After L’Eroica is before L’Eroica. Our preparation for the 2016 edition of L’Eroica, the 20th jubilee, started earlier compared to the previous year. In March I contacted the winery where we stayed during Eroica in 2015 and booked the same apartment we had a year earlier. However, we missed the first window of opportunity for buying tickets and reserving a spot in the XX Edizione of L’Eroica. We eventually got the tickets in April so the only hurdle left was achieving the right level of fitness.
The 209km route is a total different story compared to the 135km we did in 2015. While it’s “only” 70km more in distance, the long route has a higher percentage of gravel roads and a total elevation gain of 3700m compared to 2300m for the 135km route. It’s definitely not something where you just turn up and ride; you need some miles in your legs. While Markus is an avid cyclist with thousands of kilometres every year, for me training on a regular basis represents a challenge. I’m a father of two little girls and my free time is usually spent with my family.
So what I did for preparation was cycling to work as often as possible. While one way is only about 10km I tried to make the most of these short rides by using high gears and pushing quite hard. In addition, I did a lot of cycling with my girls; well, I cycled and they had a good time sitting in the bike trailer I pulled with my Specialized touring bike. Most people probably wouldn’t consider this a viable training approach but I believe this is in fact what gave me the strength for L’Eroica. In the last couple of weeks I also added some training sessions at home on my spinning bike.
I also managed to get two full days of training; one I used for distance and one for elevation. In September I cycled around Lake Constance, a beautiful ride which I try to do at least once a year. There are different routes available; the one I did was a total of 185km (with a modest elevation gain of 350m). The other trip I did was a nice mountain bike ride through my home valley “Grosses Walsertal” where I gained around 2300m in elevation. I got distance, I got elevation; though not at the same time. I saved that combo for L’Eroica 🙂
There is also something else needed for participating in L’Eroica: a medical certificate. While some people believe the Italians take this part too seriously I think it’s actually a good thing, especially for people like me with a lower level of training. For my confidence it was important to know how my heart is working under pressure and the electrocardiogram (ECG) confirmed that from a medical perspective nothing would stand in the way to participate in L’Eroica.
Next chapter: Road trip to Tuscany