L'Eroica Dreams

The above is credited to Fausto Coppi along with his brief recommendation about training, “Ride the bike.” And, that’s where most of us are in preparation for the various Eroica events for which we’ve registered. You have registered, haven’t you?

I’ve begun my own training and preparation, though most of that effort has been devoted to how I might consume food and wine at the rest stops. The riding preparation has only just begun. In looking back to last year’s California event, I realized that I started about the same time, perhaps a week earlier. And, unlike our hero Coppi and the many racing greats before, I’ve taken up a much more deliberate or pseudo-scientific approach.

It really just boils down to intervals while riding, but on a schedule that presumably accelerates the effects. I signed up with Today’s Plan and I track efforts in no less than three websites including the popular Strava, RidewithGPS, where Eroica California hosts it’s mapping information, Garmin Connect, and of course, Today’s Plan. You might think it would be better to focus on just one or two sites, but each provides something a bit different. Regardless, it’s the training that will result from the combination of information, motivation, plans, and routes that hopefully gets me up and over the Santa Lucia mountains in a few weeks.

Could we just rely on methods from Coppi’s day? Get out, ride the roads, hills, and gravel sectors and you’ll do fine. I suspect my first Eroica was just that, though I recall putting in many more days on the Brooks saddle in preparation for that in 2011. Here it is and it’s nearly embarrassing to think that I am going through these kinds of contortions when the Coppis and Bartalis of old, to which Eroica pays homage, just rode their steel bikes through the countryside. Very fast, maybe, and for long distances.