I believe you can get more than enough fitness from 7 to 8 hours a week to finish an HR event comfortably.
You will however need to ride hard sessions back-to-back, to prepare for the stress of such multi day event, also, it makes sense to plan sweetspot session on the weekend, with 90 minutes or so of base riding (Z2 or Z3) afterwards. Getting used to many hours in the saddle.
Preparing for the hot weather, the climbs and the altitude is very difficult, especially during COVID.
Best advice I can give is to have a hard session every now and then with sub optimal cooling, and if you have a smart trainer, with a simulated climb. The inertia of pushing the pedal on a climb is just very different from that on the flat.
In preparation, when getting closer to the event, I would however recommend to find a real outdoor climb, as a proof of concept.
I have many Alpe Du Zwift KOM Jerseys and felt reasonably prepared, but riding up the real Alpe dâHuez was a very different experience. Air got really thin near the top and my cadence was 10 rpm lower outdoors. I averaged some 20W fewer on AdH than on AdZ.
Lose weight in the base phase but ensure you fuel your harder work outs. You should be looking for overall calorie deficit over a week for example, not every day.
I live in Switzerland and am competitive in Grand Fondos and the best way to train for longer climbs if you donât have any mountains near you are the long sweetspot workouts on the trainer starting with something like 3x12â at 85% FTP working up to as much as you can do such as 3x30 or more. I do this in winter when I canât get out, they work for sure.
For heat adaptation, again the trainer is great for thatâŠ
You can mention people using â@usernameâ, for example @ Jonathan, @ Nate_Pearson, @ ambermalika (without the space of course, I didnât want to actually tag them).
However, they have talked about stage races a couple of times in the podcast, so I donât think there is the need to mention them. Nevertheless, here you could ask them a question specific to the Haute Route demands.
Podcasts:
Also, here on the forum you will find a lot of stage racing tips, just use the search function
My turbo is out in a barn and itâs pretty cool at the moment. Iâm not even using the fan. I do have a patio heater, so could cook myself, but might wait for warmer weather and just leave the fan off, your right, this will make a huge difference to the intensity.
I used to train on a wattbike in the gym with no fan, it was hot (I ended up bringing a small fan with me and plugging it in).
The first time I did an FTP test on the trainer in a cool barn, it was up by 10%.
I donât have a smart trainer with a simulated climb, but I could put the front wheel on a breeze block, would that work?
Would you suggest a low cadence too?
I spin very happily at 100rpm on an indoor trainer, but guess itâs near 70rpm on a climb outdoors and have been thinking this is a bit of a mismatch.
I donât think it is really that important to have the handlebar move up and down like with the Kickr Climb. The biggest difference in cycling at FTP on the flat and cycling at FTP on a steep climb for me is the inertia in the pedal stroke. On the flat, you âtip the pedal over the edgeâ and it kind of does the rest by it self. A âmicro freewheelingâ if you will. That doesnât exist on a climb. Every inch of rotation is relentless, nothing is for free there. It is just a different feel to it, and in my opinion takes some getting used to. A smart trainer can sim that sensation quite well.
You might want to train to keep the cadence up when climbing (also climbing on a smart trainer). 100 might be very high, but a 70 cadence will break you. Especially when climbing an Iseran, Bonette, Ventoux, Stelvio, Angliru type climb.
85 sounds like a realistic cadence, but I guess the higher the better. Chris Froome, a 6.5W/kg rider, uses semi-compact up mountainous stages, to be able to spin at 95+ even on Mortirolo/Zoncolan/Angliru type monster climbs.
It takes a lot of getting used to and forcing yourself to spin.
I did a climb in Bavaria last year, 15 minutes at 9.5%. I had everything planned exactly, and how I would spin up there in 90 cadence.
I managed 75 cadence, because I had to get out of the saddle so frequently⊠theory doesnât always translate into reality
One of the best by-products from HR. I made some good friends that Iâve now ridden with at other events that are local to us as well as communicate via Strava, etc.
I was about to do the climbing road race specialty too but a few weeks ago on one of the podcasts it was mentioned that the century plan was better for long days in the saddle and you are not planning on racing and the target descriptions back it up
I usually do FTP tests after my toughest weeks.
Friday: Threshold Intervals, Saturday Sprint Intervals + Base riding, Sunday long high base ride
Monday: off, Tuesday: activation ride, Wednesday: Test
So doing it after such a touch weekend might actually be a good choice. It has worked very well for me at least.