Originally Posted by
ark40
Good advice guys. I'll ride the week of the race but limit my self to 20 milers as a relatively easy pace. Heat I am used to, and I do drink as much as I can, fortunately I do not sweat as much so I do end up taking a rest stop during the ride and most times at the end. In my club rides I am usually the slowest rider so I usually get dropped and catch up on stops, because of which I get zero drafting, which I am sure helps with training. Expecting the race day to be significantly better for drafting, allowing me to finish sooner and avoid the hottest part of the day. The advice on butt pain is spot on, I already try to manage that but I think more attention is needed to keep the body pain free. The toes are something I can't seem to find a solution yet. That was my #1 request to the bike shop when I was getting fitted earlier this year (they use a Retuhl), changed insoles, added some shims to the cleats to improve pressure balance, still get pain on the outer toes in both feet. But that's an ongoing project.
Oh! and I do have a HRM (Wahoo Roam) and I keep my Hr rate between 145-155 most times, and go into mid 160s when on a long steady up hill. Never cross 170. I don't know my resting HR but I should know in teh next few days as soon as I can find my wife's fitbit :-).
Two possible ideas:
Tired after 50 = not eating enough. Eat 200 Cal. of carbs/hour. Back when I ate solid food on the bike, I'd take a bunch of Clif Bars. open 2, put in my jersey pocket, take 1 out, break into quarters, eat 1 quarter every 15' from the start. That works and it's simple. That might be more food that you need going at your speed, but try it for a couple hours, see how that goes. You don't need to eat like that on your shorter rides, but try it on your long ride. If you're under-eating, you might notice that your HR seems to be dropping for the effort you're making. If you're getting dehydrated, it's the opposite. That's a big advantage to using a HRM.
Tired after 50 can also be simply going too hard. It is said that most riders ride neither easy enough nor hard enough. The thing is, the power you need to go at a particular speed increases as the CUBE of that speed. That doesn't matter on climbs because the resistance is almost all from elevation gain. So what you do is go WAY easier on the flats and harder on the climbs. I know HR is individual, but I think at your age mine was similar. Try 130 on the flat, and then 160+ on the climbs. That should be faster than holding a more steady effort like you're doing. Think about it. CUBE. 130 might even be too high.
Ignore the rest stop food on the century, it's usually garbage and you'll get out of there quicker. If you have a group in which you're riding, watch them and leave with them.
Drafting will cut your HR by ~10 beats. You want a group that passes you at 1-2 mph faster than you're going solo, then try to hold them on the hills.
On the flat, you should be pedaling at 85-90 cadence, on the climbs at 70-80. Many people pedal faster, fine, but slower, not so good.