Best training for.....

cyclingsheep

Cyclocross? Not sure if road training is the best place for this post but here it is. Have had a steady but not spectacular summer season of road riding (not racing) but am looking forward to getting muddy over the winter and don't want to be at the back of the pack. What should I be concentrating on with my training to have a good cross season (this will be my first)

Pross

For the fitness side I'd say much the same as for road / circuit racing. You probably don't have as many accelerations but there will be places where you need to up the intensity. On top of that you really need to practice skills - off camber cornering, descending, mounting / dismounting on the run etc. as that can save you a lot of time and energy. We run our club coaching sessions for kids concentrating on skills and you can see the benefit when you watch them race.

maryka

Best training is the sprint start -- start from a stopped position (one foot unclipped), then ride as hard as you can for 30-40 secs, go into a sharp corner, ride hard for another minute, rest, repeat. You need to be near the front and get a good start to stay near the front in cyclocross and get a shot at a decent result. And since your results add up and people are gridded according to their rankings/results, you need to get up there in the early races or you will always be gridded too far back to make a decent start later in the season.

Technical stuff -- mount/dismount, running up hills, etc. what Pross says. Learn not to brake too much!

imposter2.0

I think maryka sums it up pretty well. Expect to be absolutely balls-out for 5-10 minutes, followed by 40-50 mins of riding at threshold effort, with very little opportunity to recover. How hard you actually ride is up to you, because there is very little in the way of bunch riding or drafting and the field gets strung out pretty quickly. The difference in standard between the front and back of the field is usually huge - but that doesn't really matter, because at club level, I would say that well over 50% of the field is usually just there for a laugh anyway (myself included).

cyclingsheep

Cheers for the replies. I'm kind've hoping my mtb background (please don't shun me) will help me a little as far as handling, was actually very surprised at how well the cross bike (BMC cx01) worked off road so I guess my main issue will be that start. Better get working on it.

Oh by the way, how s#%t are the brakes?

mentalalex

2 key sessions i did when i raced cyclo-cross

3x10 of 15sec on 15 off both in and out the saddle! When i was building up to the world champs i really focused with pushing my self back in the saddle with a big ish gear to replicate riding through sand and mud.

And the other sessions was 2hrs with 40mins as 20secs z5 (power) on 40 secs (z3) so not completely easy!