Unless one is very experienced pacing to the feeling on long races are like teenage love. Messy and painful.
Agreed 100%. No need to fixate on a specific number…set a range and just let it fall into that. Maybe .70 - .75….something like that.
Great job on the test ride!!
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This is (18 years old) personal experience.
I did a frence Alps sportive in July and a belgian Ardennes sportive in August the same year. In France, with 20 km long climbs I went by HR and did not care about any of the other riders. An effort to try and follow someone stronger would blow you up within a few hundred meters and take you kilometers to recover from. I did kind of 175 kilometers of TT.
In Belgium with the much shorter climbs, I did everything to hang on to the group I was in to take advantage of the draft on the plateau that would often follow. For 175 kilometers the wheel in front of me was my PM.
Just to say that not all terrain need the same strategy
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With over two decades of experience in the alps, Japanese alps and other mountains under my belt, especially on the mountain bike, I agree with that. When doing tours on the mountain bike, we’d all go at our own pace (and wait at landmarks or at the top). If you race to win, then obviously you might need a different strategy, but if you participate to finish and/or just want to meet or beat your goals, this should work great.
I also like that you mentioned terrain, and that different courses require different strategies. 
Thanks for the awesome advice!
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just remember, for a long time on this ride, there is still a ways to go. If you are struggling at all at mile 40, it’s going to be a LONG day. Enjoy the ride, the scenery, and it should start feeling tough 4-5h in. Then hunker down and keep on pedaling!
Good luck! Mega ride!
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@UWDawgs I hope you had a good ride!
It was AWESOME! Thanks for asking! Heat was brutal, but I really enjoyed my first organized ride. Really bummed though my Garmin battery died about 25 miles from the end, guess it couldn’t handle the heat, so I didn’t get my full stats or credit on Strava for doing the full ride. Did you have a good time?
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I’m so glad you had a great ride! You’ll be spoiled for other organized rides after this one - they do a great job of well-timed and well-planned support, and the riding is beautiful!
I was really happy with my day. I was pretty nervous leading up to the ride - work has been all-encompassing this year, and my furthest ride to date was around 40 miles 
I rode almost the whole thing solo so that I could pace myself, because I knew I had no extra “sprint to catch the wheel”-type matches to burn. Despite not getting the benefit of the draft, doing that makes it easier for me, and also lets me admire the scenery a lot more 
I didn’t do the out-and-back climb - just too hot out - but I really enjoyed myself, and finished feeling strong. It went way better than I had any right to expect it to go, so I’m very pleased!
Whoever was responsible for provisioning all the ice deserves extra commendations this year for sure.
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I am glad you enjoyed the event, that’s what counts!
Yes, the ice was a definite life saver! I wish there had been one more stop between the bottom of Crystal and the finish line, you were right about that headwind. I got hooked up with 3 other riders early, but they always went harder on the early uphill rollers than I wanted and then easier on the downhills than I wanted so on one of the uphills I let them go. I passed them between the first and second aid stations and never saw them again. I road alone until after the Crystal climb, passing a lot of people on the climbs, even though my power was down because of the heat. After Crystal a group of about 8 guys half my age passed me. I was feeling pretty good so I latched on to the back of them. By that time my Garmin was dead so I couldn’t see my power numbers. I know I was going harder than I should have, but we were flying and I didn’t want to deal with that headwind myself. After about 30 minutes one of them started cramping so they all pulled over, but I kept going. Eventually they passed me again, but I let them go and rode in the rest of the way by myself. It was so much fun, I hope I get a chance to do it again!
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Numbers are for training. Come race day, go off feel and let your form be your guide.
Sounds like you had a great day out there, and rode smart! And bravo on doing the Crystal climb - it looks like a great climb that I want to go back and do some time that it’s not 100 degrees out
I hope you get a chance to do it again, and experience the more traditional route - on that route, the moment you enter the national park on the climb up towards Paradise, the air, trees, sounds, smells, and light all change, and it’s always a magical moment to me. (On the other hand, this year the headwind at the end was way less than in past years, believe it or not, so maybe you want to quit while you’re ahead…)
On that last stretch, if you need it you can always stop in Greenwater (one of the stores on the left side of the road does great ice cream cones and milkshakes) - I always tell myself I’m going to stop and treat myself, and then I get “smelling the barn” syndrome and never do.
Congratulations again!
Curious as to how this translates at altitude? I’m doing an event this weekend that’s between 6800’-8600’. At sea level I can hold 200w at 135 HR but at that elevation it’s 155 HR (I tested it 2 months ago). RPE at 200w felt the same but breath rate was significantly higher at altitude. In short, it felt better to go off power/RPE then HR. Thoughts?
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From what I have been able to gather, the basic assumption is a 16% hit to your FTP when at altitude. Some have it as 10%, but 16% seems pretty consistent and documented.
At the risk of nitpicking, if you breathing rate was significantly higher, then your RPE was also higher. RPE is a holistic evlauation…cardio, muscular, etc.
I am doing SBT GRVL next weekend and will be going off adjusted power and RPE…HR will be irrelevant mostly. I am going to try and stay under threshold as much as possible and ride my pace. Based on a long ride I did last weekend, I am confident i know what my power ranges are, but will adjust if RPE tells me it is too high because of altitude.
Let’s report back after the weekend. I have a 70 mile- 5000’ of climbing event. Curious to see how we go. Will go off power and RPE. Most of the climbing is toward the end so will be interested to see how I feel at that point.
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Good luck!
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Altitude definitely changes things. That’s the one difference to e. g. living in Bavaria: relatively speaking it isn’t all that different, but e. g. Munich is at 500–600 m of elevation whereas I live at 30ish m elevation. So when I did a mountain bike tour in Chile (Santiago is at about 500–600 m if memory serves), I could tell that my power was being drained by the altitude: the tour guide, a pro racer, was going super easy (for him) all the way. He kept the same pace from the trail head (which was ridiculously easy for me) till the top of the mountain (2,200 m, I think, and I was redlining). Towards the end, I could feel my heart beating and I was wishing my rental bike had another spare gear (28:42 was the lowest).
So yeah, elevation is a thing. 
“Elevation is not a thing”. Keegan.
That’s what I’m going to be telling myself for four hours. 
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He’s a national champ, I’m nowhere near in the ballpark. So perhaps you shouldn’t take my word over his