I’m going to be doing a cyclocross season this year and although I have a good fitness base I feel that is not enough. I’m not going into it to be ultra competitive, I just want to avoid being lapped and not to come last.
What can I expect in terms of physical effort? I have a turbo set up to do intervals and long efforts at close to MHR. Is this the right approach or is there anything else I could be doing?

My MHR is 185bpm and I can already sustain long efforts at 170bpm plus.

***paging Thurman Merman*** (he knows a thing or two about CX racing!)

Intervals which push your threshold up i’d say. Do you know your heart rate zones?

Stop with the turbo thing would be my advice.

Cross is about all out effort and the ability to hit the redline then bounce about just under it for an hour. But, and this is the important bit, you can’t really replicate the way that occurs on a turbo.

It’s also about skills that are not replicated or enhanced by the turbo.

The turbo makes you good at riding a turbo, actually going out and battering yourself, off-road, in the wet and the dry, up things and down things makes you good at cross.

Find a small local loop with a section that you can repeat and try to look for a short run up. The aim is to practice the on-the-edge-of-oxygen-debt stuff like running and mounting and dismounting and bike handling while you are under stress.

The other thing to practice is the start; so practise getting up to 20-25mph from a dead start, then try to recover as you ride.

Turbos, jesus…

Find a small local loop with a section that you can repeat and try to look for a short run up

That was my other way of thinking. I have a good local wood which I can easily loop a mile circuit.

Wouldn’t intervals help for small recoveries and thresholds or is that non-existent in CX?

crikey +1

just so you know there’s a big difference between not being lapped and not not coming last! often only the top 10 don’t get lapped

EDIT and intervals do help, the tighter crosses are purely sprint, recover, sprint, recover. You don’t need a turbo though, especially as most cross efforts are out of the saddle on lumpy terrain

Some good advice there from Crikey. The only way to prepare for ‘cross is to race ‘cross! It’s not like riding a time trial – you need to get used to working TT-hard for 50 minutes over bumpy ground, interspersed with jumping on and off the bike, accelerating hard, running, falling off…

Will this season be your first cross race? If so I’d say just try and enjoy the first one – if that’s possible as your body goes into shock at the sheer speed and intensity of it all. Start somewhere sensible (ie near the back!) for the first time and pick people off. As you get more confident try gridding a bit further forward and be prepared for elbow-to-elbow combat on the first lap!

+1 the comments about handling the bike, dismounting, remounting etc. I’ve almost had my legs go from under me on fast dismounts for planks, as legs that are used to cycling, and can therefore cope with doing that on the limit, are suddenly asked to switch to running and refuse to cooperate 😕 Some kind of drill is really useful for this – find yourself a local 1-2km loop and/or somewhere you can practice dismounts and remounts. This is something I still struggle with getting right, and it can cost a good few seconds per lap compared to those doing it smoothly.

Oh and don’t worry you won’t come last – that’ll be someone on a mountain bike 😉

CX Magazine has an interesting article on prep for the season. $15 for a years digital subscription, not too bad.

Anyway highlights for a week are:
Power via uphill reps 9 * 1 min with low cadence
3 * 12 mins at sub-threshold
Technique, corner accelerations, out of saddle jumps

Cross is one of the sports where technique can make a huge difference. Even a simple dismount and re-mount can put 5-10 metres gap between someone who can do it efficiently and some one who can’t.

The start is also key; I used to aim to be in the top 5 for the first corner/obstacle, then try to hang on.

Practice, practice, practice; learn to get off and run rather than slow down and pedal, and learn that momentum is often your friend; keep moving all the time, whether running or riding.

Don’t know whether to be excited or scared now!! 😯

The only sticking point for me now is the bike. I’m still about 6 weeks away from getting it.

Are the bike handling skills required similar or harder to mountain biking?

Are the bike handling skills required similar or harder to mountain biking?

The off road skill thing is a bit similar, but much faster and on narrower, usually harder tyres. The emphasis is much less on braking and much more on momentum, brakes are for adjusting your speed rather than scrubbing it all off.

The very different bit comes with the bike handling at obstacles and on steeper slopes.

On a mountain bike you would ride up to a low wall/stile/gate/thing and roll to a stop, get off, lift you bike over said object, remount, ride on.
On a cross bike you would aim to maintain momentum as much as possible, dismounting before you stopped, lifting the bike in your first two steps, move over the obstacle, then remount without ever stopping your forward movement.

Similarly going up a steep slope; don’t stop or change into the granny gear, get off while you still have momentum, get the bike up and run.

It’s great!

In most of the CX leagues now the starts will be gridded to reflect league positions, so you’ll have to start placing to get near the front of the start box. At least that’s how it works in Central and London/SE leagues in which I both commissaire and race (well, I call it racing).
What I always find is that with cross you ride to the level that you’re not quite going to be sick, until you cross the line for the last time, then you can stop and throw up.

I find CX racing and XC racing quite similar, as mentioned its about keeping the momentum going and working as hard as you can at the start to get position and then trying to stay at that level for the remaining part of the race.

