Friday, February 8, 2008
Seeking every edge on track, work off track crucial
Special to indycar.com
For anyone who still doubts that race car drivers are athletes, perhaps they should box a few rounds with Wade Cunningham, row against Scott Dixon, run a triathlon with Tony Kanaan or go on a bicycle ride with Ed Carpenter.
"When you get to the level that IndyCar Series drivers are, you are looking for every competitive edge that you can find," said PitFit Training president Jim Leo, who has been training Indy-car racing drivers since 1994. "The teams spend vast amount of resources on the car, the engines, the tires and wind tunnel testing. These teams have done everything they can possibly do with the mechanical machine. The next thing you turn to is how to improve the human performance aspect."
Leo has seen the correlation of cardiovascular conditioning to success on the racetrack.
"In the days long ago, drivers could just get in the car and just drive the car and their pure driving skill would compensate for a lack of physical fitness," Leo said. "I think that's how it was in the 1960s and 1970s. When you started to see drivers see the money increase, the resources increase and the technology expand, you started to see this influx of Formula One drivers come over in the mid- to late-1990s and having success. Guys like Mark Blundell and Alex Zanardi and Mauricio Gugelmin and Gil de Ferran. These guys came over and part of their everyday routine was a stringent physical fitness program."
Leo has worked with drivers in all forms of racing. IndyCar Series and Indy Pro Series drivers currently in his program include Dixon, Cunningham, Darren Manning, CR Crews, Sarah Fisher and Chris Festa.
There are many ways of reaching cardio fitness goals, and the methods are as diverse as the IndyCar Series drivers.
"Every driver has their own particular favorite activities they like," Leo said. "Cycling is a popular activity with just about every driver. It's fast-paced. You get somewhere. Sports like cycling are very popular. Running and triathlons have been very popular with our program for a long, long time because you train many different disciplines and it keeps them from getting stale. Rowing is very popular. We do indoor rowing."
Dixon, the 2003 IndyCar Series champion who nearly won the title last season, has turned the exercise into competition.
"I wouldn't say I'm an expert rower but I think it is fun," Dixon said. "It's four people and that can be fun. My biggest cardio is running by a long shot, then cycling and then rowing. We row on rowing machines. They aren't even on the water. We do four people for 2,000 meters. We are only on there for a minute-and-a-half each."
Some others like the hand-eye coordination and cardio benefits of boxing.
"Wade Cunningham likes to spar, but boxing is a huge part of our program," Leo said. "The physical demands that you encounter with something like cycling or swimming or rowing, the aerobic benefit is huge but boxing offers a very unique kind of training. It develops the core and the shoulder area of the driver, which are two of the biggest areas they use in the race car."
Helio Castroneves has long included boxing into his overall fitness routine.
"I have to say it's one of the hardest things you have to do because you are not only applying jumping and pushing but at the same time you are working your shoulders arms and neck," Castroneves said.
"My normal workout routine is from 9-11 a.m. We normally do stretching, warming up and then go through the normal routine of lifting weights, not as heavy as you want to be a big guy but enough to have endurance and the cardio is doing sprints, 10 times at 100 yard with one- or two-minute rests. That makes a big difference improving your cardiovascular fitness."
Carpenter likes to get a good workout by averaging 20 miles an hour for 2 hours at a time on his bike.
"That's the length of our races so it's a good fit," Carpenter said. "It's not too high intensity, it's like we are in the car and what we face in the car. You are averaging around 20 miles an hour over the ride. I'm more watching the time than how many miles I'm going.
"I think a lot of that comes down to your personality, what things get you flustered, how you do under pressure. That is one of the things that training and cycling helps. To have a hard workout cycling you have to be on the bike for a long period of time. That is what tests you mentally is when you are doing something for a long period of time and start to get fatigued and staying mentally sharp and focused when your body is fatigued you stay strong and get through the situation."