Interbike was great..Cross Vegas was probably the most stacked field in US history. With Page, Trebon, Kabush, Heule, Powers, Frattini, Johnson, Craig, McCormack, Wells x2, and about everyone else that rocks. THE TOP 15 heck the TOP 30 was full of the Super stars of American cross........... 4 rows back I started 32nd. RESULTS CAN BE FOUND HERE
http://www.cyclocrossworld.com/Results4Event.cfm?Action=Edit&theKey=688&EventKey=937&C=1&Season=2007&Sortby=datedown&ShowDisabled=0
Not a bad place to start and about as good as it gets if you were not a REAL pro. I managed to finish 32nd about 4 minutes in the rear of Trebon. One of my best days on the CX bike. I was probably in the MID 50's after the first lap. and moved up from there. I got off the line great but it was a wall of riders and really no where to move up considerably. I chilled and waited till the 2nd lap when things calmed a bit and started to move up from there. I passed about 20 riders before it was all said and done. I felt strong on the slow grass. It was very similar to what I have been training on. After a full day standing and working at interbike I was amazed that the legs felt stellar. I had enough caffine in the system that I am not sure I even nocticed the pain. It was great to race in such a powerful field this early in the season. Still tons of work to be done but I rode one of my best efforts ever on the CX bike.
I pretty much took the PAST week off with work. So Sunday will be the only day I get to train. I will do a few hours on the trainer and try to get in 60 minutes of threshold work and a short RUN. Monday I will restart the PLAN and follow it till Nationals. I will probably ad a few more efforts here and there. No doubt this is the fittest I have been for CX. To pass some of the riders mid race who finished in the TOP 15 at natonals was a cool feeling. Till Louisville and the first Gran Prix race it is time to train. Back to work......
End of week 2(or week 5)
Vegas or Bust
Ok the week was hard. I did 2 by Mock race efforts saturday and the legs were pretty good. 15 watts higher this week than last. I had run almost every day this week. The legs felt dead on the run-up. Sunday I backed it down a bit with vegas in 3 days. I did 15 minute of tempo into 2x8 min of threshold and 3 by 3 minutes of threshold with 30sec hard after each. I did 2 hours including a run. So I am off to interbike. I guess I will ride easy Monday and Tuesday the race is at 9PM WED night. Ouch. After a day working the show lets hope I have some killer legs. Bummer I have to rest this week. But I just looked back and this is really WEEK 5 for me. I didn't rest starting the plan and had done week 1 Twice!. So Legs need a break. I had a solid 3 weeks coming into the Plan. Several sets of 2-3x20s and Micro work already.
Ok the week was hard. I did 2 by Mock race efforts saturday and the legs were pretty good. 15 watts higher this week than last. I had run almost every day this week. The legs felt dead on the run-up. Sunday I backed it down a bit with vegas in 3 days. I did 15 minute of tempo into 2x8 min of threshold and 3 by 3 minutes of threshold with 30sec hard after each. I did 2 hours including a run. So I am off to interbike. I guess I will ride easy Monday and Tuesday the race is at 9PM WED night. Ouch. After a day working the show lets hope I have some killer legs. Bummer I have to rest this week. But I just looked back and this is really WEEK 5 for me. I didn't rest starting the plan and had done week 1 Twice!. So Legs need a break. I had a solid 3 weeks coming into the Plan. Several sets of 2-3x20s and Micro work already.
WEEK 2 3X20's thursday
Ok, I have Vegas CX next WED!! The week started pretty lame with LIFE happening and JUST getting runs in MON/Tuesday. I ran hard Tuesday and just couldn't get to the bike. WED I did 8 by 5's
Ok the blow out was sick 397! ON the trainer! ( will check SRM tomorrow)
I was going hard but backed it off a bit knowing i had 7 more to GO. I did the others over 350 so that was pretty rad for me. I did 4 inside and then 4 outside on the CX bike on CX course. I just jumped off the trainer and headed outside for the 2ND half. Legs feel great. they felt incredible running on Tuesday also. I can only get in a few more days before I back off a bit for Vegas. 3 by20's Thursday that should be interesting
Thursday !!! CHECKED SRM all is GOOD
3 BY 20's.. I ran for 30 minutes easy this morning with the PUPS....
Ok, if you read the plan it sounds hard...IT is. BUT I am surviving and still gaining some watts. I had 3 hard weeks before I started the plan and still am drilling it.
