My Peaking Secrets of Mt. Norikura HC / 我日本乗鞍山登山賽的週期訓練方法
After winning Mt. Fuji in June, the Fuji Japanese Distributor decided to sign me up to the Mt. Norikura hill climb race. Mt. Norikura has the highest road in Japan at around 2800 meters. This race has been going for 23 years now and is viewed as the unofficial hill climb championship of Japan. / 富士山比賽後,日本富士就決定替我報名了乗鞍山的比賽. 乗鞍山的比賽今年已是第二十三屆了,在日本是最大、最老字號的爬坡賽. 海拔 2800 公尺.
Due to the importance of this race and in order to get in top shape for it, I had planned my training in detail to “peak” for it on time. This meant I had to stop hard training right after Fuji (where I was already peaking) to let my body recover. There was no way I could hold my Fuji peak until the end of August. / 因比賽的重要性, 我將我的訓練安排的很精準, 目的是要激勵我的體能再一次達到巔峰. 要想將我體能一直從 富士山 的巔峰保持到 乗鞍山 是不可能的, 因為兩比賽間隔太長, 我一定要以一個週期的方式來準備 乗鞍山.
I stopped high intensity training and rode long hours at very low power and low heart rate, around 150 watts or 120 bpm. Immediately, my Fuji peak disappeared and I lost my ability to go hard. I don’t like doing this kind of training, as it is very unsettling. I feel like I’m not doing enough. For me, recovery training is much harder than trying to push myself to the max. It became especially demoralizing when we had the two races in between my peaks – one flat, one hill climb in Taiwan. I got killed in both as I was so weak. I could barely stay in the race. It was very demoralizing but I knew it was for a greater good and it’s the best way for me to win later on when it matters most. / 富士山後, 我暫停了所有的強度訓練. 每天安排長時間,但低瓦數,低心跳 (約 150 瓦, 120 心跳) 的訓練. 我 富士山 比賽時的體能很快的就消失了. 其實這種訓練讓我很案耐不住, 因為我總是會怕自己是在浪費時間, 懷疑是否應該提高訓練強度. 對我來說, 輕輕鬆鬆的訓練幾乎比高強度的訓練難. 尤其是期中, 我們又得參加比賽. 兩次我都得到預期超爛的表現! 我感到身體好弱, 連保持在主集團內都有一點困難. 這是個很不好受的滋味. 所以我得隨時提醒我自己, 要將我更重要的目標放在第一.
Finally about 6 weeks before Norikura, I started doing heavy intensity work. I started to do lots of hard intervals and climbing workouts that really take a lot of discipline and determination to complete. This type of training is my favourite because after a hard workout, I feel like I have accomplished something few other people can do. Within 1 week, I felt a dramatic improvement in my power. So that motivated me even more and I pushed even harder in my training. / 乗鞍山比賽前的六個星期我才再度開始我的高強度訓練. 我安排了很多超難的間歇及爬坡訓練, 各各都需超人的毅力來完成. 我想, 我真的很自虐, 因為只有這些訓練才能給我很多成就感. 還好在短短一個星期內我的體能已經明顯的恢復了很多. 給了我更多的動力及信心來加強我的訓練.
Finally with Norikura 1.5 weeks away, I started to ease back on my intensity training and recover. I did a lot of easy 2 hour rides and very small and short interval workouts. This recovery allows all that hard training to pay off and make me very strong. I also worked on my diet too. I ate less food and tried to keep my weight down. But that was hard to do because as the year progresses, I get tired more easily and need to eat more food to keep going. / 大約比賽前的 1.5 星期, 我減少訓練的量, 做了很多約兩小時的恢復訓練. 此外參插 短、卻極強的間歇. 這樣在比賽時才能充分的發揮我強度訓練的效果. 我在食物上也有做相當的控制. 當然, 一年下來, 我的身體越來越容易累, 需要較多的食物來持續巔峰狀態.
I flew from Taipei to Korea, then Korea to Tokyo. Once in Tokyo I had to take a 2 hour bullet train to Nagoya. From Nagoya, the Fuji Bikes distributor in Japan (Naoto) picked me up and drove about three hours to a small town called Matsumoto. Matsumoto was about 1 hour from the start of the climb. / 光是到達 乗鞍山 這比賽就已是個重大工程. 我先得飛到 韓國, 轉機到 東京, 再搭兩小時的磁浮列車到 Nagoya, 再開三小時車到 Matsumoto. Matsumoto 大約至比賽起點於一小時車程.
