Is this a stupid idea? I’ll tell you my reasons at the end but first, some context for the race:
The race isn’t an insanely hard one from one point of view. It’s kind of like an interval session in itself. It runs like this every year:
2 laps of:
15 mins Z2
4 mins max hill effort
2 mins descend
4 mins max hill effort
2 mins descend
25 mins Z2
7-9 mins max hill effort depending who you are
15 mins Z2
Finishes on top of the 7-9 min max hill effort on Lap 2.
I race cat 5 so there’s no real strategy, team work or breakaway. It’s all about not getting dropped in the hills until the last climb. Easy parts are super easy unless you lose wheels somehow. Hard parts are extremely hard because of giant talent / fitness difference.
I say that it’s not a super hard one but it’s also pretty impossible for me to win with my 4w/kg FTP and not a crazy high 4 min power / weight. I just try to finish better every year. I’m also working on delivering my best power at the end of the race. Getting better but haven’t been able to achieve that yet even at my current trained gut going through 120grams / hour of sugar. I’m always BEAT towards the end and the last hill is a good bit slower than my first lap every time.
Talent is crazy and it’s not uncommon to see KOM’s or top 10 results on climb segments even in cat 5 every year, which makes it very hard to not get dropped until the end, let alone win it. Because there’s not much strategy though, you end up catching the group if you kill yourself and/or work together with chasers at tempo instead of Z2. Then you just get dropped in the last climb again anyway.
Anyway so the question is, this year I kinda wanna replace Sunday interval sessions with actual race sims, hoping it will help me practice/train durability and nutrition. I did one yesterday and REALLY enjoyed it. Helped me strategize when and where to take nutrition and find where I’m lacking in the power department. Would I benefit from running this every weekend or am I better off just doing intervals, which I don’t find nearly as fun.
Despite being cat 5, I’ve been doing structured training for the last 10 years. Especially disciplined in the last 2 years averaging 12 hours of structured training per week. Just going through a little bit of mental burnout and only thing that makes it more fun is actual race and race prep / sims or pr attempts nowadays.
Any input appreciated!
Bonus points for guessing this California race.
Hope that word salad made sense!