Posted: December 24, 2004

Multisport: EnduranceRadio.com Interview with Mike Ricci

From: EnduranceRadio.com

Tim Bourquin: “Welcome back to www.EnduranceRadio.com. This is Tim Bourquin. Thanks for joining us for another interview today. We’re going to be adding to our cycling library today. We’re going to be speaking with Mike Ricci. He is the coach from www.d3multisport.com and we’ll be linking to his website right below the link to this audio. We’re going to talk to Mike about how he trains his athletes in terms of pacing and we’re going to get some good information about how to increase endurance and performance on the bike, so for you cyclists out there that have been waiting for some more pure cycling interviews we’re going to have one for you here today. A couple of things about the site; make sure you sign up for our monthly audio newsletter. We’ve given away some great gear like wetsuits and heart rate monitors over the past couple of months to celebrate the launch of www.EnduranceRadio.com. We’re continuing to do that but you have to be a newsletter subscriber to be eligible to win, so make sure you get signed up for that. So we’re going to be right back to speak with Mike Ricci in about 30 seconds.” “Dehydration can diminish your energy and impair your performance. Scientists at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute have been studying athletes for nearly 20 years and understand what endurance athletes need to stay hydrated. Gatorade Endurance Hydration Formula contains a five electrolyte blend consisting of sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium and magnesium, formulated to replace the fluids and electrolytes you lose during longer more intense workouts and races. Find out more about Gatorade Endurance Hydration at www.gatorade.com today. Is it in you?”

Tim Bourquin: “Mike thanks very much for joining us today, I appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to talk to us at www.EnduranceRadio.com.”

Mike Ricci: “Thanks Tim, thanks for having me on.”

Tim Bourquin: “How long have you been a cycling coach?”

Mike Ricci: “I’ve been a triathlon coach for about 15, 16 years. I got my cycling certification within the last three years and I got my advanced certification this past year, which involved mostly some intricate classes, power training and learning about how to use power with cyclists and whatnot, so that quite involved and quite interesting.”

Tim Bourquin: “Do you have an overall philosophy about your training that you take toward a client and when you’re coaching them?”

Mike Ricci: “I sure do. I mean I work with a small number of athletes and what that allows me to do basically is just to get to know each athlete and know their strengths and weaknesses. It doesn’t take me too long to figure that out. It’s pretty quick when you have a guy tell you, ‘Yeah, I can hold X heart rate for a number of hours,’ and you have them try to go do a workout I’ll give them, and I’ll have them do it three or four days in a row and I know that he can’t hold that heart rate because he’s blown to pieces by the end of it. For me its just more about customization, really getting to know the athletes and knowing their strengths and weaknesses, and then that allows me really to customize what they need to work on and not just kind of give them a cookie cutter program and say, ‘Hey, I hope this works,’ because I don’t really work like that.”

Tim Bourquin: “Now you’re got some great articles on your website that you’ve written about pacing and determining zones and that sort of thing. Talk about pacing on the bike for a little bit. What kind of things do you do to train your athletes for that?”

Mike Ricci: “Sure. Pacing on the bike; most guys like to go out and hammer, you know, a lot of guys like to get together with friends, or they’ll ride with groups or clubs, and they just kind of go out there and hammer. For the most part, if you’re a cyclist, sometimes that really works because it does simulate race conditions and that’s great if you’re a cyclist. If you’re a triathlete its kind of a tougher thing to do because you’re really looking to maximize one or two races a year, whereas a cyclist, you may have many multiple stage races over the course of the season. I belong to a cycling team here in Bolder and these guys race; every month they have a stage race, so its going out there and these guys are racing hard and in January and February trying to go out there and group ride and just hammer each other, but I know that these guys are simulating what they’re going to be doing in races, and it’s a lot different than being a triathlete, whereas you want to be able to hold a steady pace and be able to get off and optimize you run, because if you don’t optimize the run then the whole field runs by you and its not a real fun race for you.”

Tim Bourquin: “Right. Now the use of power meters has really exploded over the past couple of years to get better training and better performance. Are you an advocate of those?”

Mike Ricci: “I sure am. I have a Combi-Trainer. I have many athletes who have Combi-Trainers. I have athletes who use Power Taps. There’s so much literature now and it’s such a brand new thing. The information on power is probably 20 years old maybe, and that’s really really at its infancy. We’re really finding out a lot more stuff. Basically one of the main ways to figure out how to race with power or train with power is just to try to get someone in there and get them to do a 60 minute time trial, or if you can get to a lab and do a step test and figure out what your threshold is and your power at lactate threshold, and you can determine a lot of your training zones and power output from that.”

Tim Bourquin: “Are your athletes training mostly for specific races most of the time, or do you have them just increasing endurance and performance in general?”

Mike Ricci: “Every time I take on an athlete we pretty much sit down and we plan on a season so we know exactly what races we’re targeting and what the peaks are going to be, and sometimes we train right through races, but most of the time we’re focusing on one or two big events a year; sometimes as long as 14, 16 months out.”

Tim Bourquin: “Mike when you’re coaching your athletes how do you determine whether or not you’re doing interval training or endurance training, and how do you sprinkle the two together?”

