Hello all
I am new to this training I just started TR with plan builder starting with SSB I and II followed SPB then with climbing road race all low volume. before the race. I am 6 ft at 200lbs 43yr old male with first FPT test at 279.
The race is is 24km with 1255m of gain with 5.2% average with max of 7.8% grade. Last year untrained it took me just over 2 hrs. (pro’s at just under an 1hr).
I have a B race one month before Haruna hill climb 16.1km with 907m of gain, with 6% average with a max of 14% grade. Last year I did it in 1hr 15 min (pros are at 45 min)
My what is the right specialty plan and where to go for pacing tips
Thanks
The race is first week of JuneFujiHC, central Chiba is very hilly if I wanted I could do 5000 m of climbing without repeat hill in a 4 hr ride. With the local bike shop racing club we have a few loops that in two hr ride we get 1000m of climbing.
All the race’s here have gone up due to the consuption tax. and you can just do the ride at any time durring the summer with just paying the road toll.
Generally the roads are good here well maintained, with courteous drivers, this is a place to ride good roads great sites. The issue I have is I’m fat and slow and all my Japanese friends were born on bikes so I can never keep up.
As someone who also lives/races in Japan and has done hill climbs (ok, two) and also has roughly the same body weight and FTP, my advice is that losing weight should be your top priority.
No amount of fitness you are going to gain in the next few months could ever match 10 kilograms of reduced body fat.
Based on your power to weight ratio it will still take you about an hour an half or more to finish, so you should be doing a lot of sweet spot work, as you will basically be riding at sweet spot for the entire race.
I have been working on the weight I have dropped about 10 kg since I did it last year. The karaage (fried chicken) and egg salad sandwich’s are on point in Japan, trying to stay away from them now.
I’m also considering to enter this race, too, with some of my team mates. I did a similar event last fall, the Akagi-yama hill climb, which is pretty much identical in terms of elevation gain and distance (albeit at a lower altitude).
I practiced lots of steady state stuff such as 2x20 minutes at FTP, and it worked out nearly perfectly for me. (Well, my power meter died a minute or so into the race, and now TR thinks I averaged 1 W ) Since my fitness was on point, 2x20 minutes at 100 % FTP was relatively easy.
And while I haven’t participated in this hill climb race, I have to say the atmosphere at the hill climb races is amazing, at Akagi-yama they had many corrals. It is much more relaxed and less elitist than at the JCBF-only races, and I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere. They had even hand bikes on start, some people were on fat bikes and for most the challenge was just to finish the race at all.
So if this is your first race in Japan, hill climbs are the way to go. Hill climbs are also not scary, you literally have to go at your own pace for the most part. The fastest female team member (who has apparently run 3-hour marathons, :wow:) only does hill climbs, because she does not feel safe during regular road races.
PS I also recommend you have a look at Tokyo Cycling Club, a forum for cyclists living in Japan — and not limited to people living in Tokyo. The atmosphere is friendly and perhaps you find people to ride with. Others have plenty of racing experience in Japan and are happy to share.
I tried it for stage 4 of Tour de Zwift.
On the first lap I ran a little over the targets, sitting mostly in the pack, but I kept the power on when the group slowed. On the climbs I pushed slightly above the targets and only got passed by a few riders, which is a big deal for me at 100kg. Moved from 75th to 55th on the first lap and up to 41st on the finish climb. (I passed 10 people up the climb!)
Since I’ve never raced it gives me some indication of how to pace.
I did the race’s last year and my goal was not to finish and not die. this year is to get a better time. It was fun last year me and 10,000 others going up the Subaru line together on closed roads. The local club I train with Fuji HC and Tour of Okinawa is there main races.
Good to know. These races are IMHO relatively easy for beginners — like me (I started racing last year, so it is not as if I have tons of experience).
Are there specific things you want to improve upon compared to last year? Was hydration and nutrition on point, for example? Were you staying within your power budget?
By the way, did you record your power data last year? If you did and you own a smart trainer, you could recreate the race on your trainer.
Tour de Okinawa? Hardcore. I wish I had the spare change and time to participate, but I didn’t even want to ask my sponsor (aka wife) just to get a hard no.
I was a good time even for me with limited Japanese, coming around the corner going up Fuji or Haruna and a line of kids beating drums is an awesome felling. But there was a low when I was passed around station 4 by a fat bike.
You will always get passed by people faster than you — unless you win
On my last hill climb race, I was passed by people from the subsequent corrals. I thought I was doing horribly, until I got the result: I was at the bottom of the top 1/3 in E3, and even if I had started in E1 I would have been right in the middle of the field. So I was happy.
IMHO you should set yourself goals for yourself: by how much do you want to beat your time from last year? Do you want to improve your consistency? Do you want to improve your pacing strategy?
Ultimate goal is to get a 90min finisher head spacer, closer goal is take time from 2hr 10 min to better paced and drop the time to under 2hr time IE 1hr 50 20 min improvment. I had no pace strategy last year it was keep pushing the pedals till I got to the top.
We are going to Japan this summer on our way to Taiwan if the coronavirus eases up. So I might even be able to do it (whether during the race or not). Is it easy to rent a bike in the area?
) Since my fitness was on point, 2x20 minutes at 100 % FTP was relatively easy.
