Originally Posted by
waterrockets
It sounds like aerobic threshold is what you should be working on. If you were completely fresh on one of those steep hills, you'd be able to hang for the surge, right? If your 1' and 5' are higher rows than your FTP, you should probably look to see if it's burning matches that's getting to you. If so, then get some more matches.
I was in the same two races rtc is speaking of. I don't think it's his aerobic threshold. rtc was able to talk on one of those climbs while we were all under stress. (He answered a guy whining about holding his line while climbing at 8 mph). I think it's his aerobic capacity/over threshold.
I'm in the same fix. Aerobic capacity is my limiter. I weigh 176 lbs, so I need to generate a good bit more power on the climbs to hold the wheels of the guys that weigh 145-160. I posted my AC workouts (hill intervals) a few posts ago. My problem is that these don't seem to be helping me, and I've stagnated. I recover very quickly after the climbs and usually end up chasing the lead group down successfully. I can't do this more than once or twice though, and eventually I'm OTB.
I think WR is correct about matches though. In race 'B', I was dropped on a 2-mile, 5% climb. I needed to average 350w for the 10:00 climb, but my legs were not responding. I only averaged 330w for the climb, and I was OTB by under 1 minute at the top. On the preceding climbs, there were 4 times where I was averaged 400w for 1-2 minutes - each one a 'match' considering my FTP is around 310w.
So I'm with rtc, unsure about how to fix this problem. I'm pretty lean, about 10% body fat (or less), so losing 15 pounds is not likely. I need to increase AC power by 10-15% (30-45w). My best ever CP5 is only 379w, but I need to hold 360w on multiple 3-10 minute climbs in any given race around here.