How To Pace Z2 at Elevation?

QuittingBikes · July 28, 2021, 4:16am

I’m signed up for the Tour de Big Bear.

The 100mi ride is mostly spent around 7,000 ft.

I’ll be plenty happy if I can hit an IF of 0.70. How does elevation affect Z2? Does it have the same effect on Z2 as it does at Z4+, or is it less pronounced?

I live at sea level.

QuittingBikes · July 28, 2021, 3:16pm

Thanks for the link!

Will def pay attention to HR, which I don’t really normally.

This answers it:

AJS914 · July 28, 2021, 3:34pm

FWIW, last year I loved from 4,000 feet to 800 feet and gained 5bpm at HRmax.

stevemz · July 28, 2021, 5:20pm

Ride to RPE, keep an eye on HR as a secondary metric.

mwglow15 · July 28, 2021, 5:26pm

Yeah it will probably effect it slightly less than if you were doing a real spiky effort above FTP but it will still effect it. I would just ride to RPE for the most part. Keep your breathing in check, drink lots, eat lots. Also, if you are paying attention to power then realize that over those climbs from 6300 to 8500 you might see an even further decrease in power output from bottom to top.