It was on. I nailed the first one at almost 340. I kind of ramped and held on for life. I figured if I was going to do it...I might as well get a solid 20 minute out of the deal. I backed way down for the other 2, but kept it in my threshold range. So this is SOLID for me. 4 weeks ago I did all 3 efforts barely over 300 with the same Hrate as today. GOOD sign the legs are headed the right direction. I did each effort 30 watts HIGHER than last time. I had to change my Performance Manager Chart to adjust for the higher threshold. It dropped my TSS by a bit. So Still in the MID 80's for CTL. Not very high ....and with Interbike I will have a hard time getting in rides next week.
Ok the blow out was sick 397! ON the trainer! ( will check SRM tomorrow)
I was going hard but backed it off a bit knowing i had 7 more to GO. I did the others over 350 so that was pretty rad for me. I did 4 inside and then 4 outside on the CX bike on CX course. I just jumped off the trainer and headed outside for the 2ND half. Legs feel great. they felt incredible running on Tuesday also. I can only get in a few more days before I back off a bit for Vegas. 3 by20's Thursday that should be interesting
Thursday !!! CHECKED SRM all is GOOD
3 BY 20's.. I ran for 30 minutes easy this morning with the PUPS....
Ok, if you read the plan it sounds hard...IT is. BUT I am surviving and still gaining some watts. I had 3 hard weeks before I started the plan and still am drilling it.
It was on. I nailed the first one at almost 340. I kind of ramped and held on for life. I figured if I was going to do it...I might as well get a solid 20 minute out of the deal. I backed way down for the other 2, but kept it in my threshold range. So this is SOLID for me. 4 weeks ago I did all 3 efforts barely over 300 with the same Hrate as today. GOOD sign the legs are headed the right direction. I did each effort 30 watts HIGHER than last time. I had to change my Performance Manager Chart to adjust for the higher threshold. It dropped my TSS by a bit. So Still in the MID 80's for CTL. Not very high ....and with Interbike I will have a hard time getting in rides next week.
Week 1 DOWN 11 to GO
Ok week one is over. I will be repeating it with some tweaks after Vegas CX. Ok the body adapts. I pretty much drug through the week. saturday I did 2x23 minute mock race efforts and 5 by 2 minute. Hard ride but watts were LOW............But by Sunday I felt strong again. I opted for a trainer workout because time was short. I did a 30+ minute run and 2 hours on the trainer. Got in some great threshold and a BLOW out of 375watts indoor. not bad. It felt good not epic. 170 tss for the day. At weeks end I feel good again. Legs really did come around and I feel the best I have all week. MEGA. Got in 2x10 minute efforts today at 332 with a super low Hrate . So I still have tons of work to do but a decent sign that I am headed in the right direction.
CX and TSS and Under-reaching
This is why I think I needed a solid training plan:
I really want to get a bit faster this year. I would love to race as well in CX as I feel on the road.
So I started to wonder if this would be to much load to have a good/GREAT CX season. All of us seem to worry to much about over training or blowing up. For the past 3 CX seasons I have trained less and raced more. I found that I could only handle a few workouts during the week if I wanted to race. I also found out that as the season went on my 5 minute and 20 minute wattage would start to drop and not rise. Unlike the road season where I had a huge WINTER base that was 16 weeks of PRE-training I found that rolling into Cross I would drop my workload so much that I was actually getting out of shape relative to the road season. (It didn't feel like I was training less, but looking back now wow!)(!!!!also CX load in CHART is MISSING some races and some Mtn.Training so I would say TSS would be a chunk higher!!!)
Now that I have 3 seasons of files I can look back and see that I was virtually dropping my LOAD by 50% during CX...Compared to the road season. I also found that I have NEVER achieved a decent wattage for 5 minute or 20 Minute during CX season. Even though I had several workouts that had 5 and 20 minute elements to them I was testing at wattage's LOWER than I could do intervals at during road season. Even with the HIGHER workload of road I had better wattage's. I could ride near a peak wattage a few days after a stage race and I could barely ride a reasonable 5 minute with tons of rest during CX. After looking BACK I have found that my PEAK 20 minute files have all FOLLOWED 42-63 days of LOAD. That is at least 6-9 weeks of pretty hard training(CTL of 90-110) and racing. Even with that load I still seem to ride/race my best. Often DURING OR for 1-3 weeks after this load I can find PEAK 5 minute, 20 minute, and HOUR files. Most CX seasons I ride near (40-60CTL) but if you asked me I would say I trained just as hard as road, but now looking at the files it is obvious that what I felt and what was going on are totally different.
