Yes indeed. I’m trying the polarised plan now, mostly because I’m stuck indoors because of the weather and have some extra time. My fitness is low but staying stable so far. I’m expecting it to go up once the weather improves and I start commuting to work more often. Then I’ll switch to SS training as work will get in the way.
As per others were saying, my weight has crept up but I’m not that worried at this stage. Come April I’ll make more of an effort to lose the extra weight which I think will be easier once the volume is up.
My plan is to be able to finish La Marmotte, so I will concetrate on long days on the saddle for now.
Anyone considering changing their gearing set-up for the event? For years I have raced and done hilly Gran Fondos on a 53/39 and 11/28 cassette and generally no issues.
The Gran Fondos were 120km and 2000m of climbing with some steep sections at 10-15%. I was grinding in these sections for sure and would have preferred lighter gears but events were generally short enough and not worth the hassle of changing cranks.
I have a compact crank (50/34) and thinking about installing it a month out from the event.
Looking at the Marmotte course the climbs are not too extreme in terms of gradients. I think top of Galibier and bottom of Alpe Duez are steep and extra gears would be welcome? Also if you are kooked by Alpe Duez you will be looking for light gears?
What is everyone thinking? No brainer for the compact? I doubt I would need the 53 on descents? Glandon neutralised and wouldn’t be pushing watts on Galibier descent as recovering for the final push up Duez.
When i’ve done parts of the route before, the 50/34 was a godsend. On the decents, you’re going fast enough that you won’t really need to pedal. You’re up to speed after the hairpins pretty sharpish anyway.
I’d be tempted to stick a larger rear casette on for the final slog up the alpe, but i don’t wanna pay the price for a new one
If my maths makes sense, going from 39 to 34 on the front makes each revolution 13% easier (1 - 34/39). This feels like it would be very noticeable! And going from 28 to 34 on the back would be 18%.
Please tell me if I’m wrong because this is my justification to swap out the crank and cassette for the marmotte
When I did it 10 years ago (2013 and 37 year old) I changed my 53/39 11-25 campagnolo set up for a 50/34 with an 12-29 cassette. Whilst I would class my self as a bit of a climber I was glad of the extra gears on the Alpe D’Huez.
For steep climbs you are very much right. The flatter it gets, the more the non linear properties of aerodynamics come into play, and the two values diverge.
For climbing events like this, you can hardly go too small in terms of gears.
However, if you like to fiddle around with it;
Here you can see the speed you’d go at a given gearing and cadence.
If you are looking for what power you need at the given grade and speed:
It’s not perfect, but has helped me pretty much so do far.
Always be prudent when estimating your speed. It it is a long day, the 3 climbs are very high up. It can get hot, it can get rainy. Don’t calculate the values as if you were going sweetspot.
The steepest parts of the race should be the final k to the top of the Galibier at around 10% and the first two k of the Alpe d‘Huez, at about the same gradient. So very late in the race. That’s a good basis for calculation.
I always use my ride time :-). First time I did the Marmotte was in 2007 or 2008. It was due to a deadly incident on the descend of the Glandon that year, and some other accidents the years after they decided a few years later to neutralyze the timing.
But I always focus on my total time, including the downhill. Did the Marmotte 5 times now and still my goal to go sub 8h not yet met. Last year I was in good shape but the extreme heat made me slow down on the Alpe. 8u17 ride time. 2018 I did 8u07, 2011, 8u09, 2009 8u30, 2008 9u20.
I have one tip. Go slow on the first climb. You have to say to yourself, how easy…The ride begins 2km before Plan Lachat on the Galibier. There you begin to feel the fatigue dropping in…
Thanks for all the input. I’ll definitely go with the 50/34 and 11/28 combo, i’m sure I’ll end grinding up the Alpe anyways.
I’ve listened to all the advice about going easy up the Glandon but emotions and adrenaline will probably get the better of me and I’ll end up frying myself
Indeed, 11-32. First 5k of the Glandon are around 9% so the easier your gear combo, the better for your legs and also not let the adrenaline get you and grind a bigger gear then necessary…
How is everyone’s training going? Personally on the best run I have had in years, no sickness or Injuries since covid early last year so getting good consistency.
Finished SSBHV 1&2 and got my sweetspot to 7.3 at pretty close to all time high FTP.
I plan to continue with the Gran Fondo plan and next up is SSPHV1 which is 2 VO2max workouts Tue and Thur. I will generally do a long road spin on Saturday and shorter road spin on Sunday.
