4 month plan - discussion
 

Goal - May 1st-9th, Tuscon. Mt Lemmon, Kitts Peak, Mt Graham and some riding around the general area. So three hard days, three fun days.

My weight will be 180#'s +/- at that point. Will drop 6-9#'s over the next 4 months.

**Looking to build sustained climbing power, not necessarily sprint/peak power. Looking to ride 3.5-4 hour climbing (Mt Lemmon) at high Z2 or low Z3 without dying.
-200w at 205#'s system weight (water food gear...) = 3.75 hours.

I would say that my "base" training is complete - 90% of my riding is in Z2 all year round. And I do some random interval work here and there.

8-10 hours per week
Weekend (for the 4 month duration.)
-1 3-4 hour ride - 90%+ Z2
-1 1.5-2 hour ride on MTB - mixed intensity, all zones.

Weeknights
-Monday. Rest or active recovery
-Tuesday. Intervals. 1-1.25 hours
-Wed. Mid Z2. 1-1.5 hours
-Thursday. Intervals. 1-1.25 hours
-Friday. Rest or active recovery

Now the question - intensity levels for intervals on 2 nights during the week. How to set them up over this 4 months without burning out or wasting time.

So much advice out there... skip sweet spot, do an intense build with sweet spot... go hard as you can on every interval/VO2 training... threshold is worthless...

Built in rest/easy weeks every 3rd week, 2nd week if doing VO2 (learned from the past)
-2 months of 2x per week sweet spot or 2x per week threshold. Stick with sweet spot, or mix in threshold one night per week, or all threshold?
followed by
-2 months of 2x per week VO2. Stick with VO2 or mix in a session of threshold?

Looking for advice on possible adjustments to timeframes, intensity levels at each time frame.

Are you taking a off road trail to the top? If you are staying on the paved road, then like I did for Mt. Blue Sky, CO (mt. evans) you will find yourself overprepared. But certainly you'll feel all the better if you are over prepared.

My biggest issue was just grinding away at a slow speed. I dislike that greatly. However once I got above the tree line the views were so majestic, grinding in a low gear didn't bother me any more. I don't think you'll be going above a tree line out there, but two of the climbs I looked at didn't seem to have much vegetation to interfere with seeing the vistas off in the distance.

In preparation, I rode 3-4 days a week. 3 of them a 40 mile ride that had the few tough hills with long periods of steady climbing near me. Which isn't very long before going downhill again.

The only thing I might question is why you aren't doing one or two longer rides? Though the interval training will be good, I'd still want my body to know it has to work for the time it's going to take me to climb. Otherwise, 1.5 hours into the climb, your body might think it's time to stop.

You only mentioned a mtn bike. Which is doable. And certainly will have the lower gear ratios you will need. But it will also be heavier. If on a paved road or packed gravel, I'd be on a road bike or gravel bike.

^^

Not riding a MTB out there. Just saying I do a 2 hour weekly MTB ride.
My first line lists a weekly 3-4 hour ride.

Yes, I will be staying on the road up Lemmon.

Im just looking for the best type of interval training to do over the next 4 months. Best bang for my buck… specifically geared towards raising my long distance cruising speed.

I can only report what has worked for me when training for big climbing events:

Multiple high-tempo/sweet spot climbs on a single ride. Climbs lasting 15-45 minutes, or so. Multiple long Z2 climbs up to 2 hours.

The other feature was lots of vertical per week, upwards of 25,000 feet.

I wasn't the fastest on short efforts, but I could go pretty hard for a long time.

I have to rely on Zwift for climbs - and that watts are watts. I do many of my intervals on climbs - but they are not really climbs.

Worked for my trip to the Alps... but my longest climb in the alps was just under 2 hours. I'm looking at 2x that amount for Lemmon.
I did a bunch of VO2 work for the Alps, as the sections of 12-15%+ grades put me near threshold just to stay upright.

Lemmon is steady at 6% until the top - where with the altitude and gradient, I may be near threshold at 3.5+ hours into the climb.

My last interval sessions were tempo up Huez and Hautacom on zwift. 3x15 on Huez, 2x30 on Hautacom.

Tempo intervals allow me to recover and repeat - threshold and VO2 kill me.

