Newer cyclist here, riding ~3years, only now structured last few months with TR. Trying to figure out what kind of time I should expect to finish Unbound 200 in or a power I should target from those more experienced. FTP has improved with structured training, up to 189w at 148lbs. Riding ~10 hours a week since December. I’m thinking about trying to hold IF 60, or 115w for the day but definitely don’t want to blow up and have never ventured past 100miles. Any advice appreciated!
The .6 IF sounds pretty conservative, but that’s not a bad place to start if you haven’t previously done long events as a reference point. Maybe try to get some long rides in prior to the event to see if you can stretch that closer to .65+. With good endurance, pacing, fueling, etc., .7IF or higher is possible. And blowing up can be as much about fueling/hydration and the weather (ie- heat) as it is about fitness.
I don’t know what 115w would translate to for unbound finish time (and there are so many variables), but there are 2 ways I’d suggest estimating it -
-Best bike split (tool/app for pacing should help will give you a general estimate)
-Strava stalking -You need a premium membership, but I’ve found this to be really good and you can dig into specific segments and also review the efforts of others, how long they stopped, how they paced, how their power dropped during the day, etc. Takes a good bit of research and time, but a good way to learn a lot about the course and how wattage might translate to time for a person of a given weight range. Just remember to ignore anybody on strava that isn’t using real power data (it will be indicated in the segment data). The one big thing you can’t see in Strava is how drafting affects pace, but if you average out enough data points it tends to come out in the wash.
2 Likes
Start logging longer rides.
If you go into Unbound having never ventured over 100 miles, you are in for a very long day. You need to start doing longer rides on the weekend. Not certain what your longest ride has been this season, but time is getting short. You really only have 6-7 opportunities to start getting longer rides in.
1 Like