Your mass & strength will really help you on downhills on this course. Just coasting, you’ll hit higher top-speeds on downhills than lighter folks. Use that to draft and rest on downhills. Then near end as you’re about to rear-end people, DO NOT brake! Instead, preserve your speed and move over and get around them. They’ll have to work harder to stay with you. Use that momentum to keep speed up the next hill. The further you’re ahead going up next hill, the less you have to work. Maintain steady effort and do 2-3min interval at top so you’re completely blown-up as you go over top. This gets you from bottom to top as quickly as possible so the hill-climbers won’t be able to work you. Rest and draft them to recover on downhill.

Doing one hillclimb/hill-intervals training a week really helps with this Otter course. Something with steady grade for 2x25min to 4x25min when you’re in better shape. Gradually increase effort at end so you’re at 100% by top. Coast down to recover and repeat. As others mentioned, no amount of riding at FTP 25mph is gonna get you to 30mph. Need those regular spurts to 40mph. You’re not training for centuries.

Ya it will depend on how much I enjoy training at lower body weights. I do maintain my strength at lower body weights. But I hate life at 160lbs lol. I just want to eat everything in site.

Now that I have a power meter I have some better data. Today was a 23 mile ride for 1600+ feet. My riding partner today needed to stop a few times but overall it was a good ride. I wanted to make it a little longer and another 1000 feet of climbing but the other party did not want a long day. It was close to my heavy lifting day so my legs were not great today but not bad either.

That's darn good work! Since you're so strong already, be extremely careful about overtraining. Cardio system doesn't give you obvious warnings like sore muscles the next day!

Yeah, I can relate to that. At my height and build I can get down to about 165 lb, but it doesn’t look good and is hard to maintain long term. I’m much happier at around 180 lb and stronger on punchy routes at that weight. I do lose a little time in the big mountains but I’ve come to accept that I’m not a polka dot jersey contender.

My cardio usually takes 2 days to recover but my legs can take three or even four days to come back to 90%-100%. It really depends on what I do to wreck them. So I try and get in at least a three day rest before any big rides. I will do a proper peak and get in 5 days rest before the event.

I start to look pretty jacked at 165. My legs look massive at 23-24” with no dad belly lol. Ya about 165 is all I like to try and maintain. If I could get to 160 that would be fun for a short time.

Weight's a tricky balance...I'm a larger rider as well and the 170-175ish range is where I feel the best. I was a bit heavier a couple years ago and cut down to 165 last year...I did experience a hit to FTP, but the weight loss did net me a much improved power/weight ratio. I brought the weight up to 170-175 and I've seen an increase in both outright FTP and watts/kg.

At 170lbs, I know that I can't be an exceptional climber on the "HC" climbs, but I do climb well for someone my size. I'm naturally best at shorter climbs/efforts under 10 minutes...basically anaerobic and vo2 max style efforts. My 1 minute power is especially good, but my sprint is only so-so...although I've never really trained to improve my sprint ability.

You are going to race but more then that you are going to ride. So out on the road and ride, ride, ride. All in all you are and have been an athlete. That in it self is a big, big, thing. You have competed before so you really do have more in common with bicycle athletes then you would think...

Today we went out and did most of the 2025 sea otter rout. **** it’s brutal in places. Normalized power for 2 hours and 18 min was 225w on training peaks and 230w on the Bryton app. Thats not bad for now.

I did the Fuego XL last year at Sea Otter, I'm well aware of how steep some of the climbs can be. I remember the final climb, before the course dropped back into Laguna Seca for the finish, I felt like I was going to blow up any second.

Man that final climb is nothing to the one 2/3 the way in. It was 20% and rutted up and just kept going with little pause. Basically once you start that climb it on till the end and it’s the other side than last year. It was a rude awakening since I have ridden last years rout twice now.
I highly recommend anyone riding it this year relax on the first half as it’s pretty easy compared to the last half.

What would be a good guess on my normalized FTP wastage? I feel my steady state ftp to be somewhere around 200-210 and my normalized on this corse is around 250w? Is that way off? If I can do 230 for 2 hours and 18 min then wouldn’t my 1 hour be a little higher?

This is the Bryton power numbers from the Bryton app. I feel my zones are way off on the computer and the app.

For me, the climb itself wasn't so hard, just that I was thrashed after nearly 5 hours of racing. On the XL, there was a single track climb near the beginning of the loop that was much more difficult than the final climb, but that came at around miles 10ish and 40ish...so a different beast than at mile 65.

If you have a 230 normalized for more than 2 hours, I'd assume your FTP to be higher than 210. However, the caveat to this is, you being a punchy rider may skew the numbers. Some coaches will use the best 1 hour normalized for an estimate on FTP, but like I said, the numbers might be skewed a bit.

