That’s a perfect response, I really appreciate it. Last question, have you played with even pacing vs. “fly and die” for 1 minute, and what do you find to be the best way to pace an effort that short? Like, would just blasting it out the gate and dying into the finish actually produce higher avg watts (separate from the discussion of if it would result in higher speed, which I’m pretty sure track cyclists do for that reason)
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Because most hill climbs start from stationary, it is best to be at a top speed as soon as possible, much like the kilo. There is no point in continuing to increase your watts when you cross the finish line, with your legs wanting to have given up 15 seconds ago.
For example, you can KOM strava segments with a faster starting speed and lower average watts, than starting slow and putting in larger watts as you want to be at the highest avg speed regardless of watts for the segment.
On the other hand, a 3+ minute hill climb requires much flatter pacing as noone can sprint for 3 minutes! (Maybe Calum can…)
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“fly and die” vs even pacing for highest average watts, interesting question when disregarding speed.
Physiologically it’s hard to think of an argument either way. I suppose when starting harder you would reach your maximum rate of oxygen delivery sooner therefore you’d have more comparative time working at that Vo2max during the 60sec. Conversely I cant think of a physiological benefit to the even pacing strategy… You’d be less likely to “blow up” but since we’re disregarding speed, I don’t think that would matter. Even if you did “blow” you’d still be able to pedal at your max aerobic power so I don’t see why you wouldn’t produce the same KJs overall, it would just be in a different distribution.
There could maybe be benefit to doing it on a hill instead of a track since you have a the added gravitational resistance and can easily stand to pedal at any point if you’d like. Although you largely get good at what you practice, so maybe its a wash.
I have noticed that towards the end of any all out effort, when your legs appear to be so acidic that they can no longer relax and you start to go very stiff, obviously you can no longer maintain a high cadence with any power, but that doesn’t mean that they cant still produce decent torque! So I have found that counter-intuitively selecting a higher gear means you can still produce OK power as you grind out the final pedal strokes with as high a torque as possible. Something track riders don’t get to do.
Anyway, that’s all just a fun hypotheticals haha, in reality all races are speed based. Hill Climb TTs all begin from a held up standing start. If the hill is a consistent gradient then a hard start to get up to speed and then perfectly even pacing so you collapse over the finish line exhausted is what will give you your lowest time. An interesting part of Hill Climbs is that since the gradients are almost never consistent your pacing strategy can be all over the place. You want to be putting in a harder than average power on the steeper sections and a lower than average power on the shallower sections to get your perfect time. All with the risk of blowing up just before the line and “rolling back down the hill” haha.
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Out of curiosity, you also mentioned squat and deadlift, what were your 1RM of 5 rep fo theses two lifts when you were achieving these monstrous watts? 
I used to lift a lot when I was 18-20yo, but I am nowhere near my PB at past 40y. I am working on it to have a decent squat.
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Looking back over my training…
I did 1071w for 60sec in mid May but hadn’t lifted since two months prior in mid March.
In March I was doing a lot of deadlifts and leg press. Always low volume, high weight and max force (max speed), even in drop sets/ warm up sets.
In March my DL was 190kg and squat 145kg, but obviously it would be lower when I did my power PBs.
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Thanks for sharing. That makes sense. Last year I was at a DL of 125kg for 3 set of 5.
I will start strenght in two weeks and might introduce high velocity later in March. I am nowhere near your max power but I will be happy if I can reach 1500w peak this year.
FYI I can hit those strength numbers and some more however, my 1 min power is no where near 1000w. Just pointing out that being able to lift heavy isn’t going to be a total fix.
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While this is of course really good, it is surprisingly low for someone who can do for 1 Minute what I can do for 10 seconds.
1’000 for a minute is still hard to fathom. Great work, definitely!
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Fully agree. Pure strength will help short duration power and still you will need to work explosivity with power clean or plyo works.
1 min minute power is another animal though.
I used to do track as a junior and I hit 1900w ( Although I am not sure of the accuracy of the meter at the time). I was doing 200kg squat for a 80kg bodyweight.
I have lower expectations for now 
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Nice, appreciate the transparency and share, you must be fun on bunch rides lol
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