Struggling

fcukwit

Here's the issue then - I have been riding for about 4 years, TT's until this year when I delved into 4th cat road and circuit racing. I am OK at TT. Usually on the hour for a 25 and long 22 - short 23 for a 10 on not particularly fast courses. ( as a reference, others who have same times as mine can do 57 ish and 21 ish on faster courses). I was and am confident in fast groups, can handle a bike well etc etc. I have raced about 10-15 races so far this year on circuit and road. The problem I have is recovering between efforts, i-e coming out of corners / changes in pace / getting back on etc. I can usually get on but others around me tend to recover far faster, whereas my heart rate and breathing remains sky high. If I do a short hill climb for example, I will almost certainly be near my max HR and at my highest perceived effort long after others will have recovered. I have trained hard, with what I would say are the correct intervals to try and emulate this, and have a good base but just seem to struggle immensely in this area. I can ride close to my max HR for a long time, but the yo yo effect destroys me completely because I do not recover. I find it really hard to watch others, who I have trained with for some time, improve in this area, whereby I seem to struggle as much as I did in the first race.
I am ready to accept the fact that I am not physiologically cut out for this type of racing, and concentrate on training for TT's instead, but the truth is I love road racing and the buzz is superior by far.
I guess my question is this - Have I reached the top of my ability maybe? Is there anything I can do to improve this aspect? I am not overweight at 73 kg for 5.10, and eat well etc. I don't have the money for a coach unfortunately or I would definitely go that way. Anybody else struggled with this and then had a break through? Or is it just the way you are made and you can either do it or you cant?

jgsi

fcukwit wrote:

Here's the issue then - I have been riding for about 4 years, TT's until this year when I delved into 4th cat road and circuit racing. I am OK at TT. Usually on the hour for a 25 and long 22 - short 23 for a 10 on not particularly fast courses. ( as a reference, others who have same times as mine can do 57 ish and 21 ish on faster courses). I was and am confident in fast groups, can handle a bike well etc etc. I have raced about 10-15 races so far this year on circuit and road. The problem I have is recovering between efforts, i-e coming out of corners / changes in pace / getting back on etc. I can usually get on but others around me tend to recover far faster, whereas my heart rate and breathing remains sky high. If I do a short hill climb for example, I will almost certainly be near my max HR and at my highest perceived effort long after others will have recovered. I have trained hard, with what I would say are the correct intervals to try and emulate this, and have a good base but just seem to struggle immensely in this area. I can ride close to my max HR for a long time, but the yo yo effect destroys me completely because I do not recover. I find it really hard to watch others, who I have trained with for some time, improve in this area, whereby I seem to struggle as much as I did in the first race.
I am ready to accept the fact that I am not physiologically cut out for this type of racing, and concentrate on training for TT's instead, but the truth is I love road racing and the buzz is superior by far.
I guess my question is this - Have I reached the top of my ability maybe? Is there anything I can do to improve this aspect? I am not overweight at 73 kg for 5.10, and eat well etc. I don't have the money for a coach unfortunately or I would definitely go that way. Anybody else struggled with this and then had a break through? Or is it just the way you are made and you can either do it or you cant?

One of the books I read recently had the quote similar to "diesels don't win races".
Might not be true in motor racing anymore but you get the general idea for road racing.
With your road race specific training, a good chain gang can get you to tug the heart rate upwards and then recover.
Some turbo intervals 40on/20off in a small block then fully recover and repeat until basically you cannot do justice to the intervals anymore.
if your own diesel engine is in good order then it dont need too much emphasis in training.
You can still do your 10s and 25s to keep that side primed.

You might guess I am sort of the in the same boat but no way would I give up road races.

fcukwit

Thanks for the reply JGSI - I have been doing 10:20's and minute on minute off type intervals, and do ride with 2 / 3 cats fairly regularly - sometimes as chain gang work. I will persevere for now and make some changes training wise again.

Alex_Simmons/RST

fcukwit wrote:

I guess my question is this - Have I reached the top of my ability maybe? Is there anything I can do to improve this aspect? I am not overweight at 73 kg for 5.10, and eat well etc. I don't have the money for a coach unfortunately or I would definitely go that way. Anybody else struggled with this and then had a break through? Or is it just the way you are made and you can either do it or you cant?

1. I doubt it. Few do.

2. There is always something you can do

3. You haven't done all that many races, so
- it's possible you are wasting more energy than other more experienced riders. Improvement in bunch skills while under pressure, cornering, drafting, and reading races takes time.
- Increasing threshold power and (W/kg) never doesn't work and is primarily the reason why others are recovering faster, but how you do that can vary,
- of course developing parts of the power-duration curve that are particularly important for your target events.
- Look to reduce the resistance forces acting against you. Can you reduce mass, improve aero? Goes along with better skills and race nouse.
- choose some races / grade suitable for your current level
- do some races in the mix that will stretch you on some of the abilities mentioned above, e.g. crits for race craft and skills under pressure, cornering

4. sometimes we do need to balance rest of life considerations with what's possible and/or required to improve a lot. Keep doing the races you enjoy the most, and try to do some of the things mentioned above in training.

fcukwit

Thanks for the advice Alex, appreciate it. I am going to up the short duration intervals and drop a session of tempo. Just one question, if doing short high intensity intervals to emulate a race situation, is it best to use a low recovery time? Obviously that replicates a race, but takes much more out of you - or is it better to do more reps of high intensity with larger recovery periods?