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Race The Training Thread

Looks like it might be conditional on getting 200 people. They first announced that team entry was free (and there was a 100,000 yen team prize) about a week ago though, so that probably already brought in a few more entries.
 
I wonder how much I should "carb up" for race lasting just over an hour (25 km), given that I weigh about six pounds less when I don't eat carbs...

Maybe just a couple onigiri's worth the night before? Letting myself go before the crit was probably a mistake, as nice as a full glycogen tank is to have.
 
I wonder how much I should "carb up" for race lasting just over an hour (25 km), given that I weigh about six pounds less when I don't eat carbs...

Maybe just a couple onigiri's worth the night before? Letting myself go before the crit was probably a mistake, as nice as a full glycogen tank is to have.

Usual breakfast 3h before. Coffee. And a gel in your pocket?

Andy
 
I got a free gel at the crit so I am definitely going to take that with me. I don't usually eat that much breakfast (or any, if I am doing IF). Should I aim for say, half the calories I will need (probably at least 1000)?
 
I got a free gel at the crit so I am definitely going to take that with me. I don't usually eat that much breakfast (or any, if I am doing IF). Should I aim for say, half the calories I will need (probably at least 1000)?

I advise to follow the same routine as in training for a short race like that.

If you've never used that type of gel before I wouldn't risk it in a race. Buy a few of the same type and try taking one in training. Nothing worse in a race than an upset stomach...

Andy
 
One hour is a pretty short race, so you might be fine just with a gel. But if you do want to do any carb loading, I'd start a couple of days before the race.
Don't go crazy on calories - in other words, don't eat 'more' just make more of what you eat be from carbs.

I'd go for a tomato sauce-based pasta dish the night before and a bagel/English Muffin with peanut butter for breakfast 3 hours or so before the race.
Brown rice is a very healthy carb option (white rice less so since all the nutrients are washed out...).

For our two-hour race I'm trying to stock up on carbs for the next couple of days, and will be doing something similar the night before.
Race day is tricky. Our race starts at 12:30, so either breakfast early in the day (7-8am) and maybe an English Muffin etc mid-morning, or try to have a late breakfast around 9am or so. I'll have an energy bar and a couple of gels with me.
 
I follow a pretty low-carb diet (have lost 50 pounds since January that way, most of it in about three or four months) and usually don't eat carbs before or after training. That's just because I care *ever* so slightly more about losing weight than gaining watts (my watts go up regardless as long as I train, since I only started six months ago). I do make a point to eat protein afterwards, though.

I still haven't heard from the organizers.... hopefully they'll send a mass email sometime today.

Rather than getting an upset stomach from a new brand of gel, I personally seem to have more issues with having to go to the bathroom a ton the morning of a big event. OTOH, I almost never eat gels since they're absurdly expensive (although sometimes I will carry one around for emergencies).
 
My usual weekly training blog below.

This week I found myself embracing the world of Zwift!

Roll on wintertime!

Andy

 
It really, really sucks. I was on a business trip in Switzerland and went running: the weather was perfect, my cardiovascular system was in good shape and I was able to bang out 16 km up the Zürichberg in beautiful weather. But then I couldn't really move my right leg properly for a day. I did two 8 km runs afterwards, and I was ok, but I was left wanting more, knowing that I shouldn't.

Must be incredibly frustrating. Both my parents have had knee replacement operations due to arthritis, and my stepfather's actually made him worse, as he couldn't bend his knee properly afterwards - even getting in and out of the car was problematic, so they have had to give up things they love - walks in the countryside, ballroom dancing. I sometimes comment to my stepfather that he would have a better quality of life if he had his leg amputated, but I appreciate why he doesn't want to do that.
That can't hurt and makes your way back home more interesting. But do you have enough uninterrupted road to do intervals where you live? Sendai is full of traffic lights from hell that seem to be timed so as to maximize stop-and-go traffic.

In Kochi, we are quite lucky with the layout of the city, as there are a variety of hills in easy reach. My favourite is about 1.5km @90m climb - it was literally a 1min detour to the base from where i used to work. Now about 5-10 mins. A bit short for the road bike, but perfect for the mama chari. for flat, yes, it is a problem, and i wouldn't do intervals on the flat in the city, but the main river has a path to the side, which enables you to avoid most of the traffic, and occasionally, you can do 30/30s on it. Likewise, the lack of traffic flow is so frustrating. I wonder whether they do it deliberately just to stop traffic moving. I know why Japan only has a handful of roundabouts, but please introduce them!!!
 
I got a free gel at the crit so I am definitely going to take that with me. I don't usually eat that much breakfast (or any, if I am doing IF). Should I aim for say, half the calories I will need (probably at least 1000)?

Your body should store at least 1,000 worth of calories in glycogen (some sites say it is double that amount), so that would be enough for 1 hour at 280W, but your body never burns purely glycogen, there is always some fat burnt, it is just the ratio that varies depending on the intensity, so you should have enough energy stored in your body, unless you overdo the warm-up! If you train low, then your body's demand for glycogen should be even lower than a non fat-adapted athlete. As Andy says, race how you trained and if you aren't sure if you can manage it, do a practice ride in training. Btw, train low (carb wise) is fine, as it can increase adaptation, but in general, the advice is race high (carb wise), but as i said, for an event of only 1 hour you should be fine.

Another option besides a gel, is to have calories in your drink e.g. fruit juice or flat coke, but choose the fruit juice wisely, in case your stomach can't handle something acidic e.g. orange juice, when they body is working hard.
 
