Level to race?

bigbadwoulfe

I've posted this on another forum but I hope I also get answers from here since this is the section that I visit the most and also the section that inspired so much. Here it goes.

I'm a recreational mountain bike rider with no experience whatsoever racing mountain bikes. I have two months to go before my target race. My current ftp is at 298, 20 minute power is 308, 5 minute power is around 350, and 1 minute power is around 700++ (according to monod). My problem now is what level should I race? Sport? Expert? Elite? In the coming two months, I'm planning to increase my technical skills in preparation for the race. I will also be continuing to try to increase my ftp to around 325 (I hope I can) before the race. So guys, please help me out . Thanks in advance

daveryanwyoming

I'd race Sport if I were you. Even if your FTP is high relative to your weight and the course has a lot of climbing there's still the technical skills. You can gain a lot on climbs and lose an awful lot on technical descents and single track sections. If you do a couple of Sport races and you're dominating, then do the classy thing and upgrade but you'll be gaining race experience and race day technical skills along the way.

Good luck,
Dave

waterrockets

I'd say to race sport or beginner. Even in beginner, there will be a couple riders who are strong enough to challenge you.

The power numbers aren't very meaningful without your weight.

You use Monod to estimate your 1-minute power??? What are your anchor durations?

bigbadwoulfe

oh sorry. current weight is around 73 kgs (160.7 lbs) and still dropping. Estimated weight during the event would be 70 kgs. achor points 1, 5, 14, and 20 minutes (i think). I've done an hour long test on rolling terrain and came up with 293 during the middle of a training week but that was two weeks ago. I started biking in general last August of 2007 and just started structured training last December from a base test result of 242 watts. Current CTL is at 85 and TSB -12. Training started when I was inspired by the Tyson thread. I was one of those lurkers who read through the entire thread from start to finish

Hey SLY! THANKS AGAIN FOR THE INSPIRATION!

TBiking

Big,



I race MTB at an expert level with similar (slightly) less power numbers then you. I consistently in top ten, can get top 5 in 30% of races and occasionally get on podium. In choosing you have to know what the issues are in using that power / racing to success.



ISSUE 1 – Expert level racing typically takes a big step up over Sport in distance. Typically it is the same technical course as sport and beginner but more laps (most courses). I moved up (sport to expert) about 5 years ago and it took me a season to adjust to the need for power over the extra distance.



ISSUE 2 – Point one is very related to earlier comments about technique. A smooth rider will handle most course obstacles and rock gardens without slowing down or have to “power through” everything. This saves a whole lot of energy. You can often tell racers that have just moved up from Sport as they are working hard in tough sections (watch how much they use their brakes) and easy in smooth section where an expert has the technique to work smooth in the hard sections and keep pressure on you in smooth (this can easily crack a more fit but less technique orientated rider). That being said it means (no science behind this) the worse your technique the more power (NP) you will burn to keep up. You will burn more “matches” in tough spots while a good expert will not. This is OK if your conditioning is better and you can afford to burn the extra power but understand the longer the race (expert vs. sport), the more your conditioning will need to be better the competitors if your technique is just average. All points being made I believe the key difference between sport and expert is technique, not conditioning.



ISSUE 3 – How you burn energy / generate power in much different in MTB then road racing and time trial (and even crits). It is like a long time trial with numerous power bursts (and a sprint start, not just finish). Once you move to expert, the competition will never let you “relax” like a road race or even crit (by dropping back in group, relax might be wrong word but recover) and the course will force you into expending power and energy in bursts. One of the things I can tell you that is the difference between Sport and Expert is how racers “attack” and respond to attacks. MTB races tends to break into small groups quickly and in Sport this results in the group attacking at points and settling at points, in Expert, they keep the pressure on all the time. Attacks are countered and pressure kept on once caught. When I was getting good at the Sport level I could attack and make a sport rider give up pretty quickly then settle in for a bit and recover as soon as I got enough out of sight and count on them doing the same, once I went expert they killed me for trying to do this. I would attack and try to settle in and they would swarm me, beat me down, take my lunch and leave me trail side,,,initially it was pretty discouraging.



You power numbers look pretty good and are enough to race expert but think Sport is a better answer till you feel good about technique.



Just my 2 cents.

falls_alot

TBiking:
Are there a few variations on L4 training that you'd recommend?

I was thinking of doing something like 20 min @95%, with a 20 second surge upto to 110% every 3 minutes...

Thanks!
Pat

TBiking

Falls - actually I am always afraid to give advice as I have always been a train by riding person who is now trying to learn to be more efficient. I just started training with power this year so have to go back to previous experience for an answer.

As part of my late base and early race tuning phases I would do a lot of over / under intervals that basically would be what you are saying. I always did them by heart rate and PE but basically did an LT level interval for 15 – 20 minutes where I would alternate surges. Early in the training year I would do 3 minutes on LT and 1 minute push over LT ( maybe 110% in power terms but guessing) and after a few of those would begin to reduce the recovery time and reduce the “push” time while raising intensity to basically end up with what you are suggesting.

(To me)A big key is what pace you recover at. When I road ride with the hammer heads and race on the road (I am only Cat 4 on road as I don’t race more then 2 – 3 a year, and even if I focused would have a hard time moving up due to age and power) I find that there are some people I ride with that tend to have more power and more sustainable power but I can recover at a higher pace (now I would say higher power) then they can. When racing MTB expert, all the top riders have this ability. I am not saying anything negative about the effort of road racing, I get my ass kicked when I try it, just pointing the difference and an advantage I believe that doing some over / under style intervals can bring (but remember, I am not a coach or have any scientific proof, just experience and feeling).