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While there are lots of local races throughout the season, there is only one “in my back yard”. So naturally, I like to do either the MTB race, or the Road race. I did both one year, and well…let”™s not go there. Since I took the entire year off my normal MTB schedule, and our Road Team won last year”™s team category, it seemed like the right thing to do, even though it was the longest, “experienced” race route of the group.
If you”™ve read my previous 2 blogs however, you”™ll recall that I am training for the “unrace” - the Dirty Dozen where just finishing will be counted as something I didn”™t think possible - thus this new training focus. So the race wouldn”™t be consistent with this plan, except for one thing. I am on a mission to raise my Threshold to give me more cieling and expand my VO2 in the process - thereby raising the two biggest limiters of power, and climbing hills that average 18% and higher will be ALL ABOUT power.
From that perspective, I guess I accomplished my objectives, but I”™m just not sure getting all of the required time in Zone 5 (the real work that has to be done to raise ones Threshold) in the first hour of riding was actually the best way to go about it. What WAS I thinking!?!
I will say this, the thrill of riding in the front with my Team Captain, Chris and “the big boys” for the first 15 minutes was worth the remaining suffering that ensued. For those 15 minutes I was pacelining at 25 to 28 mph, on a road that I normally do 18 to 21 by myself. I even pulled for a short while with Chris telling me to pick up the pace. So it was a little “fantasy” racing for those brief moments… ah, it was so good… and then reality set in.
If you look at my heart rate graph, you”™ll see it was in those early minutes that hit 177 BPM, which is 5 beats above the highest number I have ever seen since I started wearing a HR monitor about 8 years ago. I started training with my normal, deconditioned threshold of 150, and raised it last week to 155 as I saw it creeping through my first month of training. I will take a New Leaf test tomorrow to confirm exactly where it is, and set my zones for the remaining 9 weeks or so of training. Anyway… I digress.
When I saw how much above Threshold I was riding, and knowing that our biggest climb was coming up in a few miles, I decided I better save what matches were left in my book to make sure I could finish. The rest of my ride and thought process is listed in the graphic. I finished with a personal best of 16.6 mph average over the 37 miles. But clearly my PB is not good enough to even hang with the slowest riders in that group.
That brings me to a great lead in for my next post… riding to win, riding to compete, riding to finish… what”™s the point. Stay tuned.
Originally posted 2011-01-25 13:05:22.
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The first time you talk about this “Race”, one thing was coming tomy mind “How do you manage to saty balence on the bike ? What gear do you have to use ?”
Of cause if it was not a time of the year my fitness is horrible I would love to do it …
In mountain bike we often have those level of difficulties not just because of the grade but also the ground.
I remember last year on the Giro one Top crazy grade finish climb theyr were armering with really low RPM …
So I am currious how you guys have you manage that ? Gear and bike.
For your preparation … nice … perfect for someone ready to do a goodtime … BUT … it did not work as you expected.
I would have approched it differently for your preparation.
What does those grade demand ? Incredeble stress on the muscular system … does it stress the cardio ? Yes but I think the cardio-system is stress because of the nature of the contraction, that is more like a isometric one’s. So the heart have to work a lot not because of the intensity of the work but because it has to FIGHT the resistance provoque by the muscular “block”.
So I would have done weight training with heavy load, mounatin bike for the handling and low gear, and longuer steady climb indoor to habit the heart to fight a “muscular blood resistance”.
As you see I do not talk about the cardio-system training; I prefer talking about stress on the muscles.
I think working LT and over LT is good if your overall preparation and experience is good enought to passe those hill with power and not with strenght. Not everybody can do it, I know that I can not do that not my skills at all.
One think would be interesting for next year, is to train 2 groupes 2 differents way and see the result.
As you say training have to be personnelise but I think it have also to be personnelised depending on the cycling experience and personnal skills not just a great protocole.
No doubt Pascal, there are many different ways to train, and despite the differences, the human body can be improved to accomplish the tasks. But as you said, it has to be personalized. You may find reading about my training for the dirty dozen interesting – I actually think this comment you made was for that race, but the blog above seems to be about a different race this year. You can find lots of good geeky data on that training and race here: http://cyclingfusion.com/fanatics/