I really want to get a bit faster this year. I would love to race as well in CX as I feel on the road.
So I started to wonder if this would be to much load to have a good/GREAT CX season. All of us seem to worry to much about over training or blowing up. For the past 3 CX seasons I have trained less and raced more. I found that I could only handle a few workouts during the week if I wanted to race. I also found out that as the season went on my 5 minute and 20 minute wattage would start to drop and not rise. Unlike the road season where I had a huge WINTER base that was 16 weeks of PRE-training I found that rolling into Cross I would drop my workload so much that I was actually getting out of shape relative to the road season. (It didn't feel like I was training less, but looking back now wow!)(!!!!also CX load in CHART is MISSING some races and some Mtn.Training so I would say TSS would be a chunk higher!!!)
Now that I have 3 seasons of files I can look back and see that I was virtually dropping my LOAD by 50% during CX...Compared to the road season. I also found that I have NEVER achieved a decent wattage for 5 minute or 20 Minute during CX season. Even though I had several workouts that had 5 and 20 minute elements to them I was testing at wattage's LOWER than I could do intervals at during road season. Even with the HIGHER workload of road I had better wattage's. I could ride near a peak wattage a few days after a stage race and I could barely ride a reasonable 5 minute with tons of rest during CX. After looking BACK I have found that my PEAK 20 minute files have all FOLLOWED 42-63 days of LOAD. That is at least 6-9 weeks of pretty hard training(CTL of 90-110) and racing. Even with that load I still seem to ride/race my best. Often DURING OR for 1-3 weeks after this load I can find PEAK 5 minute, 20 minute, and HOUR files. Most CX seasons I ride near (40-60CTL) but if you asked me I would say I trained just as hard as road, but now looking at the files it is obvious that what I felt and what was going on are totally different.
WEEK 1 "Not a rest week"
No joke.. You better have some goals or I don't think you will/can do the work. This is not for those who want to rest during the Fall
OK I STARTED THE Advanced Plan today. I have 3 weeks of CX workouts in so far(CTL of 84 and an ATL of 110) so I am ready to roll into this. My first big Race is VEGAS CX uci 2 www.crossvegas.com/ in 2 weeks. The goal is repeat the first 2 weeks so I can roll with this plan all the way to nationals. I will probably modify the workload a bit to have a mini taper for Vegas. Then I should be able to follow it dead on from the end of September to nationals in Kansas(restart the plan October 1st). Who would of thought I would/could race CX this year after destroying L1 last winter.
DAY 1: NOT A REST DAY..... OUCH! I didn't think this would be that bad, but it hurt. I did half on the trainer and 1/2 outside on the CX bike. That was a pain, but it got my DOGS
out running. The 3 x 10 minute HURT with the 20 Second bursts every 2min(start with a stomp) it makes it easier mentally. I couldn't hit 200% of threshold, but I guess that is something to work towards. I had a rad BLOW-OUT of 375avg. on the trainer. One of the more solid 5 minute efforts I have done indoor seated. The 3 by 1's hurt something FIERCE. I got them done and rode around tempo for awhile on the CX bike. 2 HOURS and 128TSS for the day!
Day 2: Woke up sore... RUN with the pups. I have been running for a few weeks so I did 5 Hills hard and 3 by 1 minute in the deep grass. 35 Minutes total Lifted the bike and CORE.
-tonight I will do 60-90 minutes on the CX bike working on 180's
Day 3: This was hard 5 x8 min+blowout CX bike on gravel/trails. I couldn't keep the watts up but still solid 90%. Broke this into 2 rides morning/night. 6 x1min on cx tonight. This will be 3.5 hours and 161 TSS easy.
DID 4x2 minute mini-race laps and 4x40 sec practice starts (replacing the 6x1) These were brutal with tired legs from this morning.
Day 4: OK legs HURT this morning before the run. I jogged slow ....After 5 x 1 minute hills they actually felt better. I did 10 more short hills. Nothing Epic but a solid 30-40 of moving. GOAL IS TO MAKE SOME GOALS TODAY.