I guess I will continue with tempo for the next two/three months - progress duration a bit, then maybe throw in some higher intensity the last month.

That climb looks like well below the 3 hour mark at endurance / all-day pace, why do you have to be 3.5+ hours at it?

I'm assuming the following climb in case I got it wrong: https://www.strava.com/segments/1364765

Oh, I entirely missed your weekend rides. Yeah, you'll be well prepared if you are doing all that. The one thing you might have trouble simulating is the boredom of long continuous climbs of 4.5 - 6.5% grade. Where I live about a mile to 2 miles of climbing is all I can find. And the average for that distance is only 2 or 3% at best. The parts that get up to 5 and 6% are at best only a 500 - maybe 1000 ft of distance. So miles and miles of steady climb at a slow speed were my fear. And that's more mental than physical.

I run a 52/36 front and 11-30 rear normally for the rolling terrain around me. But for the long steady climbing out in CO, I will put a 50/34 and 11-32 on the bike. You might consider if you think you will need to have a few extra lower gear ratios to handle the brief upturns to 10% grade or better.

I don't think your fitness will be a issue.

At my weight - #185+/-, plus bike and gear. Need to carry everything/extra water as there are no real stops along the way. I'm looking at a #205-210++ system weight.

28 miles, 6.5% average grade with the last 2 miles at 9% - At best I can do 200w steady for that duration - that = 3.5+ hours (per the bike calculator website, which I've found to be spot on +/-). And that isn't considering potential headwinds.

If you look at the Strava KOM - a local pro, #137's @ 300W = 1 hour 42 min. Probably not carrying water, probably on a ultra light climbing bike... yep, I'm gonna be grinding for a long time.

FYI, Rouvy has the Mt. Lemmon climb. The ETA below is Rouvy's estimate for me. I'm usually several minutes faster than that, unless I'm having a bad day. My all-day climbing pace is 2.5-2.7 W/kg.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8c12a9651d.png

^^
If I reach my goal of 210W sustained, that would be 2.5wkg for me... Very little chance of me getting below #185 - If I do happen to hit 180, that would be close to the 2.7 range.

But the official Mt Lemmon climb is 28.8 miles vs the 25 on the Rouvy route you are doing. I imagine its missing the top 3-4 miles, which are the 9% sustained bits - and that would add at least 45 min at my pace.

I run a 34x36 for climbing. The good part - I'm 3 hours from Skyline Drive in Virginia. I can do steady 10-12 mile climbs @6-7%... just need it to warm up a bit.

Two drills made quite a difference to my climbing endurance:
Starting about now, every Tuesday I did a FastPedal drill on my resistance rollers starting with 20' and working up to 45'. I used a very low gear and pedaled continuously at 115-120 RPM. I did this every week until I could complete 45'. One could also use a trainer with very low resistance, but rollers probably work better. This cannot be done on the road. One's momentum screws it up.

When I had that down, I switched to another Tuesday drill: OLP (one-legged pedaling), also on my rollers. Gear so as to make you bawl for your mommy after 2'. Pedal one-legged, alternating legs and alternating 50 and 85 cadence. Pedal until you start to get a slack chain as you go over the top, ideally at about 2'. Slack chain is failure. The gearing is the trick. Too high and you can't do 2'. Two low, and you never get that slack chain, meaning you aren't working hard enough.

Ignore power and HR for both if these. Just do the drill. You'll be amazed at how well this works. I did these in my late 50s, early 60s. Once I was doing 400k in the mountains they weren't necessary anymore.

I was never bored on long climbs in the mountains. I was always pushing it, trying to TT those climbs.

I don't know if there is any science behind it, but what improved my leg strength and endurance a lot for climbing in particular was doing low cadence training on climbs. I would run 42x19 or even 42x17 for climbs close to 6%, doing something between 40 and 50 rpm, it was very hard but I kept at it. Revisiting these climbs with 42x23 feels almost like a breeze.

more likely what is missing is the easy bit in teh beginning. rouvy mountian routes generally start out climbing with no bit to warm up with.

Yeah, a lot of the Rouvy climbs start out on the climb. The Mt Lemmon one starts in a reasonable spot, but it does cut off the last bit at the top.