ITA: Scelte...

(English version later...)

Scrivo in italiano perche' e' sono veramente allo stato del "flusso di coscienza".

Dopo domenica, mi sento veramente indeciso sul da farsi: continuare come ciclista oppure ritornare alla corsa ?

(il che e' una questione mal posta... visto che in realta' sono "ritornato" al ciclismo che e' stato lo sport della mia giovinezza..).

Nella mia testa si accavallano varie considerazioni, totalmente contrastanti fra di loro e che non hanno ancora trovato una sintesi

A) sono decentemente competitivo in entrambi gli sport...

B) a HK le gare ciclistiche fanno ridere (16km con 18 giri attorno ad una fabbrica alle 6.30 di mattina, oppure cronoscalata di 2.4km...), mentre le gare podistiche sono a mio parere di livello veramente buono

C) allenarsi in bicicletta e' 10 volte piu' piacevole che la corsa... (so che tutti i podisti si ribelleranno, ma probabilmente non hanno mai provato cosa voglia dire...), ma anche molto piu' duro e' impegnativo...

D) la bici richiede un grosso impegno di tempo, sia per gli allenamenti che per tutte le attivita' ancillari come riparazioni, manutenzioni, etc, etc

E) tutte le gare ciclistiche serie in Cina ed Asia sono al di fuori della mia portata perche' non riusciro' mai ad allenarmi per gare di 150km...

F) per me, che vivo pendolare fra Cina e HK, e' un vero casino allenarmi in bici...

G) per poter fare il "South China Tour" (corsa ciclistica a tappe locale), sarei disposto anche ad allenarmi la notte, visto che da anni ho sempre avuto questo sogno (o meglio, miraggio... visto che non ho toccato una bici per anni...)

quindi ???

Sono ancora frastornato...

Hill TT report

So Sunday morning I lined up for the Hill Time Trial to FeiNgoShan...

Well, the real challange was to reach the starting line, because between one-way roads and crazy restrictions from HK Police and the organizer, I had to park my car at 5.30am on the top of the mountain and ride down in a chilly morning already wearing the racing kit...
Since it was a 10km ride to the start line, I had to carry pump, spare tube, documents, etc... so I felt a bit weird to get on the starting block of a TT with a pump/tube in the rear pocket..

About the race, no much to say... my first time on that course, so I screwed up the pacing a bit, but 2.4km also goes by very quickly, so I was maybe a bit dead after 1.5k, but it was already time to sprint for the finish.

the real surprise was that my time (9'27") was the best by far of all Master category and also better than the winner of "Elite B" and "Master 30" races... WOW...
So after maybe 17 years, I won again a cycling race...(well,,, a Master category..)

I was well behind the best riders of Elite A and Junior (1 min slower...), but my initial disappointment was tempered by the sample calculation that if you run a 3000m track race 1 minute slower than an Elite runner, it is like running 8'45-9'00", which would be already a great result for a Master...

Results are available HERE

I could not find any pic online yet

Exclusive: the winner of Tour de France 2033

this toddler has shown a keen interest in cycling... this morning he grabbed a wheel from the storage and played around until I had to take it back... huge screams and tears.
I foresee a Maillot Jaune...

apart that, I am pretty much charged up for next Sunday's cycling race: since it is a Hill Time Trial, it would be a real moment of truth for testing my fitness compared to the other local racers...
The downside is that it is only 2.9km... so will be over in 10min at most...

Very likely it will be my last cycling race. Since I feel that now the tendons are really healed, I will switch back to running and give up.

Next week, race report and plan for the summer...

Polar Running Index (more of)

end of 2008 I did a post on the usage of the Polar Running Index and related chart.

It happens that is the most popular page of this blog, through google searches on the Polar Running Index.

It is a pity that Polar did develop such a useful function and never explained it properly to the users. Even the Polar forum does not offer more...

probably my chart is the only thing publicly available on the practical use of this functions

well, now that chart end up also in a new book by Matt Fitzgerald "The Runner's Edge".

The book makes a pretty good job to explain all the advanced use of Garmin, Polar, etc...how to use the tons of information that are calculated by those toys and train better.