DAY 5: FEEL great today...Yep MICRO burst my fav!! Damn I made it through 3 of them then Half of the last one. More like 135% and AVG watts were threshold. ON CX bike/grass ..... I could have done them all but I have a burely weekend planned an decided this was enough. 10 by 12 second starts were rad. I hope by Dec I can do a better job hitting the pedal faster. 103 TSS
OK I STARTED THE Advanced Plan today. I have 3 weeks of CX workouts in so far(CTL of 84 and an ATL of 110) so I am ready to roll into this. My first big Race is VEGAS CX uci 2 www.crossvegas.com/ in 2 weeks. The goal is repeat the first 2 weeks so I can roll with this plan all the way to nationals. I will probably modify the workload a bit to have a mini taper for Vegas. Then I should be able to follow it dead on from the end of September to nationals in Kansas(restart the plan October 1st). Who would of thought I would/could race CX this year after destroying L1 last winter.
DAY 1: NOT A REST DAY..... OUCH! I didn't think this would be that bad, but it hurt. I did half on the trainer and 1/2 outside on the CX bike. That was a pain, but it got my DOGS
out running. The 3 x 10 minute HURT with the 20 Second bursts every 2min(start with a stomp) it makes it easier mentally. I couldn't hit 200% of threshold, but I guess that is something to work towards. I had a rad BLOW-OUT of 375avg. on the trainer. One of the more solid 5 minute efforts I have done indoor seated. The 3 by 1's hurt something FIERCE. I got them done and rode around tempo for awhile on the CX bike. 2 HOURS and 128TSS for the day!Day 2: Woke up sore... RUN with the pups. I have been running for a few weeks so I did 5 Hills hard and 3 by 1 minute in the deep grass. 35 Minutes total Lifted the bike and CORE.
-tonight I will do 60-90 minutes on the CX bike working on 180's
Day 3: This was hard 5 x8 min+blowout CX bike on gravel/trails. I couldn't keep the watts up but still solid 90%. Broke this into 2 rides morning/night. 6 x1min on cx tonight. This will be 3.5 hours and 161 TSS easy.
DID 4x2 minute mini-race laps and 4x40 sec practice starts (replacing the 6x1) These were brutal with tired legs from this morning.
Day 4: OK legs HURT this morning before the run. I jogged slow ....After 5 x 1 minute hills they actually felt better. I did 10 more short hills. Nothing Epic but a solid 30-40 of moving. GOAL IS TO MAKE SOME GOALS TODAY.
DAY 5: FEEL great today...Yep MICRO burst my fav!! Damn I made it through 3 of them then Half of the last one. More like 135% and AVG watts were threshold. ON CX bike/grass ..... I could have done them all but I have a burely weekend planned an decided this was enough. 10 by 12 second starts were rad. I hope by Dec I can do a better job hitting the pedal faster. 103 TSS
Lets get ready to ROLL
After several seasons of racing cycloCX (CX), I have come to view CX not just as a way to spend the fall having fun, but more as a racing season of its own that involves key races and specific training. For the first few seasons I pretty much trained like a burned out road biker and didn’t take my CX results very seriously. It didn’t take long before CX took on a life of its own and now is my favorite 120 days of the year.
After some thought I have decided to write several training plans. Each slightly different than the other. I wanted to create a plan that would basically help you train to “lap your previous CX self.” The goals of the program are to help you develop fitness you have never had, to help you start building a solid foundation to race from both now and in the future, and to see some remarkable growth in your strength as a CX racer.
If you have raced CX before, I don’t need to explain that it is the most brutal 60 minutes on 2 wheels. It is a full body sufferfest with the need for 2 gears: Full gas and .Full Brake… For some it races like a 60 minute time trial but if you look through a power file you will quickly observe that a competitive CX race has very little tempo. It is pedal to the floor in between short bits of rest. If you train for this type of effort effectively, you can race the full hour not just the first 15 minutes.
After racing my 3rd season of CX I found a constant theme of running out of gas 30 minutes into the race and holding on for dear life the remaining 30. I would dread the last 5-6 laps. I often could hold my position but I was no longer racing I was just in survival mode. I decided last season, with the help of my coach “Hunter Allen from Peaks,” to try to gain the needed fitness to turn CX from a season of CX training for the road to a season of racing entirely devoted to itself; to take it seriously and try to be competitive at a higher level than before. So, Hunter and I put together a plan to help me gain the fitness I would need for this very different type of racing.