Technique is all important, good bike handlers are obvious, bad ones even more so.

Cross is about all out effort and the ability to hit the redline then bounce about just under it for an hour. But, and this is the important bit, you can’t really replicate the way that occurs on a turbo.

I’m sorry but that’s complete cobblers! Cross efforts can def be trained for on a turbo, not exclusively but the turbo is always a tool in my training plan for cross…

I have 3 staple sessions that I use early season every week to build up for the racing.

I can’t see why you couldn’t train on a turbo, not sure why you’d want to if you had daylight though.

I’d have thought technique, (inc maybe a little running) and highish-level intervals would helpp.

I have 3 staple sessions that I use early season every week to build up for the racing

Any chance you could share them with me? 😉

I can’t see why you couldn’t train on a turbo, not sure why you’d want to if you had daylight though

I’m out three times a week already and the plan is to fit two turbo session in in-between, that way Mrs MM won’t get the hump too much.

Sorry, but I’m going to have to disagree.

The time spent on a turbo could be used equally as effectively by going out running, which is most cyclists weak spot. The actual practice of technique gives you the exercise and improves your skills too.

I’m sure you can use a turbo to train for cross, but it isn’t the best way.

Crikey- you do know who you’re giving advice to I take it? 🙂

Turbo’s are a good way to enable some focussed and specific sessions, especially when used in the right way. They’re also a very effective way of making use of time contraints such as those described.

Bloody horrible though!

try and watch a couple of local races (difficult i know) maybe trawl youtube.

When i have watched CX racing lots of people seem to struggle with the dis/re mounting. other than that get used to the bike and get fit.

(never raced CX though)

Sorry, I should have made it clear I was talking about mortals… 😉

Not going to disagree with Crikey right now, he knows why 😀

I’m actually both running and using my Turbos, but as I’ve said before my fitness and speed is disapearing with the years. So I’ve got 7 weeks of the Carmicheal programme to do. And I’ve been doing some short XC runs, short enough so I can run quickly without getting into trouble.
My times have been getting worse, I’d actually like to see an improvement this year. I’ve not ridden an MTB since November, but trained hard on the road with my club.
Fingers crossed.

😀

I’ll try and give some productive advice- it sounds like you have a good base- so the two areas you’d probably benefit most from would be 1)higher intesnity intervals and speedwork and 2)technique. Agree with some of the sentiments above- specifically dismounts and getting out off road!

I’ve ridden most types of events, from 5m to 12hr TTs, RRs, XC etc, but by far the hardest thing I’ve ever put myself through is cross.
If you’ve not ridden before then the closest I can describe it as is starting like the sprint in an RR, then ‘settling down’ to an interval session where the recoveries are still at threshold. For an hour.

As such, training needs to follow a similar pattern. Setting up a circuit that you can lap in a couple of minutes and doing hard/easy laps, drilling it out of corners etc can be very useful both in terms of fitness and bike handling. If the weather’s manky then turbo/rollers make a great substitute as you can be in complete control of the session. Also echo the advice above about dismounts/remounts, lots of time to be gained (or at least not lost) here even though the it’s less a part of cross than it used to be. Some races feature no dismounts at all now.

Five minutes in and you’ll be looking for the chequered flag, or is that just me?

oldgit – Member

Five minutes in and you’ll be looking for the chequered flag, or is that just me?

Good stamina I’d say!

Sorry, but I’m going to have to disagree

Ok, bothers me not one bit…

For those want to know, the sessions I use are (all after a warm up of course)….

1) 10/10/5/5. 10 mins at threshold, for me that’s 165-170 BPM then 5 mins at 145bpm, 10 @ 165-170 5 off, 5 on 5 off, 5 on 5 off then warm down. Will feel easy for 1/2 of each set then the last minute will bite a bit.

2) Fartlek. 1st fig in seconds flatout 2nd fig at recovery. 15/45, 30/30, 45/15, 30/30, 15,45. 5mins per set followed by 5 mins recovery try to do 5 sets in a session and you’ll know about it! this is to replicate the jump out of a corner or hard effort followed by a short recovery, in cross it’s all about getting maximal recovery after efforts…. to spice things up you can do some sets big gear slow cadence, some small gear high cadence.

3) ‘Hill’ Intervals. 3mins big gear big power, 6mins recovery. repeat for as many sets as you can manage.

These coupled with skills sessions offroad, Like LS said good technique over planks etc is time for free and a long ride once a week will go a long way in cross racing…. don’t forget that winter (when cross happens) tends to be dark and cold after work, these sessions make sure no junk miles are done and the efforts are consistent.

*or ignore all that, afterall what do I know!

The 3min hill intervals, do you start flat-out and then hang on or try and keep a constant effort throughout?
I’ve been trying both and although starting flat-out gives a higher average power over the 3mins, steadier feels like you’re achieving more.

Steady, hard effort. better to do a full 3 mins than hit out hard and die on your arse midway. Just about generating power, it’s good for heavy muddy flat courses as well as hills, power is power either way…

Ta, that was the answer I was hoping for 😀