Quote Originally Posted by Starfish View Post
How important, then, is it to know one's max? Is the LT the more important thing to use when training, given that we want to increase it over time?
If you are using hr to train, your zones are based off of your max, so that does set the tenor for all of your training. If you are a little off it might not affect your training so much, but if you are off by a lot you can be working too hard or too easy (depending on which way you are off of course). In general your max is your max, its genetically set and really does not affect how fit you can become. LT is basically the percentage of your max that you can sustain and LT is trainable, so you can raise it. It is desirable to have your LT as close to your max as possible.

Knowing your measured LT is useful in a TT for pacing, but I think if you do a few you get to be able to feel it. They don't even have to be organized - just pick a stretch of road that you can go for 10 or 12 Km on without really stopping - you can have a turn around, most TT's have a turn around point midway, and ride as fast as you can while maintaining a relatively steady pace. If your speed falls significantly before you are finished, you've likely exceeded your LT. Like mudmucker said, some days you might not even be able to reach it without burning out, so listening to your body is important too.

Now of course in a competitive TT, when you get close enough to the finish you actually want to exceed your LT and try to time it so that you reach the end at just the point where you have nothing left. You don't want to go too early and peter off before the finish or go too late and still have steam after you cross the line. Figuring out that sweet spot is a lot harder.

As far as climbing Hurricane Ridge - Its a great ride and I do want to come and do it again some time - though I'm generally not allowed to go out and climb mountains on my rest days . There's actually a more weekend days this year without races than there have been in the past, so I might be able (urrrr - allowed....) to do it again this summer - and my A races are both climbing races, so I expect to have some longer climb workouts. If we decide to head your way I'll drop you a line when we make our plans.