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Old July 23rd 06, 06:50 PM posted to rec.skiing.nordic
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Default how much training ...


32 degrees wrote:
Kind of OFF TOPIC, but kinda on topic... Just read ( see below ) that FLoyd Landis was training up to 50 hours/week riding in his early formative years.
Is this what it takes to get to the top?? wow, thats huge hours. I remember some elite college skiing buddies mentioning 25 hours a week and I thought that was huge. Maybe these huge hours that Floyd was doing early on are what it takes to develop yourself fully for later ??
JK


I've heard it expostulated that anyone with a more or less normal
physiology has what it takes to become a top cyclist. At least in the
physical department. It's then a matter of mental strength and proper
training. Floyd himself says it's all about he who trains hardest and
most wins.

Pros ride about 35,000km a year in training. Call that an average of 3
hours per day, 6 days a week. Actually it's probably more during the
season and pre-season. 50 hours per week seems extreme but I suppose it
helped more than it hurt.

If I won lotto I'm sure I could swing 25 a week. If it were a job as
exciting as bike racing, no problem upping that. I'm sure skiing is the
same.

Joseph


Landis won the junior national cross country race at Michigan's Traverse City when he was 18.

He graduated from Conestoga Valley High School in 1994 and moved to Irvine in California where he first raced for TWB - a tiny bike component company - and then for Chevy Trucks.

However,Landis' cycling career appeared to be over when the latter sponsorship was yanked in the spring of 1998.

He decided not to return to Farmsersville but stayed in California and did what came naturally: he rode for hours on end.

"I didn't know what else to do," he says.

Landis was still unemployed after a couple of months of 50-hour training weeks - but in terrific shape. He and Geoghegan - who'd been a Chevy Trucks teammate - decided to enter some road races. The pair took pleasure in creating chaos in the peloton; they'd attack out of the gate and stage arguments in front of other riders: "It's my turn to go."

http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishex...522-qqqx=1.asp


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