TobinHatesYou wrote: ↑Wed Jan 30, 2019 9:01 am
cerb, what category were you racing in? I find I get all kinds of interval work done in A races because I'm at the bottom end of the category in terms of raw power. Those 1-4 minute short ramps/climbs on courses like Watopia Hilly and Watopia Figure 8 are killer for overall fitness. You can always attempt a breakaway for sprint/jumps and longer sustained intervals.
Throughout the period, I was sitting at between 3.6-3.96W/kg, meaning that I was in the middle of B, or right at the top of B.
I'm 88kg, so due to raw power output, I could hang with A most of the time on flat courses, but didn't stand a chance on anything with a hill. As such, I mostly stuck to the flat courses and ended up riding with A at my threshold for most of the race... Variability to my power output was generally only 3-5% to the average.
When my fitness dropped in the off season, I would often get dropped from the A-group on the 2nd or 3rd time up short hard rises, then end up riding with 2-5 others ahead of the main B-bunch. This meant it was effectively a threshold effort again, but attacking each other above threshold up the rises and coming into the finish was still fun.
All of it was pretty fun (and more engaging than I find doing TR sessions), however, I was trying it out as a method of building fitness - and it didn't work for me... When it came to
real-life racing season, my fitness was down on the past few years and it wasn't as enjoyable. Training for real-life racing is my goal, so that's why i've swung primarily back to TR.
I fully recommend you get into some real racing! It's a bit different to Zwift, and a whole heap more fun!