I purchased the Cyclocross season bundle
How should I structure the rest of my season?
I am reducing my racing days to perform better at a few select races, and due to family obligations. Where should I include additional build periods, and rest periods?
Goals:
NW Cup Series (USAC Sanctioned), and to get upgrade points from Cat 3 to Cat 2
Washington State Championship Cat 3 Men’s
Training Plans (Intermediate) (I have between 8-10 hours available a week)
Race and Recovery Starting 9/16
Peak for Nationals Starting 10/28
Race Schedule
Priority C Training Races (Non-USAC) Wed’s (9/18, 9/25, 10/2)
(Using in place of local group practices- can be a high intensity or a skills based session depending how I decide to ride it)
Priority A NW Cup (USAC) 9/21 and 9/22 (Sat/Sun)
Priority B Cross Crusade (USAC) 10/5 and 10/6 (Sat/Sun)
Priority A NW Cup (USAC) 10/26 and 10/27 (Sat/Sun)
Priority C Cross Crusade (Non-USAC) 11/10 (Sun)
Priority C Cross Crusade (Non- USAC) 11/17 (Sun)
Priority A NW Cup (USAC) 12/7 (Sat)
Priority A WA State Champs (USAC) 12/8 (Sun) Cat 3 Men’s
Priority C Men’s 30-34 Nats 12/?? (Wed/Thurs??)
Lastly, cyclocross is my primary focus. What Off-season plan should I purchase?
Hi Shawn - You are on the right track with the plans you have put in, leading into Nationals, nice work -
As for reducing your race days, think in terms of racing Saturday and training Sunday - don’t be FOMO’ing
Additional build periods should come over the 4 day Thanksgiving holiday - that is timed very well in relation to Natz 2 weeks later. Begin your 2 week taper after that!
Good luck with your training and let us know if you have any q’s along the way!
For cross - you want to stay sharp from actually racing so think in terms of trying to race 3 out of the 4 race weekends. They can be B and C races. Sweet Spot isn’t going to help you that much during the cx season in the context that it does pre season.
I have several questions floating in my head but quite sure how to ask.
Most importantly, I would like some help adjusting my plan to my CX race schedule. Optimizing training for race weekends and off weekends. I have added all my race days into training peaks from now until December. Would it be possible to help me with some adjustments in advance so there is no guessing what I should be doing through out the season?
Follow up Question: The CX Intervals plan bleeds into my Race series. Do I follow the intervals plan for a few weeks into the series or cut it short and go into the Race and Recover? Maybe your adjustments will speak for themselves…lol
Not as pressing: This weekend I have the opportunity to race Saturday and Sunday in some non-sanctioned, charity style CX races. The plan, only calls for racing Saturday and Sweet spot on Sunday. Should I race or #FTfP?
Anyways… I am getting fast AF and am #winninginthekitchen. You guys are the best
Ive gone in and moved around your races. The biggest advice here I can give is since you have so many race weekends, you need to take your rest seriously, and then when you having a non race weekend it going to be important for you to take advantage of that time for some good training (Ive added that in too). This is key to keep you from plateauing with just racing and recovering.
As for this weekend, its week three of your build so I would only race Saturday to make sure you get in some quality training time on Sunday. This is also important as you have several double weekends on your calendar.
With these adjustments I made and doing Sundays races its just important to over time listen to your body so you can cater your openers before going into a race. aka if its better to less or more. The hard part with Sundays is making sure you aren’t using up the entire weekend just on that one Sunday race.
You should be all set. but let us know if you have any questions.
I also am in need of some adjustment to my plan. I’ve got my race weekends entered in (in NC we have some weekend doubles due to the NCCX series schedule), with my goal National race being Friday (schedule just came out for Nats) 12/13- on my purchased plan the thanksgiving training load is the week before thanksgiving (3 weeks till nats), but in actuality Thanksgiving is a week later with 2 weeks and 1 day before Nationals- so i definitely have a question about the build/taper. I don’t have a work schedule to navigate so i’m flexible in my day-to-day training. In general- i’m customizing the workouts as best i can with the training plan and with the races i plan to do. I just purchased the plan a week or so ago, and I’ve got pretty decent fitness coming into cross (unlike this time year when i was aiming to peak for masters track worlds the week before our NCCX started- but still managed a very good cx season b/4 tanking at nationals- mostly due to bad recovery and fatigue from the penultimate race in my season). My first race isn’t until 10/12&13. I’d love for a coach to look over my workouts and see if I’m doing most of the moving of workouts around correctly. Thank you!
