By a (un)fortunate turn of events I've ended up In Belgium and have the ability to race kermesses twice a week (usually wed/sat and sunday) I just did the first proper kermesse of the year and got punted after 20 mins and a DNF. The field got split and everyone was pushing as hard as possible and I think that's one of the reasons why I got punted so bad.
I got quite demotivated. Half the field DNFed(but I think I'm the 2nd one to dnf though). I've had a [censored] winter working hard at uni and finding excuses not to train.
I really want to race the Kermesses, finnish and probably be competitive. Last year I did one kermesse when I was out of form in the off season(last race of the year) and I survived for a hour and a bit. I've noticed kermesses are characterized by crit like efforts where every 30-60 sec you sprint at about 800-1000 watts then you keep hard in the saddle for about 20more sec. Basically first 40 mins of the kermesse are the hardest, they last for about 2:45 mins(100-120kms at 42+km/h)
My Question is Do you recon it would be better the stop going to Kermis races and focus on my training only, or try and do 2 times a week and get punted, hopefully gaining fitness and being able to survive more each time?
Also anyone give me tips on my focus on training. My periodization is quite [censored] this year.. My FTP is around 3.8w/kg right now(It was around 4.4 last year at peak) and my anaerobic(1min) and vo2(5min) max powers have suffered quite a bit. I'm doing training camp soon where I hope I'll boost my ftp a bit...
What do you recon my training focus should be and do you recon I have a chance?(I can do about 15hours a week on the bike)