I've got a big question mark in regards to my endurance capability in mountain bike marathons (120KM / 2800-3200 altitude meter).
I was cycling since a long time but in races since 3-4 years. Since the end of last year I spend a lot of time for training and I also follow a personal training plan with lactate test, etc. I am sure that my endurance basement was good trained, but both most important races this year shows unfortunately the opposite and I don't know why. I train on race bike and mountain bike, something about 300 hours this year.
To debilitate this arguments:
-I don't exceed at the start
-I eat and drink enough, with no stomach problems
-I keep my HR mostly below my threshold (156 bpm).
However, after something about 4 hours and some minutes, I was no longer able to put any pressure on the pedals or with other words: from this point I need to ride with low HR (<145 bpm). After a while (round about one and a half hours) I can speed up a bit but not like before. I've experienced that in the dolomiti superbike but only to finish the race (was my first start there), far away from my calculated time.
Here some details for Trainers:
-age: 35
-weight: 71Kg
-size: 180 cm
-fat:?
-max. power: 1180 W
-ergometer step test results from 02Jul2005:
- 2,0mmol lactat after 5minutes at 184W / HR 135
2,4mmol lactat after 5minutes at 220W / HR 142
3,5mmol lactat after 5minutes at 254W / HR 149
4,5mmol lactat after 5minutes at 280W / HR 161
5.0mmol lactat after 5minutes at 316W / HR 176 (stopped after this step, because it makes no sense for finding the threshold and strains the muscles unneeded)
Maybe someone can help me finding some explanation or what I can do to enhance my endurance for a COMPLETE race and not for just a bit over the half.
Thanks
At last: I don't want to be a pro (I allready have a job), but I want to race with fun and for me fun ends after 6 hours on a bike...
Taaboo