Me personally, I use the Intervals.icu site to analyze power data. One of the functions of it, is that it gives a FTP estimate, that I find close to the number that I can achieve via typical FTP testing. I typically don't even do FTP tests anymore, I'll just train off the estimate as well as feel.

Yes, your FTP should be somewhat higher. On a 2 hr 18 min ride an IF of 1.24 is not realistic. It should be well below 1 over that duration. NP is just a way of converting variable power into an estimated equivalent steady state average power. On this course your NP is a lot higher than your average power so maybe it’s skewed too much towards anaerobic efforts to be of much use in determining your FTP. Personally, I don’t even bother with power meters for off-road riding.

I have one more heavy workout and two hard rides left before the race. So depending on life I may be a little stronger for the race but I feet our friend may turn this into a much longer ride than I want.

After the race I am going to concentrate on weight loss and try to maintain the bike fitness. My biggest issue is I now hate indoor cycling. Like 🤢🤮 after the trails at fort ord and outdoor work I have done. I do like walking on my treadmill so there is that.

Last night was my last heavy squat session. I got up to 355lbs but was not feeling great. This last week was crap for sleep and food so that’s the issue. I wanted 385 but it was not happening. I want to get back into the 400s so I will continue after a week off after the race and with more volume.

This weekend I plan to either do a hard outdoor ride or a dreaded long indoor ride. For this next week I plan to lift lighter and for more volume. Next weekend will be a long zone 2/3 indoor ride prepping for the race. Then it’s peak week.

One small issue is that I have been on TRT for over 10 years. Not because I ever abused testosterone for bodybuilding or anything. I am and have never been that big or able to get big. I was unable to maintain above 300 naturally and my free test was almost zero. After years of battling this I went on trt.

I usually take about 75mg a week even though my doctor prescribed up to 200mg. Let’s be honest 200mg a week is a performance enhancing cycle and it’s juicing. No matter if it is prescribed by a doctor or not. That’s just too much for me, as it makes me tired and bloated with higher blood pressure. For this prep I have increased the dose to 150mg a week. Still higher than I need to feel good so it’s cheating. I have to take it and have lots of extra saved up since I don’t use even half what I was prescribed. So why not use it? Here is the secret. The test takes my cardio ability away. Also if I back off to my regular dose of 75mg two weeks out I get a rubber band effect and my strength goes up and my cardio comes back. It’s knowing your body and how medications work with your body. I have to take it so it is what it is.

Threw my back out Saturday and have not been able to ride or lift. So I am not expecting to be properly peaked but it is what it is. I should be back to normal by race day but these things happen. I am hoping to feel good enough to get in an hour zone 2 tonight. If I can get in a low effort ride the next three days then hit it hard on Saturday or Sunday I should be good to go. The only issue is getting the desire up to ride after a 10 hour day at work🤮

Was able to get back on the bike Wednesday and got in a ride. I hate indoor cycling so much lol. But it is what I can do in the evenings.

I felt weak but ok overall. 10 days off the bike. I will do another ride tonight.

I had no steady power and no ability to interval train so I just did an hour. My heart rate was really high but that’s normal after a 10 hour day at work. I think my numbers are comically off set at this point. Avg 145/ np164/ max 1756😂 in erg mode. I have a 2 hour zone 3 ride tonight then a 3 hour ride on Sunday. Then I rest into the event with no more than 30 min at zone one.

I really hate indoor riding lol. Zero motivation. My last ride, once again, had zero power ability. I just could not get my legs to warm up. My back is better but not completely better. My sprints are consistent after 1-2 hour rides. I calibrated the trainer last night. Tomorrow my last hard training session will be to climb my local insanity hill twice. Then coast into the race on Friday.

Today I felt better but not back to normal. This ride felt ok. I will do a very low zone one output for an hour on Tuesday. Should be good to go for the race and have fun. Not sure on the sprint power though. My legs do not feel great but whatever. Time is up and it’s time to do a thing.


Top of the hill.

Is HR the red line on the graph? If so, were you getting a little dehydrated toward the end? Usually if I'm tired at the end, the HR I'm able to maintain gets lower. However when I don't hydrate well, it goes up.

Though that's only 50 minutes. So maybe you just put in some extra effort toward the end.

Just looks like it is mirroring the power trace to me.

I can agree with that. Should have taken time to figure out which that was.

I was thirsty the whole ride but I did prep with plenty of water.

I feel I can enjoy this event at this point. I do have home field advantage and have ridden the rout. So I know where I need the most energy and where to relax. Should be a good event.

Thanks for all the advice. I will post how it goes.