"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - seasoned riders . . . help?

so in a recent race, I got dropped like an anchor into an abyss of agony and endless torment. the pace was just too high. on my own, maintaining 21-22mph for an hour is no big deal but if I try to maintain even just a slightly higher speed I cry. clearly this is insufficient for racing. my question is then, what type of workout do you guys think is more beneficial to increasing the pace your able to maintain without going over your threshold:

and suppose you only have three days throughout the week to work on this specifically b/c intervals take up the other days.

a) 1day workout at threshold and 2days tempo
b) 1day tempo and 2 days at threshold
c) both wrong you noob

Do you guys think I need more muscle or better aerobic capacity? I realize I need to work on both of course but right now I focus mostly on aerobic capacity, and I'm wondering if I should focus a little more on strength. Thanks

You need to do some really hard bleed from the eyeballs intervals. One day a week do 1 minute maximal effort intervals, would be a good start.

I doubt that the pace was too high for the entire race. What probably happened is that the pace was erratic and you have not trained yourself to recover from the short high intensity efforts that typify racing. You need more anaerobic fitness but that comes from doing interval efforts above threshold rather than lifting weights.

--Steve

You need to do some really hard bleed from the eyeballs intervals.
or nose.

Try to ride with a group as much as possible, in addition to the good advice above. Being able to see the dynamic of the pack in a race is really important. You can position yourself to be in the right place at the right time so you conserve the most amount of energy. It takes a lot of experience to acquire this skill. The first thing to master is looking ahead, not having your attention glued to the wheel in front of you.

or nose.

:D You should have posted your pic again.

I doubt that I could do much more than 22 miles in an hour. But I usually do ok in races. As others have said, your endurance is fine. You need acceleration.

Sounds like you can handle the pace, but like others have said, it's the accelerations that kills you. That's pretty common, especially if you haven't worked on your VO2 max or anaerobic systems.

Add two types of intervals to your training routine, and you should find that sticking with the accelerations to be easier. As others have said, the speed at which you get dropped isn't the speed that the pack maintains.

Short 30 seconds to 2 minute anaerobic intervals should be of use, in addition to 3-7 minute VO2 intervals. The first are designed to increase your anaerobic work capacity (AWC), and improve your ability to recovery from anaerobic efforts. The second is designed to increase maximum oxygen uptake, and you should find it helpful when the pack accelerates for a couple minutes of hard riding.

so in a recent race, I got dropped like an anchor into an abyss of agony and endless torment. the pace was just too high. on my own, maintaining 21-22mph for an hour is no big deal but if I try to maintain even just a slightly higher speed I cry. clearly this is insufficient for racing. my question is then, what type of workout do you guys think is more beneficial to increasing the pace your able to maintain without going over your threshold:

and suppose you only have three days throughout the week to work on this specifically b/c intervals take up the other days.

a) 1day workout at threshold and 2days tempo
b) 1day tempo and 2 days at threshold
c) both wrong you noob

Do you guys think I need more muscle or better aerobic capacity? I realize I need to work on both of course but right now I focus mostly on aerobic capacity, and I'm wondering if I should focus a little more on strength. Thanks

Cypress, tell him how to incorporate a nice Yellow Line Violation here.

thanks guys, I really appreciate your input. I regularly do repetitions of 20secs high intensity/20secs easy spinning with ~2min recovery between sets. I have not thought of doing sustained high intensity intervals for more than a minute much less 2 minutes so I guess there's my problem. How do you guys do this type of workout? like how many sets and how many minutes of recovery between them? Thanks again.

thanks guys, I really appreciate your input. I regularly do repetitions of 20secs high intensity/20secs easy spinning with ~2min recovery between sets. I have not thought of doing sustained high intensity intervals for more than a minute much less 2 minutes so I guess there's my problem. How do you guys do this type of workout? like how many sets and how many minutes of recovery between them? Thanks again.
That's definitely your problem. 20 seconds of intensity is a sprint level workout. Though if you had a powermeter, 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off makes an interesting threshold workout. But that's neither here nor there.

Basically, for short 30 seconds - 2 minute anaerobic intervals, you want to complete the interval at an almost all out intensity. But not so hard at the beginning that you can't complete the interval at the prescribed intensity. Combine the intervals with periods of equal rest. Some people like to shorten the rest periods to more closely mimic racing, when rest very rarely comes when you want it to. Another nice workout, mentioned elsewhere, are pyramid intervals: 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 - with each number representing the length of the interval.

Someone else will probably chime in with something more coherent. I probably didn't do a good job at explaining how to gauge correct intensity. If you live in a hilly area, find a hill that takes a short time to climb, and you can do them there.