It had been raining everyday leading up to the race, but on race day the sky was clear. There were 250 elite riders in the race, so we showed up very early to be on the front of the group. Naoto set up the rollers right at the front of the group near the start line. In total, there were over 5000 people. My warm up was perfect, and I got ready for the start. I used a Novatec X-Perti W2 low profile carbon wheel on the front for low weight and a W350 on the back for aerodynamics. / 比賽當天天氣晴朗, 比前幾天下陰雨時稍暖. 5000 人參加, 250 位精英選手. 我們提早到, 在最前方紮營, 做暖身. Naoto 先生非常專業, 熟知我的賽前準備的順續, 讓我安心的完成暖身. 比賽時我前輪用 Novatec X-Petri W2 低 profile 超輕碳纖維輪, 後輪則用 較流線的W350.
Once the race started I felt ok, kind of good. The race started at an elevation of 1500m so the air was thin, but my power was good. Because the group was very big, I attacked once, but not too hard to try and hurt the other riders and get a small group going ahead. It worked a bit, but the first half of the mountain was not so steep so riders could sit in and not get dropped. At some times, our speed was 27km/h going up a big mountain! I waited until the halfway point of the climb, where it gets steep again before jumping away from the group. I was able to jump away pretty well and with about 8 or 10km to go, was solo. I estimate that I was about 20 to 30 seconds ahead of the next rider. / 雖然開始海拔就 1500公尺了, 空氣稍許稀薄, 比賽開始後我感覺還算不錯. 集團一開始很多人, 我做了一次試探性的攻擊來縮小集團. 但因為路成前段並不陡峭, 類似 阿里山 的起起落落, 中級選手還能跟上. 有一段我們的爬坡速度竟然達到 27km/h! 所以我等到後段坡度增加後再次攻擊. 大約在最後10 公里都是單飛, 保持 20 ~ 30 秒距離.
Normally I would have been able to just keep going and build a bigger gap to the finish, but I actually had a small asthma attack. Since I was 14 years old, I have had a minor sports induced asthma which on occasion has really hurt my performance. And this day, it came back. I suddenly couldn’t breath deep and I actually stopped pedalling a few times to try and catch my breath. Not being able to breath deep also held my heart rate down. Normally when I go solo up a mountain, my heart rate soars to 190, but at this race, it would not go above 183, which is very low for me on a mountain. My power also dropped a lot. I only averaged 324 watts. Despite the race being at altitude, those are still lower than they should have been. / 依當時比賽情況及個人目前能力來看, 我應該可以很容易的單飛到底. 可惜, 我一直有的運動型哮喘今天突發, 無法深呼吸. 我甚至停止踩踏試著紓解我的肺部緊縮的情況. 但是命中注定, 這場比賽不是我的, 我的心跳明顯的比平時爬坡時低很多, 只能勉強維持在 185 bpm. 輸出的瓦數也很低, 才 324 瓦而已.
During the last 3km, 3 riders caught me and by the line beat me by 30 seconds. It was very disappointing and I felt really angry. The winner was so close to me, but I couldn’t go hard. I had prepared for this race really hard and traveled so far, only to get 4th. At this point I just wanted to go home. / 在最後三公里, 我被三位選手趕上, 最終以第四, 落後 30 秒收場. 當然我感到很難過因為我準備的很周全, 計畫進行也很順利, 更千里迢迢的來參賽, 卻因不能控制的身體因素無法奪冠… 此時的我只想趕快回家…
The race itself was very well organized too. The road to the top is closed to cars and there were 2 cars and 1 motor bike cameras and 1 helicopter camera! I felt like in the Tour de France! At one point it was hovering right next to me while I was solo, it was very cool. / 此比賽也是辦得很有序. 所有的路都封鎖, 只有大會的兩台前導車, 摩托車攝影師, 還有一台直昇機攝影全成! 當我單飛的時候, 那直昇機一度在我身旁停滯. 超酷的.
After the race we drove back to Nagoya and Naoto took us to eat special local chicken wings that tasted great and I even had a beer made with Red Miso! / 賽後, 我們開車回 Nagoya. Naoto 帶我們去吃當地的雞翅, 我還喝了 “紅味僧”啤酒!
I know getting 4th is not really a bad result. Its just hard when I know I could have won. I’m sure I will be thinking about it all the time until next time… / 雖然第四也不差, 感覺”到手的烤雞飛了”, 想必又要讓我難受一整年..