Which type of plan for a 255km 5000m road race?

Training
1

I have a road race in October this year that I want to prioritize. I’m going to be using Plan Builder for the training block but I’m undecided about which discipline I should select:

  • Gran Fondo
  • Climbing Road Race
  • Rolling Road Race

There are 3 main climbs; Below is a PDF of the course
76km = 2.6km @10.5%
130km = 9.1km @4.5%
180km = 11.1km @4.8%

My goal is sub 9.5 hours. Currently 29 years of age, been riding since December 2017. 2019 was my first year with intervals and some structure. Coming from a professional sporting background.

Current FTP - 315
Current Weight - 74kg
Current FTP/kg - 4.26

Fitz Challenge 2020.pdf (2.1 MB)

2

Coach Chad once recommended in a similar case:
If the goal is to finish the race as a bucket list achievement: century/gran fondo plan.
If you want to race it: climbing road race.

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3

On such a distance (over 250km) those 3 climbs aren’t that big of a deal once they are either too short (1st one) or don’t have a big climbing percentage. Have you tried plan Builder?

4

I have played around with it, just trying to work out what specialty plan would be best.

5

But what does plan Builder prescribe when you set your training conditions?

7

Don’t understand what you mean by that…

8

Did you use plan Builder to the end? What was prescribed (suggested) by plan Builder?

9

I did do plan builder, but it asks me which type of discipline I want to choose…

10

https://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/plans/category/18-road
Read the description on each type and watch coach Chad video “How to Choose a Road Racing Training Plan”.
I’d go for century.

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11

With that amount of climbing over that distance, you would be looking to keep things under threshold virtually all the way. In this case, Century is a better speciality for Fitz’s. Climbing Road Race is generally for shorter punchier climbs, where you may go over threshold for short periods of time to stick with the bunch.

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12

Do the plan builder, but I’d reckon you basically want to do heaps, and heaps, and heaps of sweet spot. My best result was 2002 and I had 10.40 riding time, according to Strava. From memory the course was a little bit different that year, we went out to Tidbinbilla Tracking Station because there was a land slip at Corin??? Strava says 5245m of climbing and weighted power (NP?) of 188w. At the time I was probably about 68kg.

There’s lots of climbing (duh) with a stack of pinchy bits in there. Add in the dead roads and it’s a long, long day out. Not a single flat metre the entire ride.

This is from somebody who did the shorter version.

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