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.
2 comments:
Your experiences are in line with mine. Does it make sense to try to raise your CTL as high as you can (short of injury) immediately prior to the start of CX season? Given how often we race (almost every weekend) in the CX season, it is inevitable that CTL will drop over the course of the season. This is even more true if you taper to reach a positive TSB before big CX races. I'm curious to see what happens to your CTL as you follow Hunter's plan.
- Ken
My goal is just to spend some quality time training from September till MID November. The only times I have ever ridden 5.5 watt to kilo have been on the road and after I have 63+days of solid load. My peak in CX is 4.5 which is just way to low to see any real results. I am shooting for the first time to be in MEGA shape by the end of November. I am going to race a bit less and focus on 3-4 races this year instead of 10-14. I will certainly race just not at 100% I think the problem with CX is it wrecks my body in the race and then I don't train anywhere near where I would/should on the road. But pedaling a bike around at 4.5 vs. 5.0+ should make for an incredible difference. I think the season is so short...Just 12 weeks and we are all so ready to take a break that we back off way to much. Looking back 3 years was pretty eye opening ... I didn't realize how much I really backed off. This year I need to try something different if I want to see a different result. The fact that every time on the road I have done 63+ days I have achieved close to a peak 20 minute and every season in CX I have come no where close certainly makes me think that one is better than the other..
I willl post my CTl all season
sam k
Post a Comment