I raced 12 CX races during the fall of 2006. Not once did I feel like I had the death grip just wanting the race to end. Sure there were plenty of races I wished I was stronger and got passed in the last few laps. But for the first time ever I could race the full hour and the next day get up and do it again. I have yet to see the wheels of Ryan Trebon in a CX race, but to be honest I might just not have the genetics for that.
After some thought I have decided to write several training plans. Each slightly different than the other. I wanted to create a plan that would basically help you train to “lap your previous CX self.” The goals of the program are to help you develop fitness you have never had, to help you start building a solid foundation to race from both now and in the future, and to see some remarkable growth in your strength as a CX racer.If you have raced CX before, I don’t need to explain that it is the most brutal 60 minutes on 2 wheels. It is a full body sufferfest with the need for 2 gears: Full gas and .Full Brake… For some it races like a 60 minute time trial but if you look through a power file you will quickly observe that a competitive CX race has very little tempo. It is pedal to the floor in between short bits of rest. If you train for this type of effort effectively, you can race the full hour not just the first 15 minutes.
After racing my 3rd season of CX I found a constant theme of running out of gas 30 minutes into the race and holding on for dear life the remaining 30. I would dread the last 5-6 laps. I often could hold my position but I was no longer racing I was just in survival mode. I decided last season, with the help of my coach “Hunter Allen from Peaks,” to try to gain the needed fitness to turn CX from a season of CX training for the road to a season of racing entirely devoted to itself; to take it seriously and try to be competitive at a higher level than before. So, Hunter and I put together a plan to help me gain the fitness I would need for this very different type of racing.I raced 12 CX races during the fall of 2006. Not once did I feel like I had the death grip just wanting the race to end. Sure there were plenty of races I wished I was stronger and got passed in the last few laps. But for the first time ever I could race the full hour and the next day get up and do it again. I have yet to see the wheels of Ryan Trebon in a CX race, but to be honest I might just not have the genetics for that.
What I feel like when I am racing CX…A narrative with myself at nationals…
2006 Elite CycloCX nationals.
“Dude this is nuts..120 studs all around me ….5 rows back from Johnathon Page and Ryan Trebon…7 rows of guys behind me. I wish I had some UCI points to get me a bit further up at the start…Ah it doesn’t matter..5th row is about where you belong. 58 guys in front of you lets just see if I can finish 59th like my race number..The gun fires my mind is blank but totally on task. Stay upright and out of trouble. Push your elbows out…Stay up and move up. I am grabbing at every little pocket before another rider fills it. 70 are behind me and all believe they should have started on the front row. 50 guys in front of me trying to get to the first corner at the front….Don’t wreck dude it will be over before this thing gets started. Elbows and wheels are everywhere...As we fly through the first corner I almost close my eyes. It looks like a blender of legs, gears, mud, and a rainbow of jerseys. Mid-way into the first lap we are already 45 seconds back from the leaders. Guys are grabbing the inside line on every corner just trying to move up and get into the action. I keep telling myself to pedal hard and rest. Each chance I get I move up a few spots. We hit the run-up. It is so loud!!!!!! I can barely see with all the people and noise. It is like being in a tunnel. Everything was so cloudy. The Noise powered my legs all the way up the hill…. I can’t tell if I am breathing. They are screaming Chris Horner’s name. We are shoulder to shoulder. I remount my bike at the top right behind Chris Horner…well, maybe he was only there because he had a technical earlier…but still…it’s CHRIS HORNER on a bike and I’m with him!
That was one of the coolest moments I have ever had on the bike. I can’t believe I am here. For the next 9 laps I was in awe. Lap after the lap the crowd and the racers didn’t back down. I raced for 60 minutes into 29th place. There wasn’t a racer in front of me that didn’t deserve to be there. I was able to race from Gun to bell-lap. One year ago I would have lapped myself. One year ago I would have been 100th in this field.
At this moment CycloCX had gone from a way to CX train and stay in shape to a full personal obsession. I finished on the same lap as the leaders in a race just the year before I would have been lapped twice. CycloCX has gone from a way to CX-train to the sport I now CX-train to do.
CYCLO CX 120 DAYS
So the prep for CX is pretty simple. Race a full road or mountain season so your legs are prepared for the beating they will take in CX. It is easier to arrive in September in shape to train for CX than to survive a long winter and race the road bike. But the hurdle most riders run into is that they are so burned coming into the CX season that training is the last thing they want to do. Well this might not be the training plan for you. For the best results I would say end your road racing in July and take a bit of a mental break before so you are amped when you get the CX bike out and still reasonably fit that you are not starting from scratch. CX usually starts the first week of October and ends a few weeks before Christmas. If you are lucky enough to live or race in Europe you would get to race CX for 2 more months.
