Yesterday I did the Assault on Mt. Mitchell which is a 102 mile ride with chip timing (race to some of us ) with 11,000 ft of climbing, 6,000 of it in the last 23 miles ending at the top of Mt. Mitchell (elevation ~6600ft). I got 17th of 1000 starters with a time of 5:40 and change, but I could have done better if my power did not drop off so bad in the last 90 minutes up the majority of the climbing. My FTP is 320-340, and over the first mountain climb, I maintained and avg power of 300 watts thinking I could maintain this for the final two hours... over the next 4000ft of climbing though, I could not go past 250 watts... my heartrate was really low (140bpm) and I had no trouble making conversation with riders I passed (who were struggling so bad they couldn't respond) and course workers. My legs were weak, but I did not feel hungary or dehydrated.
Was it merely nutrition (i.e. I was out of glycogen), or is it muscle endurance . Most training literature talks about what a waste of time training sessions over 3 hours are, but is this a case of need to train 6 hours with lots of climbing in order to perform well in an event such as this? Any other ideas on how to improve sustainable power for long distance events?
Was it merely nutrition (i.e. I was out of glycogen), or is it muscle endurance . Most training literature talks about what a waste of time training sessions over 3 hours are, but is this a case of need to train 6 hours with lots of climbing in order to perform well in an event such as this? Any other ideas on how to improve sustainable power for long distance events?