31 July - Diary Update

Livigno

Being my 7th year here, Livigno feels like my second home. I always feel so focused, happy and relaxed here and training is just the best to rebuild for the second half of the season. It is a small town in the mountains at an altitude of 1870m on the Swiss-Italian border and attracts skiers galore in the winter and many cyclists and shoppers in the summer. Livigno is a tax free province so many avid shoppers travel here to grab a bargain on clothes, electronics, shoes, perfume and petrol, which is only 70cents per litre!

I am telling a slight untruth because I am actually staying at Stelvio this year, which is a ski resort at 2760m, 1000m higher than Livigno. There is not much up here, no shops no Internet, and no TV in the rooms, just awesome views! (photo 1) So, regular trips are made down this beast of a mountain to Livigno to entertain ourselves when we are not so hammered from training. I am up here with the Aussies, who are holding a 3week training camp directed by our country’s top sports scientist, Dave Martin. He organised a research grant to ascertain as to what extent altitude benefits performance and what affects it has on an athlete’s physiology. It was decided to conduct the camp up at Stelvio instead of Livigno because of it being 1000m higher. I definitely know altitude-training works for me because in the past I have always experienced awesome form afterwards. So, I wonder if being at another 1000m higher will heighten my form spike even more? Well one thing for certain is that climbing home up this 25k berg each day is bound to have its own benefits!

Being a lack of oxygen up here, there are a few things to be aware of when first arriving at altitude and these are headaches, nauseas, blood noses, restless sleeping, dehydration and an increase in appetite. Most of these subside after a few days so the first week of training must always be relatively easy to allow the body to adjust to the change. The weather is also something to get used to! Today is a beautiful, sunny 30degree day but the first few days after we arrived, there was a snow blizzard, which I found really quite exciting! (photo 3) Stelvio is one of the few places where it is possible to ski throughout the whole of summer however ironically the mountain is only open in the summer because there is too much snow to remain open in the winter! Check out the differences between these two photos with a just a week separating the time the two were taken!

The Stelvio is a mountain that is well renown and highly respected amongst all cyclists, and many social riders travel afar to conquer this beast. There are 3 ways up the mountain with one side starting in Switzerland. This side is 18k and the other 2 sides are 25k and 22k. During our stay, a Gran Fondo (fun ride) was held up the 22k side of Stelvio. There were over 3000 riders who lined up for a bit of fun as well as hundreds of crazy runners! The unbelievable thing was that one runner reached the top in an hour and half…this is the time it takes me to ride up! It was a really fun day and at the top, everyone was awarded a medal as well as a jersey.

Another cool thing about staying up this little bit higher is the Edelweiss flower. The sweet Italian man at reception gave me a couple of these special flowers and told me that they only grow above 2000m. They are just beautiful; I have never seen a flower like it. (photo 7) I also have to show you this photo of the little utes they use up here in this terrain…(photo 8) The mountains really are nothing like we have in Oz. The narrow roads switch back and forth up towards the sky and the road signs kindly count down these switchbacks as you make your way up climb after climb after climb…there aint much flat when in the mountains! (Photo 9) It is absolutely amazing how so many years ago they were able to build roads over this steep, hungry country and even more amazing to watch the occasional bus perform its 3 point turn around every switchback. To give you a bit of an idea of the profile of the training rides over the past 3weeks, check out one of my Polar Heart Rate files of one of the days. The blue line is speed, the red line is my heart rate and the brown line is the profile.

The training camp has now come to an end and I will test out my ‘new’ legs in Thuringen Rundfahrt, which is a 6day tour in Germany starting Tuesday. I will then travel to China to reconnoitre the Olympic course, which I must say I am very, very excited about! I will let you know how it goes and fill you in on my thoughts of the course, which is apparently supposed to go along/over the ‘Great Wall of China’! The countdown has certainly begun…only 383days to go!

Ciao for now,

Sara

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