learning how to pace yourself
I race primarily MTB (mtb race forums is dead so I hope it's fine to ask here) all races are sub 2 hours winners in my class generally finishing in 1h:30.
this was my first year and was not happy with my results
I always finished feeling like I had not left it all out on the course and could have ridden for a while longer or ridden harder and never finished in the top half of my category.
I believe my main issue is I did not have confidence in my fitness level and held back in the beginning allowing riders I could have beat beat me by getting too much of a lead to pull them back in.
do you have any tips on getting enough confidence in your fitness to know you can hold a pace near or at your LTHR and still recover ?