I raced the Superior Cyclocross race up in Cathaprin VA on Saturday, and had, for me, a pretty good race. I was able to snag a spot on the second row at the line and was determined to have a strong start. At first, it didn’t look good as my wheel was between two other riders and I was completely boxed in. I managed to get out some sort of inarticulate grunt that may have been taken for “in between,” but in any event the rider to my left moved over just enough and I shot through, managing to be 5th wheel going into the dirt.
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Posts Tagged ‘cyclocross’
Superior Cross
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008The importance of specificity (re)illustrated
Saturday, November 15th, 2008I finally did a “real” race this past weekend. The first in nearly two months, which given my general schedule of racing nearly every weekend while living in Chicago was quite a break. Being November, it was a ‘cross race, a discipline I both love and loathe. When I did my first cross race, may be four years ago, I loved it with all the passion a neophyte has. The sheer novelty of it made me excited to be racing in a way I hadn’t been in years. Of course, all that enthusiasm didn’t translate into results, and I counted it a victory that season if I didn’t get lapped after the first few laps. Fast forward four years, and well, things haven’t changed all that much. In Sunday’s race the top 9 guys lapped me, ninth place catching me in the finishing straight.
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Including Cross in your season
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008At this time of year, most riders are wrapping up their seasons and looking back, hopefully with fond memories of success. All athletes need to do some sort of post-season review — more on that later, but what riding they do now depends on their goals for October, November, and December, that is, whether or not they are racing cross, and if so, how seriously.
If a rider is not racing cross all that seriously, I generally recommend one cross workout midweek, with a warm-up of 20′ or so, focusing on skills, then 20′-40′ (depending on the length of the races he or she does) of race simulation on a shortened course. One of my favorite workouts is to set up a course that takes approximately 4 minutes to ride, with at least 1 dismount, 1 run-up,and if at all possible, a short section of single track to work on handling, and then alternate hard and easy laps for the recommended time. Following this scheme gives the rider specificity both on the “on” and the “off” section of an interval. This midweek workout, combined with a weekend race, is generally enough for riders to maintain enough race fitness to last through the cross season. The other days of the week, I recommend all other rides be endurance rides, with the occasional sweet-spot ride through in every 10 days or so.
For most of the riders I work with, and in most years, for myself, this stripped down approach is the one I recommend. This season, however, my move at the end of July put paid to the last 3 months of my road season, so I determined to focus more fully on cross. I will only be doing a few cross races, but in the past, I’ve always been happy to finish in the top half of the field because I was just out there for the heck of it. This year, I hope to move up a bit by focusing my training more specifically on cross.
