Training Log Archive: PaulT

"Rest" = Day trip to Brussels and back to Kings Lynn

CROSS SEASON:
After nine months thrashing a cross bike around US forests and UK moors, would I enjoy racing? I decided to try four races and then make up my mind. It took one. Hooked. All facets of cycling matter in cross – technical, equipment, preparation, skills, racing tactics, daring, luck, competition. And I find it a childish buzz to be on the same start line as 1990s mtb heros - Young, Gould etc

It was meant to be fun and it has been. With a capital, bold, underlined F. But part of that fun is the process of learning, of worrying away at one’s performance, of trying to make howling mistakes only once and of gradually improving. So what have I learned?

Example: Race 1: crawled off the line then hung back for a lap and a half trying to time my effort. Didn’t take long to realise that race macro-tactics in cross don’t very – all out sprint from the start and then hang on. Race #12 was probably my best pacing and #13/14 my best starts.
Example: Race 2: wet, muddy, steep course on the only tyres I owned running the only pressure I knew. Block tyres and 40psi didn’t mix with Skipton mud and it’s amazing I got round without many crashes. Race #14 slithering past people in the mud. Positive plan to run a couple of ride-able sections. Technical slippery parts of a course are where I do better, relatively.

Physically things are what they are for now. I came into this having trained for a week of pyrenean stage races, not a 45 minute thrash. For next season, I’ll be able to prepare better which I think means more focus on power and on flipping between the red and recovery. Mid season I did recognise the tendency to fade and have paced myself better since, but I still find it hard to really push myself into the red. I know what doesn’t suit me – long draggy uphills, draggy mud, two-bike conditions

Organisationally, I’ve sorted the logistics and the endless small details of keeping clean, warm, healthy, energised, hydrated and un-frustrated at events. Equipment has evolved: frame swapped for one that fits, spikes and I now have two good wheel-sets and at least some choice of tyres.
Technically I’ve learned the rookie cross skills: starts, lines thro’ various styles of corner, off cambers, pedalling for traction, hurdle speed, carrying, remount. Midweek skill sessions have been really useful, once I worked out what it was that needed practice. Sessions would be even better with some buddies.

Tactically I’ve still a lot to learn about overtaking, about avoiding first lap bottlenecks, about not getting stuck behind slower riders.

For 2017/8 I see myself doing enough qualifying events in one league, trying to get a Nat. Champs entry and riding the 3 Peaks. That isn’t really a cross race: rough, long carries, huge tyre pressures, long – a unique event needing specific preparation.
There’s a more detailed list of what’s needed physically, technically and equipment-wise.