Short Power build or General build or..... Sustained or....... bespoke it?

Training
1

I heading for a Sportive (Gran Fondo) in early April, for those in the UK it is the Ronde van Calderdale. Reviewing my previous .GPX files the hills are short & punchy. Typically 6-12 minutes in duration, there are 12 of these but they hit north of 20% gradient.

So understanding that you train for what you want to do all the supra-threshold work on both the Short & General are supra threshold for a minute or two, but Sustained has more over/under workouts. The terms longer or shorter are bandied around but not defined. So which does my Sportive fit into?

As its a sportive (AKA race) I’m not a stopping to sniff the flowers kind of guy would I be better looking at Sustained with the over/under workouts (hard to the foot of the hill, tear myself apart getting up it, hard along the top and recover on the descent, tear myself apart getting up the next hill repeat till the end the longed for end). It is approaching 130 km with 3000m of climbing so it is lumpy, but really it is the up, down, up along, down, along, up , down, up, down nature that kills - no respite.

Oh yes and the hills are cobbled.

Any advice would be gratefully accepted. TIA

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29636331

2

Looks brutal! And maybe fun.

I would probably pick sustained. I’ve done short power and just finished general build. I think for this type of race I’d prefer the benefits of the sustained. Also, sweet spot and threshold are my relative weaknesses (not needed as much for the crit racing I do).

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Brutal is the word. I’m too old (to risk life & limb crit racing) so sweet spot & threshold is the only thing I’m better than average at, the climbs are knee popping steep but I’m erring on your side too, that sustained is better.

It is fun, I’m a repeat attender.

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If there’s space for it, maybe substitute a few of the longer 3-4 minute VO2 workouts in your program? Anyway, good luck to you!

5

3-4 minutes at VO2 is my kryptonite - hate hate hate!

Cheers :+1:

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The advice I got here ahead of Liege last year was sustained power. tbh I wasn’t really punching up any climbs, especially towards the back end!

fwiw, Dirty Reiver is my A race for the spring, and I’m going (via the plan builder gran fondo option) Sustained Power, Century Speciality.

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My Sportive is in homage to the Ronde van Vlaanderren, but I think Liege - Bastogne - Liege is pretty close too. Looking like sustained is the route to nirvana with a few VO2 thrown in for fun :smiley: )
thanks

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Adjusted my Plan Builder built plan and starting the second stage - actually you have to delete it and start to rebuild it again.
Actually looking forward to the Sportive now and dreading it a bit too, or should that be - Dreading the sportive, looking forward to it a little tiny bit!