I forgot to eat the gel and I finished with 80% of my bottle of water left. Whoops.

According to my computer the course had five times as much elevation gain as the GPS site listed. The altimeter (?) may have been affected by the weather, though. I finished 13 minutes down (winner finished in under an hour) and six or so positions from last. The climbs were WAY harder than the course profile suggested, but I descended like a man on fire. Almost crashed a few times. Hehe.
 
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Actually, the site was accurate, I just misremembered how much elevation the course had. 550 meters over 28 k is no joke... especially when there are sections that hit double digits, where I have to zig zag if I want to keep my cadence up.

Now I know how sprinters feel in the Tour de France, except that I wouldn't have made even the most generous time cutoff at the TdF.

Hmm, 6% body fat would put me at 165 pounds and a little under 4.0 watts/kilo... haha.
 
Must be incredibly frustrating.
Oh, it is. Of course, I am nowhere in the same league as your stepfather, but it is quite sad I can't do a sport I actually enjoy and could do when I am on a business trip.
In Kochi, we are quite lucky with the layout of the city, as there are a variety of hills in easy reach. My favourite is about 1.5km @90m climb - it was literally a 1min detour to the base from where i used to work. Now about 5-10 mins.
Actually, for hill climb repeats that sounds about perfect. My local training hill has roughly the same elevation difference and I have three options with different gradient profiles. The default one is intermediate (5-8 % on average with a steep ramp and a flatter bit), the second one has a super steep section in it and the third one is more drawn out. And the 5-10 minutes sound like a great warmup. (That's pretty much the same distance from my lab to "my" hill — I always arrive warmed up.)

When I go training, I spend about one hour on the hill, and usually that works out to four climbs. Sometimes it gets down to three if I do very strenuous VO2 max sessions where I need to pedal for a few minutes to recover.
A bit short for the road bike, but perfect for the mama chari.
I usually broke the bb of mamacharis within a few weeks, so I am not sure whether it is a good idea to get some training in.
I know why Japan only has a handful of roundabouts, but please introduce them!!!
Amen. They got popular in Germany when I started driving, and they are really a godsend.
 
I forgot to eat the gel and I finished with 80% of my bottle of water left. Whoops.
If you go longer than for one hour, that could cause you to bonk. I usually like to put a little electrolyte/energy mix into my water bottle, perhaps about 1/3 of the recommended amount. Otherwise it is way too sweet and I get too thirsty.
 
If you go longer than for one hour, that could cause you to bonk. I usually like to put a little electrolyte/energy mix into my water bottle, perhaps about 1/3 of the recommended amount. Otherwise it is way too sweet and I get too thirsty.

Yeah, I supposedly burned 1315 calories (which, assuming it is accurate, would convert to 270 watts average, but I doubt it is), which would just about be enough to empty the tank. But I was soooo busy hyperventilating I barely had time to drink, much less think about eating.
 
I used the formulas on this page: http://www.wolfgang-menn.de/ (hill climbing) to calculate my power on the first and second climbs of sunday's race. Given the weight of me (100 kg), my bike (8.8 kgs), and all my gear (about 3-4 kilos since my winter gear is as heavy as soaked carpet when wet), it spit out a number of 270 watts on the first climb, and 250 on the second, harder climb (probably because I could only sustain about 50 RPMS). That's roughly what I would have expected from my calorie-based calculations. A little lower than I would have liked, but I suspect I need power data on my computer to flog myself hard enough to sustain my FTP, which is supposedly higher than that.

First proper training session after my second race. I did the exact same session about a week ago, and it felt harder then. I think it might be time to crank up the difficulty again!

I'm think I would like to try to lose at least five to ten more kilos before I attempt another course this hilly...
 
Really getting into this zwifting lark! Just trying the 4 specific TT workouts now. But once I hit the trainer full time in winter I plan ro do a block of training on zwift. Maybe this?

https://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/tt-tuneup/

Is there a way to upload these plans so you don't have to search for each workout individually?

Cheers,

Andy
 
The "TT Tuneup" workout plan is built into the program itself. Unfortunately their new workout plans lock workouts once you've done them (or forget to do them) and unlocks workouts after a certain period of time, which can be a pain in the arse when you really aren't in the mood for a zone 1 ride or are too tired for a sprint-heavy workout.

You can also only do one workout plain at a time.

The older workout plans are still available.

I just did the medium SST workout because my current plan wanted to make me do an hour of zone one on the trainer. No thank you. Instead, I set a new hour power record for Zwift. Hah.

You can also just download the workout files from online. At least you can on the PC version.
 
The "TT Tuneup" workout plan is built into the program itself. Unfortunately their new workout plans lock workouts once you've done them (or forget to do them) and unlocks workouts after a certain period of time, which can be a pain in the arse when you really aren't in the mood for a zone 1 ride or are too tired for a sprint-heavy workout.

You can also only do one workout plain at a time.

The older workout plans are still available.

I just did the medium SST workout because my current plan wanted to make me do an hour of zone one on the trainer. No thank you. Instead, I set a new hour power record for Zwift. Hah.

You can also just download the workout files from online. At least you can on the PC version.

I'll sign up to that plan this winter then.

Thanks for the info!

Andy
 
Indoor training has completely spoiled me. I was 30 minutes into what was supposed to be a three hour ride before I decided it was too cold and windy and went home.
 
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