Tag: race

Progress in Training for the Mt Diablo Challenge

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.

This is the Way -> Mt Diablo Under One Hour

It’s time. Another Mt. Diablo Hill Climb Challenge comes in 4 weeks. A year ago I was optimistic I could finish the hill climb under 1 hour and earn myself a prized shirt. Instead, I made an error by riding 100 miles at my highest all-time intensity for that duration and couldn’t sustain enough power the next morning for the hill climb.

I had a good experience overall but wondered what could have been. In the year since, I’ve trained fairly steadily despite welcoming a new daughter into the world. I didn’t quite make the progress that I wanted, however, and I came into last weekend thinking I would take a FPT test to see where I stood and whether I could really match up with my fitness from last year.

I rode Zwift’s The Grade, and ended up with an estimated FTP of 261 watts per Intervals.icu after doing 280 watts for 13+ minutes. Last year, I did 270 watts for 27+ minutes for an estimated FTP of 263, so it feels like I’m on par with last year’s fitness.

Based on this ride profile from BestBikeSplit, the challenge is whether I can actually sustain my FTP for one hour. This rider plan is asking me for 258w average power to finish in 58 minutes, basically the same as my eFTP.

What I need to train for over the coming weeks:

  1. Do I have the longevity/focus to sustain power for an hour?
  2. Can I generate higher power at a lower cadence (65-80 RPM) for that time period?
  3. Can I lose a few pounds without losing power to improve my odds at reaching my goal?

On the first question, I have been in polarized training, with 8+ hrs of zone 2 indoor riding each week, for the past 6 weeks. I bookend those sessions with two high intensity Zwift racing sessions of 30-45 minutes. This ends up looking like 400 TSS and 5000 calories burned each week. Since school season has started for my kids, I’ll add a 30 minute commuter ride each morning in which I bike them to school with a trailer. I won’t measure this physical impact, it will just be a bonus. What I need now is to practice one extended climb at high intensity each week, Alpe Du Zwift. In the past, this climb would take me between 53-56 minutes depending on my fitness, a perfect simulation for race day.

On the second question, I have noticed that it’s difficult for me to go 260+ watts seated now. I used to do extended climbs from 70-75 cadence easily, but that’s gone. I can’t deliver that power at above 80 cadence either. When I did my FTP test, I had numerous bursts of climbing out of the saddle. Typically, I can’t stay out of the saddle for very long without feeling overly exerted, and yet this time I just wanted to stay out of the saddle. This seems to signal that my fitness is pretty good but that I also need to practice lower cadence riding. Over the last year, I have focused most of my time on aerobic higher cadence (90+) workouts. Over the coming weeks, I want to spend at least a few hours at lower cadence (70-75) each week, not including my climb practices.

On the final question, nutrition has always been tricky for me. Do I take in nutrition during the ride? Or just pre-ride? How much protein do I take? Should I listen to my body and eat when hungry? Over the past years, clear patterns have emerged. If I train, I gain weight. I don’t get leaner, however. My percentage of body fat stays the same or increases. Gaining weight means I eat too much, period. Over the next month, I’m going to execute the following:

  • Nothing outside of water after dinner (this usually ends by 6PM).
  • Be a little hungry each night.
  • Have a good carb loaded breakfast of sugary cereal and a banana each morning when I have a workout planned. Couple that with a 30G protein shake.
  • Use Gatorade Zero tablets instead of optimized sports drinks with high sugar. This along with my long bouts of Zone 2 will emphasize fat burning.
  • Stay low-carb (or couple high carbs with high fiber) for my other meals and focus on eating normal portions. Eat 1 pound of broccoli at least 5 times per week. Don’t overly focus on getting “enough” protein.
  • If I start to feel too hungry at night, make the breakfast sizes larger so they go directly into fueling the workout.
  • Don’t weigh myself until race day.
  • On race day morning, and the dinner before race day, I’ll load myself up with good carbs – fruits, high fiber pastas.
  • Focus on the process – eating leaner, good workouts, more endurance during extended climbing.

Wish me luck!