So training for a successful CX season really gets started in August. If you are racing a local or national series you will be expected to have reasonable form by early October. When I say reasonable form I mean ready to hammer for 60 non-stop minutes. That is a ton of hard pedaling and if you expect results you better be ready to hammer. Every season it seems like more and more racers are racing CX. It is no longer the sport that the un-trained summer cyclist can race off the couch and place on a podium.
Our season in Utah starts early and plenty of the local talent races some of the national events so the big-guns come swinging early. I have found that racing into shape in CX isn’t that much fun so the purpose of this plan is to be fit early and get stronger as the season progresses. The wear and tear of CX is mega on the body. I find that if you start behind the 8-ball it makes for an impossible task of getting ahead during the CX season. Think of it as a Road Bike season that starts in April and ends in May. You have just 8-10 weeks of key races. Most CX races are a series so the Points in October are as important as the points November. If the goal isn’t a race series you can obviously back off a hair early and come on strong at the end. But if the goal is collecting points whether UCI for nationals or local points to be the big fish. You better not be to far off you’re A game in October and expect to see a miracle by late November. I don’t want to be misunderstood here. I am not saying you need to have 100% form in October. But if you come in too rested or to out of shape the season is just too short to see a huge improvement in just 8 weeks. You will certainly get stronger but that is all relative. Do you want to be faster than the year before? If so, let’s do some things differently…and see if we get some results. 
“Dude this is nuts..120 studs all around me ….5 rows back from Johnathon Page and Ryan Trebon…7 rows of guys behind me. I wish I had some UCI points to get me a bit further up at the start…Ah it doesn’t matter..5th row is about where you belong. 58 guys in front of you lets just see if I can finish 59th like my race number..The gun fires my mind is blank but totally on task. Stay upright and out of trouble. Push your elbows out…Stay up and move up. I am grabbing at every little pocket before another rider fills it. 70 are behind me and all believe they should have started on the front row. 50 guys in front of me trying to get to the first corner at the front….Don’t wreck dude it will be over before this thing gets started. Elbows and wheels are everywhere...As we fly through the first corner I almost close my eyes. It looks like a blender of legs, gears, mud, and a rainbow of jerseys. Mid-way into the first lap we are already 45 seconds back from the leaders. Guys are grabbing the inside line on every corner just trying to move up and get into the action. I keep telling myself to pedal hard and rest. Each chance I get I move up a few spots. We hit the run-up. It is so loud!!!!!! I can barely see with all the people and noise. It is like being in a tunnel. Everything was so cloudy. The Noise powered my legs all the way up the hill…. I can’t tell if I am breathing. They are screaming Chris Horner’s name. We are shoulder to shoulder. I remount my bike at the top right behind Chris Horner…well, maybe he was only there because he had a technical earlier…but still…it’s CHRIS HORNER on a bike and I’m with him!
That was one of the coolest moments I have ever had on the bike. I can’t believe I am here. For the next 9 laps I was in awe. Lap after the lap the crowd and the racers didn’t back down. I raced for 60 minutes into 29th place. There wasn’t a racer in front of me that didn’t deserve to be there. I was able to race from Gun to bell-lap. One year ago I would have lapped myself. One year ago I would have been 100th in this field.At this moment CycloCX had gone from a way to CX train and stay in shape to a full personal obsession. I finished on the same lap as the leaders in a race just the year before I would have been lapped twice. CycloCX has gone from a way to CX-train to the sport I now CX-train to do.
CYCLO CX 120 DAYSSo the prep for CX is pretty simple. Race a full road or mountain season so your legs are prepared for the beating they will take in CX. It is easier to arrive in September in shape to train for CX than to survive a long winter and race the road bike. But the hurdle most riders run into is that they are so burned coming into the CX season that training is the last thing they want to do. Well this might not be the training plan for you. For the best results I would say end your road racing in July and take a bit of a mental break before so you are amped when you get the CX bike out and still reasonably fit that you are not starting from scratch. CX usually starts the first week of October and ends a few weeks before Christmas. If you are lucky enough to live or race in Europe you would get to race CX for 2 more months.
