James Piccoli Interview: Minimize Your Weaknesses, Intervals, Training Philosophy

Huge thanks to James for taking the time to do this. We sat down just as he got back from Tour of Rwanda where he was on the GC Podium.

Topics below!

The soft skills of being a pro: why does he leave in Andorra. He was a Canadian citizen working for an Israeli team and living in Europe. Border crossings can be difficult.

James’ trajectory from Local Racing to World Tour Pro. There are so many gems in the humanization of this absolute beast!

Talent, potential, and progression: it’s a fairy tale.

Benchmarks that he used to measure progress. There was a bit of faith here as it’s not always easy to measure.

The character traits needed to become a professional athlete.

Reading to become a better athlete.

Self coaches athletes; James did it all alone until he reached the World Tour!

The obsession with w/kg

2019 Tour of Utah, why is he the most proud of this one?

James almost quit cycling! Similar to Taco van der Hoorn.
A LOT of athletes experience this feeling of wanting to call it quits

Resilience

Training: learning what didn’t work

Polarized Training: very easy or very hard. Easy means being able to have a conversation with people while riding. 65% FTP or easier.

Hard is 400W or up.
Tailoring training to the needs of the event. “Where can I make up the most time for the GC?”

Using discomfort to increase your fitness is not “suffering”.

Intervals: hitting both sides of the power band

A little over threshold, and a little under. Small peaks and attacks! Micro bursts in the intervals

Once again, another high level athlete points out the obsession with FTP! This does not reflect the skills needed to win a race or be the fastest athlete.

James general training philosophy is all about developing skills.

You can’t have a weakness. Be an all around! Minimize weaknesses.

https://youtu.be/SoQwYMwp9HU