If you’ve watched Gomer Pyle reruns, you’ll know how to say that title with the right southern twang, and silly grin. Nina and I were nursing “would be” injuries today. The last blog I noted how Nina began to have severe knee pain at about 75 miles. She completed the stage but we were all worried about how to rest and recover it with a century required each day in front of us, and with climbing starting at the end of today’s longest stage. You can …

As I write this blog before breakfast on day two, my stomach is in knots and I don’t know if it’s nervousness in anticipation of the longest ride of my life (200km), or just a something I ate last night… but the travails of today will have to wait, I have yesterday to regale you with, and by the way, click here to see pics of each stage.

As many of you know from following our “tweets” on Twitter, we had a marvelous start to the first ever Giretto – timed to perfection to coincide with the 100th year celebration of the biggest cycling race in Italy, and Lance Armstrong’s first ever Giro d’Italia. Between not losing any luggage, and having a beautiful day to tour Venice, we were walking on air. Here are some pics from both the day off in Venice, as well as Stage 1.

You can probably figure out what the Training and Taper stands for, but Temptation… that one you will have to wait on till the end of the blog. Actually, I’m not sure either what the “temptation” is for, but it seemed like it would make the title more sexy – what can I say, the competition for readers in the blogger world is fierce, I’ve got to do something ☺!

Sounds much more “medical and ominous” than just saying “cramps”doesn’t it? Well, while I was experiencing it, ominous wouldn’t even have come close. Something like excruciating, nightmarish pain; completely off the charts would have been a bit more accurate. I simultaneously had both hamstrings, my left quad, and my right calf all sieze up like someone pulled the emergency cord on a bullet train. In my 10 years of riding, I never had a full blown cramp – only slight cramp type feelings that were able …

Training with power is the ultimate way to insure your forward progress in cycling. While I am a huge supporter of heart monitor training, and I believe there is no more important training tool than a cadence monitor for both indoor and outdoor cycling, the power meter brings the best of all worlds together. With power we are measuring the “real work” we are doing, the actual energy produced by our efforts. After all, it isn’t how much our body is suffering (reflected by the heart rate …

It was easily the most beautiful day in Pittsburgh in 2009. Temperature a perfect 70 degrees, little to no wind, sunny skies, and a group of riding buddies all psyched to ride. The beauty though was not limited to just the weather. My daughter Nina was riding as strong as I’ve seen her. Her “Cycling Fusion” training – of 70% indoors and 30% outside – was proving to be the secret sauce we’ve been talking about for months now. She was fast on the flats, …