So training for a successful CX season really gets started in August. If you are racing a local or national series you will be expected to have reasonable form by early October. When I say reasonable form I mean ready to hammer for 60 non-stop minutes. That is a ton of hard pedaling and if you expect results you better be ready to hammer. Every season it seems like more and more racers are racing CX. It is no longer the sport that the un-trained summer cyclist can race off the couch and place on a podium.
Our season in Utah starts early and plenty of the local talent races some of the national events so the big-guns come swinging early. I have found that racing into shape in CX isn’t that much fun so the purpose of this plan is to be fit early and get stronger as the season progresses. The wear and tear of CX is mega on the body. I find that if you start behind the 8-ball it makes for an impossible task of getting ahead during the CX season. Think of it as a Road Bike season that starts in April and ends in May. You have just 8-10 weeks of key races. Most CX races are a series so the Points in October are as important as the points November. If the goal isn’t a race series you can obviously back off a hair early and come on strong at the end. But if the goal is collecting points whether UCI for nationals or local points to be the big fish. You better not be to far off you’re A game in October and expect to see a miracle by late November. I don’t want to be misunderstood here. I am not saying you need to have 100% form in October. But if you come in too rested or to out of shape the season is just too short to see a huge improvement in just 8 weeks. You will certainly get stronger but that is all relative. Do you want to be faster than the year before? If so, let’s do some things differently…and see if we get some results. 
CYCLO WHAT?
Cyclocross
“the only time I have taken money out of a man’s front zipper in his pants in front of several hundred cheering people including my family”
sam..........describing the mad house scene at the top of the infamous 50 METER run-up at Jinglecross rock in Iowa City, IA.
I have found that most of the things in life I absolutely love, a large portion of the world doesn’t even know they exist. I will lump Cyclocross in with the “What Sports” The sports you say the name and you get “What?” “Cyclo what??” After a lengthy explanation and a blank stair you go about your day knowing you just confused or entertained someone with huge gestures of you throwing the bike over you shoulder and running up a hill.
How can so much pleasure come in disguise with so much pain. I have stopped trying to explore why I am so motivated and excited about activities that have brought me little if any monetary reward and so much discomfort. Cyclocross was a sport I had never heard of and didn’t understand until I randomly found myself at the start line of a local CX race in Knoxville, TN. I had heard rumors of a small gathering of bike racers in a small park that involved a bit of running and jumping of obstacles. It was mid-winter which made the decision even sillier. I really can’t explain why I would be so excited about such an odd sounding sport but here I was Saturday morning 4o’ degrees with a 7 speed road bike ready to take on all comers. From the start it was painfully obvious I had no idea what I was in for. These guys were fast. I really hadn’t wrapped my head around full speed dismounts over railroad ties and throwing my clunky Trek over my shoulder and sprinting up a hill. When the dust settled I had totally destroyed my relatively fit body in just 60 minutes. I was completely covered with bruises and had pulled muscles in my groin I didn’t know I had. I have taken many beatings in life attempting new sports, but none had been this brutal or so quick. It took days to walk normally but, for some reason, all I hoped is that I would heal quickly enough to race the following weekend. To say I was hooked is an understatement. I had fallen in love on the first date—painful beating and all. After several seasons of Cyclocross I have found I am not the only racer with this affliction. Cyclocross passion is simple…. You either love it or you hate it. There is no middle ground. I was now the guy when someone said Cyclo….I finished their sentence with a grin “cross”. If you are looking at this blog and wonder why the guy is running a muddy hill carrying his bike many thoughts might be going through your mind. Is this some sort of joke? Does he have a flat tire? Does he owe money to the guys chasing him? Five years ago I would have been asking the same question. I owned a road bike and a mountain bike. Heck, I even tried to ride a unicycle with no luck in college. I had an older brother who raced a ton on the dirt and road and I had watched the Tour de France as an avid fan for years. I had no idea that cyclocross even existed. Times have changed a ton in those five years and cross has grown leaps and bounds here in the US. For the most part it has moved from the freakshow opening act to the main stage. All of the major bike brands have all come to the party with some pretty impressive off the shelf cyclocross bikes. What was once a non-uscf licensed event is now the fastest growing segment of racing on two wheels. Cyclocross is here to stay and, for some of the very same reasons I love this sport, so do many of you. I hope this blog serves as a big welcome to many of you who are just getting started. You are about to start a journey into a sport that will make you wish Fall never ends. For those of you who are already hooked I hope this blog serves as a resource for the sport and propaganda to support our cause so we don't have to hear.......
