I had my poorest result in cross this saturday, my head seemed to fall off. On the Sunday I went out on the fast 100km club run. Whilst I could press along I couldn’t put in any sustained efforts. My thighs felt as if some one had punched them. I wasn’t hungry or bonking.
I quick glance at the scales last night showed a temporary weight loss of 9lb that’s after eating drinking.
Do you think a complete rest is in order, next CX is this Saturday.

9lb is quite a loss….just chill and take it easy, very gentle rides, have a couple of days off,until your weight has returned to its normal weight.. See how you feel sat morning….

Your legs will be dead the next day after a race….don’t expect so much !!

Sounds like your dehydrated. I’m 53 so the day after cross is a day off for me. Don’t normally do even a recovery ride. how I ride has changed as I’ve got older, lots of recovery, if I don’t my form just disappears. 🙁

madness…if your riding the day after make it easy. rest is part of the training week if your racing each weekend.if you go too far and become overtrained it will take a while of recovery and easy riding to get your form back.

How did the week before compare to the previous lead-up weeks? I suppose it depends if the Saturday CX is your preferred goal? If so then structure your week to ‘peak’ on the Saturday.

*Disclaimer, if this tip works too then you’re going to have to start paying me managers fees 😉 😀

i always run saturday and cx race sunday which isnt so bad with monday off or recover spin on turbo. (doing this in a minute to see how the legs feel)
a cx race on sat then a run i did a few weeks back and wasnt so bad either but i know from my experience that long fast rides really wipe me out whereas short ones like cx dont.
anyway dont forget to factor in an easy week every month or so or a complete recover week if you like, youll come back faster..
cross training also helps prevent burnout.

9lbs weight loss isnt right though, you need to sort that out

Everything usually works well, no problems yet. But I’m really only concerned about this week.
Race was the hardest so far, but was I tired? I’ll never know. I just want to be ready to go this coming Saturday.

Listen to your body. Back off if you don’t feel 100% rather than trying to train through the weakness. Especially at this time of year when you could have an underlying cold.

I do back to back racing at the weekend occasionally. After CX on Saturday I can feel it on the Sunday when I’ve been doing hill climbs. The races themselves are ok but it has been taking me an age to warm up on Sundays. 1h+ rather than 30 minutes. By Monday I’m knackered so end up taking it easy through the week, especially if I’m doing another race the next weekend.

I ensure I have a good rest during every race I’ve entered.