So also the Polar Running Index and the cadence function of the RS800sd got some explanations and useful tips.

I would say a good reading and I must make anyway a couple of remarks

A) the book is totally biased in favour of the TrainingPeaks SW (well, the book's co-author is TrainingPeak's developer), while there is the free alternative of SportTracks and/or simply use the Polar PPT SW

B) maybe (for my tastes) it could have been even more technical and go more into the details (well, I also see that in Amazon's comments someone complained about the opposite... too much technical... well, dude, then you better stick to the Garmin SW to show your friends where have you been running and stop there...)

(disclaimer: I was kindly offered the book by the author as token of appreciation for the small contributions)

Valanga azzurra...

Domenica scorsa sono andato come spettatore (poi l'organizzatore mi ha pregato di fare l'apripista in bicicletta, quindi diciamo che ho "partecipato"...) alla Shatin Riverside 10K

Questa gara e' la mia piu' grossa spina nel cuore... visto che nel 2008 arrivai secondo dopo uno sprint al cardiopalma...

Insomma, anche in mia assenza la rappresentanza italiana a HK si sta facendo onore...

C'era un umidita' del 99%, anche se la temperatura non era estrema... ma di sicuro non una giornata da grosse prestazioni cronometriche.

Ancora una volta, Stefano domina la gara e taglia il traguardo con 30" di vantaggio. Il crono e' stato per lui ridicolo (33'), ma a malapena si poteva respirare...

Buone prestazioni anche per Daniele (al rientro da uno stop), Denis (un collega di lavoro al debutto sulla distanza) e Fabrizio.

Cosa devo dire? a questo punto manco proprio io e si puo' fare un bel Team Italia...

Comments

not that I receive that many comments on this blog... but in the past months I am flooded by spam comments (especially in Japanese...).

So I have to introduce word verification for my blog... before posting a comment you must type in a captcha word.

Sorry for the inconvenient, but I was really pissed off by so many crappy stuff...

feel like a Donkey ?

this morning I shall report that I achieved a new PB in the bike climb of the mountain dominating my workplace town...

39'45" with an average 166bpm is a considerable improvement from the previous best of 41"55" with 168bpm effort...

So lower HR and faster speed is really a good sign before my last cycling race: a hill TT on 28 March.

After that, I want to focus 100% back on running and try to get back in a good shape for the new running season after the summer..

on the climb, I met only 3 spectators... which were not overly interested...

Cycling Criterium

well, a bit absent from posting...

I continue to alternate running with cycling, trying to rump up the running in distance and intensity, but keeping the fun of the cycling training.

So Sunday I lined up for a cycling criterium race.

Once I arrived at the site in the Yuen Long Industrial Area, my first reaction was to turn back and go home: the race was a 800m loop in a narrow road, with slippery surface because of the rain during the night.

I imagined it would have been a carnage, if 50 riders would try to sprint together in those corners...

My fear was also confirmed by early crashes in the opening junior race... so, I felt really doubtful whether to start, especially because I had not been training too much in the past weeks and it did not make sense to risk a crash...

Anyway I also spotted that in reality all the youth races were decided very early, with a early break up of the group and then few racers fighting for the top spots...

So I lined up at the start and kicked off very hard from the start... I was always in the top 3-4 positions and making several attacks.

As expected, after only few laps, we were only 6 left in front and there was a gap behind us. We cooperate quite decently and the break become larger and larger.

With us, there was obviously "monster" John T, the most amazing rider I have ever met: at 46, he scores countless victories in Elite races around Asia. A real monster, so I felt already with zero chance of winning the Master40 category...

Anyway the laps went by quite quickly and we really upped the pace for the last 2 laps. I tried to help a teammate to take a gap, but he was caught very soon.

At the sprint, I was quite cooked up already and I really missed the right moment to launch the sprint. So I was 6th overall and 3rdMaster which was really satisfactory...

I was able to "do the race" and place myself in the right breakaway.., despite the approximative training.

My good streak in cycling races continue... it is really going much better than my expectations

Here a nice photo in the height of the action of our breakaway (I am the last one....)