Mike Ricci: “That’s a good question, and its one I get a lot actually via e-mail from athletes. What we normally do is we set up a program for somebody in terms of increasing endurance all the time. This time of year they might be doing an hour, an hour and a half on the bike, and by January they might be doing two, two and a half hours, depending on what their goal race is. If you’re got somebody doing Olympic distance racing they really don’t need to ride more than two, two and a half hours. Someone who’s doing an Ironman race, they may ride up to six, seven hours, and in terms of how I put the intensity into the workouts, or the program, it would really depend on what the person’s limiter is. So if someone has a very limited aerobic base, and maybe they’re doing their first Ironman I really wouldn’t give them too much intensity because I want to see them be able to maximize the aerobic benefit of training. The key, in my opinion, is to be able to go out there every day and be able to get some kind of a workout in, whether it only be 30 minutes on the bike or a 20 minute run or whatever, but getting the consistency in is much better, in my point of view, than going out there and making sure every Wednesday you’re doing a hard bike workout where you’re blown for two or three days and you can’t get back on the bike because you’re just in pieces. I’d rather see them be able to just consistently train week after week after week and just keep building that endurance, so when race day comes they’re as fit as they can be aerobically. In terms of a long distance race, half Ironman, Ironman, you’re really not going to LT. I mean you could be going sub-LT or pretty close in a half Ironman, but an Ironman you should never see LT.”

Tim Bourquin: “Well I want to ask you about base training as well too because you’re written some articles on the site about that, but we need to take a quick break and we’ll be right back to speak with Mike Ricci.” “As an endurance athlete you have special hydration needs. Introducing Gatorade Endurance Hydration Formula, developed for elite and endurance athletes for use during their longer, most intense workouts and races. Research shows you’re going to sweat out more essential fluids and minerals during prolonged training and races. Find out how to put them all back properly at www.gatorade.com. Get the edge you need to achieve that PR you’ve been training for. Gatorade Endurance Hydration Formula, nobody does hydration better. Is it in you?”

Tim Bourquin: “Mike talk about base training. You’ve written some articles about that on your website, a refresher course if you will. For those people who are new to that, what exactly are we talking about when we talk about zones and base training?”

Mike Ricci: “Zones and base training; basically what I like to do is have my athletes take a little break at the end of the year and then we’ll start up again in what we call a prep period, and then that kind of moves into a base period where they start with just building their endurance back up, and in terms of zones; sometimes what I do with athletes is I just kind of let them go without a heart rate monitor, without any wattage, for sometimes four to six weeks, just to let them get back in the groove and let them get used to training again and not worrying about, ‘Oh my god, I’m so out of shape, my heart rate’s ten beats higher than normal.’ Just forget that. Just go out there and ride, do some efficiency stuff and just worry about getting that base back and getting the pounds back off after the holidays, and then once we both feel that they’re fit and they’re ready to start training with a little more structure than we’ll start adding in some wattage and start adding in some heart rate zones for them.”

Tim Bourquin: “Do you do any thing unusual in terms of training outside of just the three legs of a triathlon? Do you do any other types of sports to get endurance up; strength training perhaps?”

Mike Ricci: “Absolutely, strength training absolutely. Core strength, I find, is very very important. The athletes I have that strength train typically have less injuries than people who don’t. I can see the difference in some guys in core from one year to the next in terms of just being able to hold their form together later in a race, especially on a run, and also in terms of just different types of training. I have a lot of athletes who live in cold weather environments and they do a lot of cross-country skiing, they do snow shoeing. Go out there and do a 10K snow shoe race and then come back and run a regular 10K and you’ll see how much easier it is. It’s just incredible, just cross-training, how much it helps you as a triathlete.”

Tim Bourquin: “Well we talked about how you break up endurance and interval training. How about the swimming, the biking and the running; what percentage, and it’s probably based on an individual, but do you have a formula that you like to use?”

Mike Ricci: “I sure do. Depending on what time of season it is, right now what I typically do with people is I have them do a sport rotation where they may focus on swimming for six or eight weeks and then running for six or eight weeks, and then cycling for six or eight weeks. Just because they live in a cold weather environment they may not be able to get outside on the bike again until March so why have them spend hours and hours sitting on a trainer, so I have them focus on the swim, but typically most of the training I do is focused, when we’re in a balanced program, the cycling will be 50% or more and then I’ll break down the running to about 35% – 40%, the swim is usually around 10% - 15% of total volume just because if you look at a race that’s pretty much the way the race is set up, but it also depends on someone’s limiters and their strengths. If I give it to someone who used to be a pro cyclist and they’re going to be a triathlete, maybe they don’t need to spend so much of the time on their bike, but they may need to spend 30% - 40% of that time in the pool, so it’s kind of crossing. You’ve got to know who you’re dealing with and who you’re working with.”

Tim Bourquin: “Now nutrition wise, are you setting up plans for those as well?”

Mike Ricci: “I absolutely do. I’m not a nutritionist. I kind of give guidelines. I can’t offer advice not being a nutritionist, but I know what works for me, I know it works for the people I’ve coached and I’m always looking for new ideas and better ideas and better products. I understand that Gatorade’s come out with a new line as well right now. I haven’t tried that out yet but I have a few athletes that really like it. Typically I have a pretty good formula in terms of how I have people do their training, what we call race simulations, when I have them go through the whole thing; they’re wearing their race uniform, they have their race wheels on, they’re going through all the nutrition that they’re going to use in the race, and may we’ll come back after that and they’ll say, ‘Well, you know, I was great until I was an hour into the run and I started getting cramp’, so maybe it was nutrition so we have to go back and look at things a lot. You can be as well trained as anyone in the world, and if you get out there and your nutrition stinks, you’re out of luck.”

Tim Bourquin: “Sure. Well we’re out of time Mike, but of course listeners can go to Mike’s website, www.d3multisport.com by clicking on the link below the link to this audio interview. Mike thanks very much, I appreciate you talking with us today.”

Mike Ricci: “Thanks Tim, my pleasure.”

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