Warm up. Forget about your heart rate and your power meter and all that crap, and all this pre-occupation with this % of that meaningless number. The point is to learn your body. The silly numbers and percentages hold you back. Find a nice clear 2-3km stretch of flat road. get into a nice mid range gear. Like a 42/15-ish. Roll along for about 1km, and then pedal as fast and hard as you can for 1km, and then recover for the last km. Turn around. Do it over and over for about half an hour. Slowly increase you time (as in from the half hour up to about 1 hour). And then you can think about getting onto the big ring. The blood in your throat will tell you if you've gone hard enough. If you don't taste it, you haven't. Don't try get there your first time. Proviso, I was trained by a guy that finished 10th or something in Rapport Tours in the Seventies. If you looking for a soft-cock approach, don't listen to me.