“the only time I have taken money out of a man’s front zipper in his pants in front of several hundred cheering people including my family”
sam..........describing the mad house scene at the top of the infamous 50 METER run-up at Jinglecross rock in Iowa City, IA.
I have found that most of the things in life I absolutely love, a large portion of the world doesn’t even know they exist. I will lump Cyclocross in with the “What Sports” The sports you say the name and you get “What?” “Cyclo what??” After a lengthy explanation and a blank stair you go about your day knowing you just confused or entertained someone with huge gestures of you throwing the bike over you shoulder and running up a hill.How can so much pleasure come in disguise with so much pain. I have stopped trying to explore why I am so motivated and excited about activities that have brought me little if any monetary reward and so much discomfort. Cyclocross was a sport I had never heard of and didn’t understand until I randomly found myself at the start line of a local CX race in Knoxville, TN. I had heard rumors of a small gathering of bike racers in a small park that involved a bit of running and jumping of obstacles. It was mid-winter which made the decision even sillier. I really can’t explain why I would be so excited about such an odd sounding sport but here I was Saturday morning 4o’ degrees with a 7 speed road bike ready to take on all comers. From the start it was painfully obvious I had no idea what I was in for. These guys were fast. I really hadn’t wrapped my head around full speed dismounts over railroad ties and throwing my clunky Trek over my shoulder and sprinting up a hill. When the dust settled I had totally destroyed my relatively fit body in just 60 minutes. I was completely covered with bruises and had pulled muscles in my groin I didn’t know I had. I have taken many beatings in life attempting new sports, but none had been this brutal or so quick. It took days to walk normally but, for some reason, all I hoped is that I would heal quickly enough to race the following weekend. To say I was hooked is an understatement. I had fallen in love on the first date—painful beating and all. After several seasons of Cyclocross I have found I am not the only racer with this affliction. Cyclocross passion is simple…. You either love it or you hate it. There is no middle ground. I was now the guy when someone said Cyclo….I finished their sentence with a grin “cross”. If you are looking at this blog and wonder why the guy is running a muddy hill carrying his bike many thoughts might be going through your mind. Is this some sort of joke? Does he have a flat tire? Does he owe money to the guys chasing him? Five years ago I would have been asking the same question. I owned a road bike and a mountain bike. Heck, I even tried to ride a unicycle with no luck in college. I had an older brother who raced a ton on the dirt and road and I had watched the Tour de France as an avid fan for years. I had no idea that cyclocross even existed. Times have changed a ton in those five years and cross has grown leaps and bounds here in the US. For the most part it has moved from the freakshow opening act to the main stage. All of the major bike brands have all come to the party with some pretty impressive off the shelf cyclocross bikes. What was once a non-uscf licensed event is now the fastest growing segment of racing on two wheels. Cyclocross is here to stay and, for some of the very same reasons I love this sport, so do many of you. I hope this blog serves as a big welcome to many of you who are just getting started. You are about to start a journey into a sport that will make you wish Fall never ends. For those of you who are already hooked I hope this blog serves as a resource for the sport and propaganda to support our cause so we don't have to hear.......
“Cyclo what.”
BIO
I love CX !! I put on a local series trying to spread the word. I just got done helping the "MAN" Hunter Allen put together a power based training plan. I think it will help CX racers stay on track through the fall. It is easy to get lost.
I wish I was better at CX, but I just love it anyway. JUST....like a few old girlfriends that I loved, and they just didn't seem to love me..... Well I am not giving up on this one.
I am working hard to improve my weaknesses at CX. This season I am going to try and ad a bit more serious training and see if I can find a few results this season. My goal is pretty simple and that is to race the strongest HOUR I can. Each time I hit the line I like to know I left it all out there. I love it when I am fit enough to race the full hour...FULL ON...
For CX I ride a Specialized S-works 56cm, 9spd with Dura Ace/XTR. Bontrager x-lite tubies with fat tires to help me corner. About 17 pounds.
On the road a SEVEN Elium Race(decked out with all Reynolds carbon) it is sweet.
For power I run a SRM PRO Compact, Ergomo on the TT bike, and train with a wireless PT sl for CX. I have been a power dork for about 4 years.
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