I would love to preserve my current sweetspot & tempo abilities considering Marmotte route but wondering is that possible mix with Saturday 4-5 hour spin. I think Sunday would be strictly Z2 after long Saturday spin so that’s not an option.
On the Saturday spin we are introducing hills (10 - 30 min climbs possible on my spins). We have been riding them tempo / sweetspot so might accumulate 30 - 45 mins sweetspot with random rest intervals at the moment.
Looking at my last sweetspot workout it was Martin which is 7.3 and unless I actually perform intervals on the climbs then it seems like my levels will inevitability reduce.
I guess this is the gap PL V2 will address where the reality of an unstructured road spin with friends will result in lower than expected PL impact.
I will only do the Tue and Thur Vo2max workouts which will be 6 ion total for the block and was considering substituting at least one of those for a 1.5 hour sweetspot to maintain my PL.
Just wondering if anyone in the same boat? or any views on trying to hold on to Sweetspot levels attained in base?
I’ve got a mid volume custom plan on the go but to me, at times it feels like the intensity is too high. I would have thought that as there are 4 big climbs in this event, it would be better to structure a plan around lots of extended tempo with a bit of SS thrown in here and there. I don’t intend to go harder than that during the day as a, it’ll be at unknown altitudes for me, b, the climbs are huge, c, it’s a long way.
In my case (started TR 6month before, but had done a bit of structured training before), the heat was much more of a problem than the altitude (I live at sea level, and only spent 3 nights in AH before the event.
Here is my activity (I started at the top of AH, and had to then wait a bit for the start)
Yes, mid volume has lots of high intensity even during base and that’s the reason I would always do high volume which is 100% tempo / sweetspot.
I would expect to push the FTP higher on the Gran Fondo plan during the build and specialty considering the focus VO2max and threshold however that is at the expense of possibly losing the sustained abilities at tempo / sweetspot attained during base. As you mention the climbs are huge and will be multiple hours hopefully at a tempo pace.
Tried to aim for 85% on all the climbs (3000hm during a 166km ride) and felt really good. Could end the ride with a 11 and 8 min effort at 300 - 316w (95 - 99%). Focused a lot on the longer rides for the past months and my LT1 had a big bump from 220 tot 245. Could definitely feel that my engine is a lot bigger these days! After 6 hours I had plenty left in the tank.
Also did Alpe du Zwift after a 4 hour indoor Z2 session little time ago : 30.1 km Ride Activity on March 25, 2023 by Michael G. on Strava and could still climb relatively easy at 275 so I’m looking forward to the end of June Hope/aim for a <7 hour finish time…
Nice, work, I feel it’s pretty different from a feel to do long climbs at that effort level or a lot of shorter climbs with that level but You seem already well prepared . I’m Not doing the La Marmotte Alpes, but I do the Marmotte Valais (Tour des Stations) Granfondo - Tour Des Stations In August and then the Alpenbrevet in September (200k 5000+m) . Sadly didn’t have much chance to do really long rides until now, did a few 2h-3h rides and a 3h+ ride (that should have been 5h but freehub broke…). Had a decent bump of my FTP after having a bad winter with illness… Have a Gravel event the begining of June with 5000m of elevetion gain if you do everything to test how I’m going…
Currently doing a FTP block to extend out TTE and also doing a bit of MAP / Anerobic work to keep that up because of a Road Race in mid of May. After that I will try to work on more Long rides and maybe going back to extend SST to 90-120m and another FTP block.
Great effort. My preparation is going pretty well so far. In had a small setback after ski-holiday when I came home with covid. But since March Ive been steadily building, first VO2Max-block and now FTP-block (three weeks of 3×20 and 4×15 at 95-100% ftp plus long Z2 rides).
Next week will be preparation weekend in the Ardennes for some first real-world climbing of the year. I will also do a prep week in the Vosges with the Trois Ballons Mediofondo (+extra loop) as prep early June.
Finally pulled my finger out and got a doctors appointment to get my medical cert sorted.
Had a couple of set backs these last couple weeks. Had a dodgy knee so that knocked off a couple of the harder TR rides but that seems to be better now. Also felt mega burnt out last week. Middle of the week I just couldn’t sustain the longer power efforts, HR would just shoot up to 175 within a couple minutes (Typically i’m mid 150’s-160’s in sweetspot). Took a couple easy days and I’m on a recovery week this week so it timed itself well lol.
Something has also clicked in my head recently with regards to the weight loss, so that now seems to be going in the right direction. Related to the burn out? Seems possible
. Looks like someone talking that never done Alpe d’Huez after 160k 
