Chicagoan Patrick Nardi couldn’t figure out a good place to put his race number on his bike. So he invented one.
I talked to a former highly competitive runner the other day, who lamented the fact that he wasn’t fast anymore. He’s in his 50s.
Why Do You Do It?
Anthony Lisinicchia, endurance cyclist
How did you get into endurance sports?
I was going to the University of Hawaii at Hilo, and on one of our many trips to Hapuna Beach, I saw something called the Ironman. The rest, as they say, is history. We couldn’t get to the beach because the bike race was going on. Initially, we were really ticked off, but we were forced to sit down and watch it. My feelings went from anger to intrigue to curiosity, and the next thing I knew, I bought a bike.
What would you say to a non-participant to try to make him understand why you exercise to the degree that you do?
I guess there are worse things to be addicted to. It really is 90 percent from the neck up. I love to ride my bike. It’s fun for me. The minute it stops being fun is the minute I stop doing it. And that was something I experienced on a personal level. After my third Ironman, it took me six months to recover. There would be training days when I would be limping through the day, and that wasn’t fun for me. It was too painful.
What goes through your mind when you’re biking on a country road in the middle of a really long ride?
Everything. I go through stages. When I’m training, it’s more or less ensuring that I’m listening to what my body wants and what it needs. When I’m racing, especially on the longer races, it’s taking account of where I am and where I need to be, and setting mini-goals for myself along the way. I’m not thinking strategy the whole time. One time, there was a particular scene from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” I have no reason to explain this, but the last race I did, when I did 430 miles, I couldn’t get it out of my head. It was the scene where Cameron is sitting in his car deciding whether or not he should go over to Ferris’ house.
What is your current exercise routine?
During the season, I’ll do strength training once or twice a week, and I’ll try to ride every day. Depending on the volume of that particular week, I may ride six or seven days. On a high-volume week, I might be riding close to 25 hours, which is between 350 and 500 miles. I might have, at the most, four of those weeks in a 48-week training period. I rode just under 10,000 miles last year.
What benefits does your lifestyle afford you?
I’d say lean body mass, but I’m not a lean guy! Probably mental stamina, mental toughness. A race that I did in February—it was the single greatest day of cycling of my life. I rode 430.3 miles. I covered that mileage solo, and I averaged 19.5 miles per hour. It was a long day. There were times when it was a chore, but there were times when it was bliss. —EC
Anthony Lisinicchia is the manager at The Bike Shop in Glen Ellyn.
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