I recently determined I’ll want to start my cross season later. Rather than start in late August, there’s a fun race near me 9/17, but I would like to be racing more routinely by Oct 7/8 weekend through thankgiving weekend. I’d like to keep building anerobic fitness and I’m unsure if I should go 6WTC (8/21-10/1)-> Intervals (10/2-11/12)-> Race/Recover, or if I should hop into Intervals now. Both 6WTC and Interval have “first race!” days listed in them. I could stand to build some more anerobic fitness; this summer I enjoyed the summer sweet spot plan and have seen my weekend longer rides increase in average speed which have been good signs of progress! But my more recent CX-specific work (hot laps, sprint-off-the-line, 30/30’s Over/Unders: 2 sets) are proving to kick my butt and could use improvement.
I don’t per se have A/B/C races which I’m prepping for and, as the username suggestions, not trying to peak for nationals.