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Over the course of how ever many months you race, do you lose your 'miles legs'. Is it just me? well I know it's not me as my club mates that race also feel a bit 'lacking' when we return to club runs.
The cross season coincides with dark evenings, so after work sessions lose a bit of edge.
Saturday I'm too worried about going to far with a race the next day.
And of course race day takes up hours of your time and you only ride a few miles.
Is this a common 'problem'
Not really. Build up a large amount of stamina over summer then hit the hill climbs and cyclocross. After that I hit the mince pies which is probably where my reducing fitness comes from.
I'm more naturally endurance biased so I normally have to work to get fit for fast short races.
Hmm. I hit the cross after the road season and weekend miles and a late summer holiday/training session, but after five months I need to build up again.
Probably not fair to comment as this year was my first full season and was split in two when I was in a car crash and broke some ribs and cracked my pelvis. I did find my performance tailed off towards the end as I wasn't getting the weekly miles/training in like I was at the early end. Same reason as you state oldgit; after work loses the appeal.
Completely normal I'd say, given that most cx racers are doing minimal volume but sustaining a very high intensity workload since September.
In an ideal world, I'd manage to do one 4-hour steady/tempo ride during the week to keep the legs ticking over, but like most other people I work full time so the before/after work sessions tend to be short and sharp.
What I've done the last few years is take a week completely off after the last race, then spend two weeks doing 100-130km spins every Saturday and Sunday with two or three 2-hour sessions in the darkness during the week - follow this with a longer (150-170km) ride on the third week and I'm usually back to where I left off in August, even if it takes a bit of grovelling to get there. I don't know why, but doing that longer ride is usually what gets my legs firing again