Agreed, pacing for long events is something that has to be experienced and felt. And I think the OP mentioned it was 5.5 hours until they went off the cliff! That is nothing to feel bad about! That’s pretty good, IMO.
I also would not discount the high altitude contributing to the bad feeling - and I think we’ve determined that the OP’s event goes higher up than 7500’. In the podcast released yesterday where Hannah is talking about Leadville prep, she mentions that you WILL feel awful at some point during a race at that altitude.
About VO2 max efforts - I think it’s wrong to avoid workouts just because they are above how you would pace your goal event. My non-Trainerroad coach gave me VO2 workouts too when training for extremely long events. I feel they helped my climbing, especially short steep rises in the middle of long climbs. I also was given plenty of sweet spot and threshold and long steady rides and I feel that all of the above is everything you need. You might not need sprint intervals, but you need all of the rest as they are all part of your aerobic conditioning.
It does feel slightly lacking, it’s not bad but not great. I don’t think it needs much modification tbh and some high-intensity stuff is needed especially for the short sharp hills in my area.
I follow the idea of reducing intensity on workouts (so swapping a VO2 for tempo/endurance) and then my outsides get me some high efforts with group Wednesday Worlds or doing hill reps.
Nothing will ever be perfect but this method got me a couple of long days where I finished and was in much better shape than expected.
I don’t use TR but doesn’t it mainly cater to folks with time and ride constraints (e.g. indoor mainly)? With these constraints you can never have a very good model for “slightly more aggressive” epic riding.
However, even at 20h/weeks I would not know how to program it either. How do you train fatigue resistance after 9 hours? Not really something one can replicate in training. And is just noodling around high volume all one can do within the individual genetic constraints? Sure, all good ultra athletes are fast at long and at short distances. Are they fast in long distances because of the short distances? How much intensity is need for the less genetically gifted out there?
After racing these events for almost 20 years and after training at a very high training volume I must concede to myself: I have no idea what a good training model would be for racing these events.
There are a lot of good points made by others, but there’s one thing here that I want to add (that may or may not apply to you). As someone who does a lot of centuries and other long rides, despite being trained up for them, my legs will always want to go down in power as I get closer to the end. On long rides, I start thinking less time about power and end up naturally spending most of my time in the middle of zone 2 (assuming there isn’t a climb). Toward the end, though, my legs would gladly slow down if I didn’t make them. My legs are completely capable of staying within zone 2 in times like that–instead they want to coast–so I really have to make them keep working. If that makes sense.
I think there’s a mental element here of just learning to push my legs. It’s a different from the will power needed to hit high wattages during interval training. The short is that, if for no other reason (and plenty have been suggested), doing at least a few longer rides to understand both how your body may start to rebel, and how to overcome that.
Note: this is 18h/week, so not so time constrained. But if I have to trim something, first I’d drop Thu/Fri, keeping Tue/Wed and Sat/Sun blocks. Also, I ignore power targets on Thu/Fri, simply going by feel. It is more important to be recovered enough for Sat intervals.
This is generic pattern, doesn’t need to pair with Z4 intervals, can be also VO2max or SS on first hard day. Goal is on 2nd hard day go into long ride with already tired legs and ignore their whining
I can’t believe you entered chase the sun with only ‘a few’ outside rides, but glad you sorted it now and finished it.
Training outside is so much better for prep for long rides imo, and my club continues it’s outside rides throughout winter, even in darkness, albeit with only the hardier club members riding in the dark of an evening.
A winter of trainer road indoors definitely left me ultra fit coming out of winter, but being on a bike for 5+ hours is a different challenge, albeit mainly eating & having your fit 100% right.
(But I had planned on doing longer outdoor rides, but it just seemed that the schedule just never seemed to work out. Like I’d have a few weekends with family or work, and then in the ‘free’ weekend I’d be ill with Covid or there was a weather storm etc. I was also completing the indoor plan and those podcast words of ‘stay consistent’ helped convince me, and I did a good job myself, that I’d be able to complete.)
