Building up for Cross season

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Permalink Reply by gfactor on June 18, 2013 at 4:25am

Threshold and sub-threshold intervals.

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Permalink Reply by Larry MIller on June 18, 2013 at 9:28am

Your best bet is get a training plan from many coaches that will guide you to being faster come cross season. Last season I went with 12 week training plans from www.jbvcoaching.com I am getting back on with them asap!

My thoughts are volume right now and some C type racing and some intervals once a week. Dont forget to have fun!

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Permalink Reply by Geoffrey Grosenbach on June 19, 2013 at 6:20pm

I'm doing short and long trail rides on the mountain bike. Fun and strenuous. Also has helped me with my bike handling and line choice around the trails since my local 'cross races feature a lot of singletrack.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Bressler on June 21, 2013 at 3:19pm

I'm sure everyone was a favorite coach, but Kenneth Lundgren at Elite Endurance helped me win an overall series title and the state championship race.  He built on my strengths and worked on my weak areas.  He's a great coach.

my coach: http://www.eliteendurance.com/

my story: http://www.paincavecycling.com/

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Permalink Reply by Chris James on June 23, 2013 at 9:25am

Another vote for JBV here been using them since March or so and my fitness is better then it has been in years past. 

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Permalink Reply by Sean Pasieka on June 23, 2013 at 4:30pm

+1 for Elite Endurance

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Permalink Reply by jcambrosini on July 22, 2013 at 5:26pm

I am using  a modified version of the Cyclo90 Base and In-season plan (http://cyclo-core.com/CYCLO90/)  which are not Cyclocross-specific - but contain a wide range of High-intensity intervals plus off-bike core work.  It got me in my best cycling shape ever.  I also do a Sufferfest (http://www.thesufferfest.com/) trainer ride once per week.  On the weekend is more running or longer-distance, w/cross skills.  I don't have time to ride outside during the week due to my job and commuting - so the intervals on the trainer are key, and both programs keep me focused while offering good overall threshold-level work.

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Permalink Reply by Isaac Smith on July 25, 2013 at 10:46am

Since a lot of cross riders are still racing on the road around here, a handful of us meet in a park to do skills and drills on an "easy" night.  We just practice cyclocross skills such as dismounts and remounts, low and high speed cornering, sand riding, play follow the leader etc without going too hard.  I'll ride the same sequence of corners or a specific line through the sand pit dozens of times to get a feel for the edge of the tires and work on balance and muscle memory.  It's like playing scales for a guitar or piano player, so when the heat is on your muscles remember what to do.

  It's a nice way to work on cross without taking away from our other sports and it made a huge difference to our technical skills last season.  Once the road season starts tapering off, we'll start doing cross-specific intervals.  Also, in a group it's way more fun and sustainable to do drills than by yourself.  In these parts, a weirdo in a park riding a "road" bike around trees by him/herself is liable to attract the police...

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Permalink Reply by David B on July 26, 2013 at 8:40pm

Mostly riding hills and such for strength, and just started running a small bit, 5 miles 2 miles of which is run the rest walking warm up and cool Down. Won't start intervals for another 3-4 weeks. Use the CTS plans, have worked great, improved placing by 50-60% last year.

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Permalink Reply by Luke Landis on July 27, 2013 at 5:01am

I took over a decade off. Literally stopped racing CX, and the anything else over 10 years ago. '99, or '00 IIRC. So I started out with a spring of MTB, and some easy road as well as a few Grass Grinder type rides in a large park. June started the real training with a day of Sprints or Run-ups, and a few days of Z3(road), and Z4(cx). 6 to 11 hours a week with 2 or 3 days of upper body weights and 15 min treadmill runs for warm up those days.

Simple, and hopefully effective. No real hard intervals until Sept. Worked very well for me when I was 29-30, we'll see about 44!!

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Permalink Reply by Nick DiGangi on August 1, 2013 at 8:32am

Hey everyone, obviously cxmag is the place to be for all your cx needs, but we just put together a collection of other resources to help us out in our complete training guide for the upcoming 'cross season! check it out!

http://notquitebelgian.com/gearing-up-for-cyclocross-season-starts-...

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Permalink Reply by Gio Fiorenza on September 16, 2013 at 9:43pm

Hill Sprints and intervals. Also, hitting the gym a bit to keep the muscles strong and more explosive. 

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