What is 'short' power?

I building towards my A race and wondering which plan to choose. I had a look at the 2018 Strava file and there are 4 climbs where I may drop. They are between 4 and 6 minutes. So is short power more for very short and punchy or does it extend to 5 minute hills?

The longer and steeper the climb, the more I struggle. So what do you guys think, general or short power on build phase and rolling for the specialty phase?

This should be helpful:

I’d go General Build and Rolling Specialty.

You’re looking at classic VO2 Max power for those 4-6 minute climbs. Those REALLY hurt.

General build and short power build both address that energy system with similar workouts.

Now the question is, do you need more “punch” or more threshold power for the rest of that race?

Because it’s a road race and not a crit I’d say threshold power. So I’d pick general build for you.

After that, I’d do climbing road race. Since you have such specific power demands I might also find VO2 max repeats at 120% and try to progress my way to 4-minute repeats (starting with something more mild like mills and working my way up).

120% Progression:
Mills
Kaiser -1
Langely
Kaiser

“Low” Vo2 Max Progression (Thursdays on climbing road race):
Mount Deborah
Mount Alyeska
Mount Foarker

10 Likes

I trained for a race with similar efforts last season. I would strongly recommend that as the race approaches find some hills near to you that are similar and do hill reps outdoors.

3 Likes

Thank you @Nate_Pearson. My wife always jokes that I spend more time analyzing data than actually training and the calendar makes it even more fun comparing season.

I have 9 weeks to the event. After an aborted tri program and a few weeks of just baxtering my ftp is actually up on last year and I’m about 3 kg lighter. Last year I did the specialty plan from the 1st of Jan.
Looking at the plans I think I’m just going to follow general up to the event, I might swap some of the VO2Max for the one with longer intervals and lastly sprinkle in a couple of B races on weekends.

Last year I got position 580/26386 so lets bring on the pain and see if I can do better this year.

1 Like

I talked to Chad about this and he agrees with my approach. We’re going to cover your question on the podcast today as part of our “how to pick a plan” segment.

4 Likes

What race is this? Road, Gran Fondo?

Top 580th!

1 Like

Or… Top 2.2%… even better :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes

This isnt any race, this is race is jokingly called the funriders world championship :wink:
If you meet a roadie in South Africa one the first questions that comes up is 'Have you done a sub-3, Argus (now called Cape Town Cycle tour. Its 109 km road event, extremely scenic, over 35 000 entrants (worlds biggest timed event) and 1220 m (4000 feet) of climbing. Its been running for 42 years with it being canceled once 2 years ago due to people blown off their bikes. Cape town wind storm. Cape Argus 2017 cyclists blown off bicycle - YouTube

But one thing interesting is that with the same race different approaches might be more suitable for different riders. My friend with a 4.5 w/kg has a vastly different time and maybe energy system to me over those climbs and my father in law, bless his soul and 115 kg body, also different as these are alp du huez climbs to him.

Top 2.2% does sound better than top 580, thanx @mcneese.chad let’s forget that most of the riders only take their bikes out of storage once a year for the world champs!

1 Like

Wow! There are 26,000+ participants in that event? What is it @faniefiets?

1 Like

Cape Town Cycle Tour. It used to be the Argus (newspaper) for about 37 years. Entries are capped at 35 000 every year and is really a special event. Much lower finishing rated due people not wearing their chips and forgetting to train :wink: I posted the links in the post above. This is many peoples A race where I’m from.

1 Like

That looked like a day to leave the 90mm rims at home :astonished::grinning::tornado:

2 Likes

I’m sure they’ll come out with rims that can handle that much crosswind soon. :wink:

2 Likes