Hi @evieedwards I went into your TrainingPeaks and everything looks sound. Let’s take it one week/month at a time for #FtFP’ing and see what develops for you in October.
Purchased the coaching subscription yesterday and I’m looking forward to hearing some of your guidance! I recently loaded into TrainingPeaks all of my races and noted which ones were “A” races for me.
Some background about the season thus far:
Competed at Jingle Cross in Cat 1/2 and at Trek Cup in Cat 1/2. Races went okay but I felt like I was coming into those races a little under prepared and lacking fitness due to a busy August where I bought a house and moved and had family stuff come up. That said, I wasn’t real happy with my results at those races. Last week I was sick for 4 days, so I was off the bike for a lot of the week as well which probably isn’t helping the fitness any and has me wondering if I should do a reset and get some volumne in or restart cx intervals or stick w/race n recover.
All that said, I’m hoping you all can go into my TP account and setup my workouts accordingly. I’ll StFP, I promise! I have the CX intervals plan and the race and recover plans on my account, but I don’t think anything is really setup because I was messing around with my account yesterday. Hoping to peak for some races in late October, as noted by the races I’ve entered. I do have a Sunday race pretty much each weekend, but again the A races are really the only results I truly care about. All others can be viewed as C races. I have plenty of time to train weekly, just need to know what to do to improve from where I’m currently at. Lastly, where I"m at we have Tuesday Night CX hot laps, so if that can be taken into account, that’d be great.
After taking a look at your PMC and your training since early summer I think it would be wise for you to do a bit of a hard reset as my guess is you are feeling a bit flat from holding 70-80CTL for the last six months and going right into cross from road. As your A races are at the end of the month I would recommend taking a few more days off/easy and then do a solid ramp to give your fitness a boost. This does however mean it would be best for you to skip a few Sunday races to focus on training. While racing and weekday races are great for motivation and pushing yourself, they often take away from training potential and the long days needed.
If this sounds good to you I’ll go ahead and make the needed changes to your account. Just let me know.
@Isaiah Thanks a ton for getting back to me, appreciate the advice. I’d prefer to do the next two races, even if they are totally C races and I come into them a tired from training. The main reason I’d prefer to do them is because I help organize our team and am usually at the races to direct the kids, setup the tents, and mentor other riders. I missed this weekend and would prefer to not miss the next two races. Following that, I’m okay with missing either the Oct 20th or 27th races. Also, if you’d ever tack on extra training to a race day, I"m okay with that too. Motivation and energy never really are an issue. In any case, can we keep those races in and keep the training focus up to ensure good performances in an A race?
Again, thanks for the help and I’m game to follow whatever you put into the TP account.
If you are committed then you are committed, its just one of those things that it all adds up to fatigue and that takes away from training. But everyone has commitments in life to juggle, and if this is one of them then just keep it in mind when handling fatigue throughout the plan.
Went in and made adjustments through the end of the month. Trust the rest early, and then be ready for the build. This will jump start your engine before your race on the 3rd. With this ramp make sure to take recovery just as serious as the workouts.
Have fun and good luck!
Coming into my first off week on my CX schedule. Per your last schedule edit you have me off on Thursday (tomorrow) , openers on Friday, and two longer rides on the weekend. Should I still be taking Thursday off and doing openers on Friday? Please feel free to change that if needed.
Also, could you look at my training peaks and see if there are any adjustments that need to me made?
P.S. My first 4 races have been all podiums, one being a Win. Already got my Cat 2 upgrade which was one of my season goals. I am exceeding my own expectations. FasCat forever.
That sounds great! My A race is going to be HENDERSONVILLE on 11/23 and 11/24.
I deleted the race on the weekend before (11/17) and will not race that weekend. That should change things a bit. Let me know if I need to clarify anything else.
