This morning, I just finished another week of training for the Mt. Diablo Challenge. There are two more weeks of building fitness and one week of recovery before the race. I finished this week with 442 TSS and 5240 calories burned, a bit over my targets.
What I have been most worried about is keeping power for an hour, the duration of the race, especially via the lower cadences used in climbing, but today I got a huge sign I am on track.
I took on Alpe du Zwift in….Zwift and achieved my second fastest time ever. I finished in 52:18, 5 seconds slower than my time on March 29, 2020, 4.5 years ago. The time is even more impressive considering my Stages SB20 trainer blanked out (it loses all friction) and I had to get it going again mid-way. Zwift reports this as 52:16 moving time, so at least a few seconds were lost in which the trainer reported 0 watts and the Zwift avatar stopped moving. I achieved this time despite coming in a bit tired from the week’s workouts, so I have optimism that this result can serve as a floor for my race performance.
I also did the ride without any taking any liquids, just as I want to do on race day.
Back in 2020, my best time was achieved in the early days of COVID when I was certain I was about a month away from my long-time goal of reaching 4w/kg. However, within the next two months, our family bought a house and moved across state lines and my fitness left as well.
More on 2020 vs 2024:
- 81 vs 78 cadence – as I was closing on the final segment of the climb, I knew I had more in me so I spent most of it out the saddle. Overall, I didn’t abuse going out of the saddle until the final 5 minutes. I focused on doing 20 seconds out of the saddle every 3 minutes to make sure I was simulating the way I expected to ride on race day.
- 164 vs 159 average heart rate – this suggests I had more in the tank but the counterpoint is that I’m also a half decade older so the heart rates could be equivalent. But I believe I can max out at 165 over an hour when I am feeling good.
- 251 vs 250 average power in watts.
Moving forward, I want to do the same simulated climb at the end of the next two weeks, raising my power to 255 next week and then try for 260 the final week if 255 goes well. Overall, my plan to prepare is going well. I’m eating well but I haven’t achieved the sleep I want. Tracking my sleep has made me improve when I stop my day but I am not consistently hitting my 10:45 in bed cut-off time yet.
During my Zone two training rides, I’m going to start watching videos like this, running 80 cadence to practice the length and visual memory of the route. I have no idea if this will help come race day, but I might as well try.
I Spit Hot Fire 