Originally Posted by
Ray9
... By the way, it's about 70 percent mental so don't quit as soon as you ride into the house of pain. Embrace it! Attack it! ...
This is all well and good if one has a level of fitness they aren't tapping.
But for many the aerobic capacity just isn't there; or hasn;t been built up enough.
Riders who are over-weight or under fit run into this very definite headwall. Those who have suffered some debilitating effect can see this remarkable wall - ie, many heart attack survivors who chose to continue their aerobic 'activity'...
after mine (5 yrs ago) It was noticeable that measured efforts I could do before were now around 60% of before. This is not some set 'number', just what my attack did to me. Even now I'm nowhere near where I was before...
The whole 'attack the house of pain' thing doesn't apply when you absolutely are totally gassed. It's not about 'pain' in the legs, it's a total shutdown, before the legs go away.
And 'power' eventually becomes dialed back, BECAUSE you just can't go hard enough to keep it or build it.
Like putting a young Cat 5 rider into a Cat 2 race - without the aerobic fitness the shelling is inevitable.
For us old pharts aerobic capacity is a downhill process, sometimes with a big-ass step...
I didn;t read every post, but the OP didn;t give his age. BUt he did say he could ride the flats reasonably, but not stay 'with the Little Old Ladies' on climbs.
So, is he age limited for his aerobic fitness? who knows? Aerobic fitness is a longterm development, not weeks or even months dependin...
so what do you do on this type of ride? well small jumps/increments. You pick the riders who get to the top just a bit before you and try to hold their wheel, with everything you've got and every smart adaptation you can make. When that becomes easier you find the next riders ahead of you and do the same thing, all over again...
and, there might (will) be a point in time where you just won't get any further up the food chain of climbers...
I can tell you for certain that 20 yrs from now, when Jens yells 'Shut UP legs!', he will certainly be going much slower and not as far...
not sayin to 'not' constantly push against the ceiling, but sayin 'Shut UP Legs!' will have mixed results.