What does peaking feel like?

Training
21

Feels almost the same.

I’ll enter a gravel race and get beaten by 100 people rather than 200, but the sensation is the same and the average speed is 1-2 mph faster (which is huge, but hard to perceive).

22

I supposedly just peaked (end of Specialty) for a 100mi MTB race yesterday (Lumberjack :100:). However I didn’t feel that great and my hamstrings were sore the morning of the race.

Race day felt fine, but nothing spectacular. All during the race, which was 8:16 for me, I just felt ok, but certainly not at a peak. Looking back at the numbers though it was a PR for me on the course (3rd time doing it). Also, I had all time power PRs from 3:35 hours to 8:16 hours, and I have plenty of rides and races over 4 hours.

So even though none of felt anything great and I missed my goal of going sub 8 hours, my numbers suggested I was in fact at a peak :person_shrugging:t4:.

*Side note: I was 3 weeks post broken rib.

3 Likes
23

I experienced it 4 years ago. Strava’s record increased PR every day, and I had the confidence to do anything. So I tried to ride 600 km across the country in 24 hours and ended up getting injured. And the peaking never came back.

24

Like you forgot to put a chain on the bike :slight_smile:

In all seriousness, it’s PE. You’re hanging with the lead group in the first breakaway/climb/singletrack and it doesn’t feel like you’re going to blow up. More importantly, you’re STILL with that group with 10K to go and feel like you could go a little harder if you had to.

25

I think I experienced it on my first 25miles TT. I had set out with the target of getting under an hour which my normal power would do (given it was a flat drag strip dual carriageway) but I didn’t think I’d do it by just over 3minutes. During the ride it all seemed like a tempo effort until the last lap with a slight tail wind when I finally pushed my HR/RPE, yet the PM was saying it was a threshold effort or above. I kinda thought the power meter must have had a problem but its been consistent ever since and the speed correlates to the power :thinking:

26

Amen. Looking back on my two peaks in the last couple of years I had no idea I was where I was.

Had guys remark to me after a regional championship race how strong I looked (still managed to mess up the last few km and finished 10th :sweat_smile:)