor static bikes such as the Watt Bike has become quite a popular method of training and I find I can keep good control on cadence, heart rate and power. I am also lucky that I don't get bored as so many people complain of if they have to ride a turbo or the like....

I can just get myself in the zone with music playing in my headphones and target just the area that I want to work on.... The power training proved useful for the climbs in the Alps etc and the training for pace enabled me to have the ability to just keep riding day in and day out.....

So my training, with the exception of two or three days out riding on 'real' roads consisted of one hour each day Monday to Friday on the static bike....targeting specific areas....and importantly NOT using a fan to keep myself cool... 
I figured that it would be hot in Italy and I wanted to get used to cycling in the heat....so where in the past I've used a high powered electric fan to help keep me cool during the training, whilst training for the 10in10 I didn't plug in the fan and just got used to cycling with the perspiration pouring off me....

Now I am not advocating any of the above as the way to train for an event..... I am just explaining the method that I used to prepare for this particular challenge ride....
Riding ten days back to back with mileages up to 96 miles, with the terrain becoming tougher each day and with the weather also getting hotter each day needed specific and targetted training....

Over the years I have done a good number of big multi day challenge rides and this was the first time that I have ever trained in this way.... As it turned out it seemed to work well for me....

I managed to complete the entire route and felt really strong on the Splugen Pass and the Ghisallo even though we had temperatures hitting on 34c.

On the climb up to the Splugen Pass I only stopped once and that was to take a photo.....on the Ghisallo I stopped twice. 
Once for a pee behind a big bush and the second time to fill my water bottles at a little spring built into the side of the hill....at no time did I feel that the climbs were beyond me and I managed to ascend both of the big climbs well within myself.....

I was planning to tell you a little about my food and drink intake in this post but that would make it too long so that will have to wait till next time now ......