Just started on TR one month ago. 4 weeks with traditional base to test TR.
This week is the firt of my sweet spot Base.
I am preparing for a race in Spain called Quebrantahuesos. 200km with 3500 meters +. In June 2019.
I have already participated 5 times and I have been improving times from 8 hours in 2010 to 6 hours 30 minutes in 2017. My goal for next year is to improve and get closer to 6 hours 15 minutes.
It’s a hard race and I am going to suffer.
Four climbs in the race:
Somport 28km @ 3% (1 hour approx.)
Marie Blanque 10km @ 7.2% (last 4km at 11%) (35minutes approx.)
Portalet 29km @ 4.5% (1h 30’ approx)
Hoz de Jaca 2.5km @ 8% (10 min approx)
Some images with the profile:
There are 9000 people in the race. In the valleys, there are very large groups to roll.
Traditionally it is said that portalet is the judge of the race. 29km @ 4.5% when you’ve already been 120km on your legs. It is very important to save energy in the first two climbs, high cadence and below FTP.
My doubts are with Build and Specialty Phases.
Between General Build and Sustained Power Build.
And between Century and Climbing Road race.
Some recommendations?
Sorry for my english
Best regards.
Thanks in advance.
You’re going to have long, sustained efforts around FTP, so focus on that with sustained power build. General Build will focus more on shorter burst efforts, which frankly you won’t need nearly as much. I think either the Climbing or Century plans would be fine. Take a look and see which one you think focuses on your weakness the most, but I think Century probably focuses on longer duration muscular endurance a bit more than Climbing.
For a Gran Fondo like that, you will be spending most of your time in zone 2, or zone 4, keeping it below threshold on those long climbs.
SSB> SPB> Century is probably the best option for dealing with those kind of demands. The Climbing Road Race includes more over-threshold efforts (that you would need for dealing with attacks in a genuine race), rather than these extended sub-threshold efforts.
