@Brennus talks about 12 and 24 hour power curves. What is yours?
I’ll start with some data from my double century. I had peak fitness of 275W FTP from 19 March 2017 thru 31 May 2017. So I made a season on TrainerRoad “Double Century Peak Fitness” with those dates and here is the power curve from the double century:
185 at the 12hr mark in a solo double I did myself last year (I was shooting for 200, but faded at the end. Arguably harder, I did 10 hrs at 200w on my rollers.
While I have done a few over 12+ hour events/rides, I have only done one with a power meter. And it was a 24 hour MTB race that I did solo. So the data isn’t very good since it includes a ton of climbing, descending (15000’ in 150 miles*), and rest breaks (does not include me giving up and sleeping since it was past the 12 hour mark ). 106 watts. I don’t know my FTP back then, but I am certain it was north of 300 (5w/kg).
It’s definitely an area where training volume is king. These days my riding is 95% done on school days, during school time and I’d not feel confident taking on a long, long race without being able to do a couple of 6hr rides a week at least.
My A-Race (100km) has just added a 100Miler event which will take north of 10hours even for the faster end of the field. I’ll report back with a very long power curve after that if I ever pluck up the courage/training opportunity for that.
From last year my 6hr NP was ~220W, I think on the road I’d be able to do that sort of effort for ~8hrs before crumbling into a ball on the side of the road.
I love this thread. Here’s the only 12+ hour ride I’ve done recently, an Everesting last spring. And of course the goal here was not peak power, but instead literally going as easy as possible! .63 IF, which is basically the IF of any extended period throughout the day (shoutout consistent pacing!)
@bbarrera I tell athletes that 120W over the last several hours is pretty typical for a first 12hr. I’ve seen so many 12 hour time trial power curves converge to about that number.
Anybody who wants to do some super geeky stuff…go find the nearest ultra cycling event & take a look at the course record in your category. Take the course over to BBS and crunch to figure out what power you would have to hold to equal the course record.
I’ll be it’s a number at or around 200W. If you can hold 200W for 12 hours you can be regionally pretty good.
I did 16+ hours elapsed at 43% FTP, including zeros for all the stops. That was 12:41 moving time. And I was mostly enjoying the ride, with a little suffering in 95+ degree heat on a couple of climbs after lunch (and a case of hot foot after 120 miles or so). So it seems possible with enough mental motivation to do 40+ % for 24 hours, like you’ve done.
I’ve definitely got nothing to brag about, just a middle of the pack fifty something dude with 5+ years of cycling.
yes, how many people do a century and say 'that was so much fun I’ll do another century right now!"
Training volume averaged 7.25 hours/week from October 16 to May event, which doesn’t seem too high. This graph starts 6 October 2016 (first day with power meter) and ends the day before the double century (20 May 2017):
A lot of 6-8 hour weeks. I think doing longer rides is more mental than physical, at least once you figure out nutrition and hydration.
With the Saturday event and an active recovery the day after, that last bar would be 22 hours.
Yes, it does include zeros. Never look at power data in Strava but have to say the power curve is nicely done. Can’t get custom dates to work in Safari but maybe its my ad blocker.
The 3 hours before the last hour I was averaging 55% FTP (150W avg) and that included a 30 minute break to take off my left shoe and massage out the hot foot. And eat more real food.
The last hour was 38% FTP @ 104W but I still had plenty in the tank. The reason for slow rolling: twilight had ended, forcing me to take off my prescription sunglasses, I was back on county highways with traffic, and I felt slow rolling was safest because of tearing up (my regular prescription glasses are small and offer no protection from the wind). There is a lot of debris on the side of roads, and early that morning I had a double flat event still fresh in my mind.
Here’s mine from an Everest a few years ago. TR needs to draw the PD curve out further…
I think the little stair steps at the longer durations were due to some longer breaks at various points.
Total elapsed time for this was 33 hours.
Looking at this more closely, I’m not sure TR is showing the right data for this ride. The little spike at the end where I did an all-out effort up a really steep climb shows 219 watts average for 15 minutes when I zoom in, and that is not reflected in the PD curve.
Trying to psych myself up for doing 3 in 2022.
). 106 watts. I don’t know my FTP back then, but I am certain it was north of 300 (5w/kg).
