Regarding a long event (12+ hours) is it a valuable strategy to attempt to mimic the winner’s IF (Intensity Factor) as a pacing strategy for myself? So if the winner finished in 10 hours at an IF of 0.59, is it reasonable for me to pace at the same IF knowing that my race will be 12+ hours? Should …

I wouldn’t try to copy the winner’s IF unless I wanted to mimic their race strategy, style, and duration. You’ve already suggested your duration will be 20% longer than theirs was - this alone means that the same IF will not apply to you To further differentiate - it is likely there will be signif…

[image] trpnhntr: To further differentiate - it is likely there will be significant pacing differences between the two of you - surging vs TTing, etc. I think the pacing will be roughly the same (winner vs me), not much surging in this event when 70% will be z2 and under: [image]

Is your IF meaningful in other races, and can you pace by IF in training? I don’t really know about mtb, but I do wonder if the ‘intervals’ (time pedelling hard) are long enough on technical single track to give useful NP, and IF. I might be wrong, but I think the way NP is calculated, it isn’t usua…

I’m looking for an effort of about 12 hours, if I’m lucky. I’ve never trained or ridden for much over 9 hours and I typically race XCO (1:10 - 2:20 hours), so I’m looking for my ceiling power and approximate NP for a rough guide. I want to be able to look at these numbers every 10 miles or so in t…

Sounds reasonable to me. I also set a climbing wattage ceiling for myself. I think it’s those harder efforts that don’t feel hard in the moment that really catch up with you later in the race.

I would think if you are out on the course longer IF needs to be lower than the race winner. Being able to hold a higher percentage of ftp is a trait that will separate the winners from the rest of us.

Did you get a chance to test your theory? I’m listening to the Successful Athlete’s Pod with Keegan Swenson and he and @Jonathan are discussing his pacing being 0.7IF. I understand he’s a world class athlete, but I’m curious how it scales.

[image] mailman: Did you get a chance to test your theory? Umm, not really, lol. My effort had so much hike-a-bike, suffered from heat exhaustion and cramps, and pushed my bike through a muddy thunderstorm for the last 1:30. So it’s hard to gather any useful pacing data. The only thing I l…

[image] Nate_Pearson: I also set a climbing wattage ceiling for myself. I think it’s those harder efforts that don’t feel hard in the moment that really catch up with you later in the race. This is gospel. I’ve done races where I followed this and other races where I went by feel only to end…

What wss your goal power? Plus 10%?

Does Race Winner's IF (Intensity Factor) = My Pacing Strategy (MTB 100)

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MI-XC August 26, 2019, 4:53pm 3

I think the pacing will be roughly the same (winner vs me), not much surging in this event when 70% will be z2 and under:

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Does Race Winner's IF (Intensity Factor) = My Pacing Strategy (MTB 100)

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