I’m chompin’ at the bit to buy these bibs for the Giretto d’Italia, but I can’t do it till I know if we are an “official” LIVESTRONG event. The suspense is killing me! It’s been about a week since I made the decision to ride in my self proclaimed Little Giro (Giretto), and I’ve managed 5 good training days and 2 days of rest so far. The training is harder than I thought, since now I have to push and structure my indoor rides for myself, not just a class of newbies or intermediate riders. I’m excited about the process though, as I’m starting to feel the extra sweet soreness that comes only from well earned pain… er I mean training.

Right now I’m going to try and train smarter rather than just harder though, as my undisciplined, competitive and emotional juices would send me into overload way too quickly, and I would be overtraining before we got to week 3 if I do not exercise some restraint. I use the Heart Zones™ system of training and gauging workload (through Heart Zone points), and I will work at keeping these to 10% increases each week till we depart for Italy. Naturally, I will also have to build a taper period into the equation also. In fact, speaking of Heart Zones, if we are approved by LIVESTRONG, I will be asking Sally Edwards (triathlon hall of famer) if she will be my personal coach for the event!

I’m also not one to take supplements of any kind, not even replenishment drinks, but with a 400+ mile total in the final 4 stages, I will be derelict if I do not do something. I will research what my minimum requirements are going to be for pushing my body to these limits, and so if any of the 3 or 4 people reading this blog out there have some advice or favorite fuels or replenishment products you wish to recommend, please by all means share the love.

Well, I’ll keep checking and triple checking my email and twitter accounts today to see if I get the nod from the LIVESTRONG office – as soon as I do, there will be hoots and hollers in the Global Ride / Cycling Fusion office!!!