Hi all, I’m 2 weeks out from an A event - 68km with 840m elevation. There is an option for a longer course - 100 with 1,250m elevation.
Both courses mainly double track but very rough - pretty technical. About 20km of brutal rock steps in both courses.
I’m signed up for the 68km as, due to family and work constraints, my training time is limited. Currently doing 2 X 1 hour hard workouts during the week + 1 easy workout + 1 longer ride, usually 2 hours, sometimes 3 hours.
I’ve recently done a 4 day charity road ride averaging 140km per day with around 1,500m daily elevation. Obviously there were around 3 feed stops per day and we spent about 1/2 hour stopped at each.
I felt awesome on this ride and was in with the quickest group every day - pushing hard all day at some very decent speeds. I felt really good and was waiting for the point that I would pop but it didn’t happen.
I’m a heavy guy at 92kg, 3.3w/kg and I was keeping up with the skinny guys up every hill.
I’ve done both variants of this race on a few occasions but have only attempted the longer ride with more long rides under the belt.
I am comfortable with the mental aspect, nutrition on the long ride and pacing strategy.
So I’m considering upping my entry to the full 100km now that I have those big days and the confidence they bring under my belt.
Is this an unreasonable prospect?
Is my confidence in my ability to sustain a long effort misguided because I was only able to push hard on the recent ride due to big rests at the feed stops?
Should I stick with the short ride to avoid being beaten to a pulp over the longer 100km ride?
Appreciate any thoughts.
nothing ventured, Nothing gained!