The countryside was beautiful and we were really lucky with the weather which started to warm up as the sun got higher in the sky. The first steep climb was shock I found it hard and James and Bob rode away from me, the decent was tricky particularly with very one so strongly on the breaks, but once I managed to get a little clear road and confidence in my aero wheel breaks I enjoyed the steep MTB switch backs, Bob and James not so much.
We kept going on and at about 100k I mentioned to Bob I did not feel at "on fire" as I had on other rides and he pointed out the we were 100k in. However I had lost my salt and once I found that and had a couple of grams with a bottle of water it cheered and livened me up.
We kept going and I actually started to feel stronger again, once we hit Hardknott and Wrynose I was truly unsure how I would react. The reality was completely different that I thought. The gradient was not as constant and therefore not as daunting but the road surface was very weathered and bumpy.
With my MTB experience I perched the ass as far forward on the saddle as I could and started to grind, tiring to stay relaxed and keeping a downward pressure on the bars, no pulling. I wanted to keep getting out of the saddle as a last resort, once out of the saddle it is hard to sit back down and ask for the same power.
I wound my way round the bumps, bodies, walkers and switchbacks trying to find a ride-able line with a few shouts at the walkers as they went to cut in front of me. Slowly I moved up the slope taking every reduction in gradient to keep moving but control my HR. I got to the top, happy days, very tough but better than I though.
I had my descending desire back and although I was sensible I did not just want to sit on the brakes and I had some fun. Wrynose was less technical but mentally you have been going for longer so was probably equally as hard.
After the climbs were gone I certainly relaxed, I felt pretty good and did not feel spent like after the dragon or marmotte, I was happy to push home. After we finished it felt like a Sunday ride with a few very very difficult climbs, I think this would be a hard event to post a quick time, but I will be back to try and do so.
I decided to compare my power/HR efforts for these rides, on the face of it, it would appear that I really did not have to push that hard on this ride, although I did not feel like I had really pushed I am not sure this data is truly accurate. This could be skewed by 2 factors.
If my current FTP is higher than I have is Stava, which I think it probably is, my "training load would be too high".
I am aware that my keto threshold HR (KTHR) is higher than my carb threshold HR(CTHR). I have been in keto and riding low carb, but on this event I ate carbs, not many 3-4 bars in 8 hours. This puts a question over my race threshold HR. If this was lower than KTHR then my suffer score would be too high.
Fred Whitton 2017
Distance 177.7km
Move time 7:27h
Elevation 3615m
Suffer Score 193
AWP 191
Work 4188kj
Training load 438
Intensity 75%
Dragon 2016
Distance 228.9km
Move time 8:39h
Elevation 3624m
Suffer Score 504
AWP 194
Work 5133kj
Training load 506
Intensity 76%
Marmotte 2016
Distance 174.4km
Move time 8:26h
Elevation 4849m
Suffer Score 625
AWP 198
Work 5276kj
Training load 513
Intensity 77%
PS I may have had a burger and a few beers, but back on the straight and narrow the next day.
