Cyclocross beginner , new to power meters !



jbernard

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Jul 28, 2013
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Having spent some time reading lots of useful posts here over the past few days, it seem like a good idea when asking for help to gave some background information.

I returned to cycling last year after about 20 years absence at the age of 48. I did a few club races and TT's on about 4 or 5 hours training per week, so didn't fare to well. However the cycling bug had bitten again and I continued over the winter doing some short XC races which were great fun if not too successful. I was looking forward to this year but a back injury put me off the bike from February until 3 weeks ago.

So I am back on the bike again but as the road season ends soon I have decided to aim at giving cyclocross a lash, the local series starts in October right through to end of January. Being new to "modern" cycling and having just aquired a power meter I am keen to get up to speed fast and make the most of the 2 months before the cyclocross season to get as fit as possible. I have realised that 4 or 5 hours a week was never going to be enough, and have juggled things to allow maybe between 8 and 12 hours most weeks.

So to the crunch of my question. I know there is a lot of info on here, and I also just bought a copy of Training & Racing With A Power Meter, but I would like a helping hand to get started. As I have basically begun from stratch again, I reckon my power stats would be pretty low ( i dont think I did enough last year to even make much headway into building any decent power improvements ) and could possible have a lot of room for improvement initially. Is it too soon to do a power test ? and if not do I only need to do a FTP test to get started or should I test 1 & 5 mins as well ? What should I aim for in the next two months before cyclocross begins to get most use of this time ? Any other advice how to plan training to maximise training time to make best improvements ? Thanks in advance for any replies to my newbe questions.
 
To get started you just need to ride more frequently and work on increasing your time on the bike. You don't need tightly defined power training zones for that.

As you get more focused you'll want to start prepping for cyclocross with things like sustained 20 minute efforts. Again you don't really need power zones defined to do the work, go out and ride hard but not so hard that you blow up and have to back way off the pace or quit before the 20 minutes is up. That might take a few times to figure out how hard you can go without trying for too much. Look at the power files after those rides and it should only take a few rides like that until you know what you can handle for 20 minute efforts. That's far more important than a precise FTP test.

Prepping for cross season I do those long efforts around a big grassy and non technical field like a big park. It's best if the terrain is pretty flat as it's hard to sustain even power with descents and climbs. Just pick a big field and go round and round for 20 minutes at a shot at a pace that requires focus and a lot of effort to sustain but doesn't break you. Do two or even three of these sustained efforts with five to ten minutes of easy cruising between them and call it good.

Do that at least once if not twice or even three times per week and do easier riding including some easier trail riding to work on dirt skills on the cross bike. A long day or two on the road riding either the road or cross bike can round out the week nicely and give you good overall training stress and training hours.

As cross season gets closer make at least one if not two days per week more race specific. Lot's of ways to do that including setting up semi technical courses and doing hot laps followed by easy laps or doing your 2x20 style workouts in more dynamic ways like punching extra hard out of alternate corners or out of one corner each lap but change the corner each lap. Or do over/under style laps with one lap above your current 2x20 pace and one a bit below but not resting. Or try the classic 3x30 cross workouts. Set up a triangular course that takes roughly 30 seconds per leg of the triangle. Hammer one leg hard on the bike, dismount, shoulder the bike and pace one leg on foot, remount and ride one leg easy then repeat for a solid 20 to 30 minutes. Mix it up by making the run leg hard, try a triangular hill course where you coast the descent but run uphill or ride the uphill leg.

Lot's of variations to hit race specificity once you've brought your sustainable power up a bit. But the key is to make your harder workouts including at least some of your 2x20 Threshold days race specific by doing them on the cross bike and on dirt and grass. It's hard to hold high steady power on technical or hilly courses with descents so pick less technical and flatter efforts for the steadier power days and use more interesting courses for the shorter punchier work days.

And if your cross specific skills aren't dialed in then take at least some time each and every workout to do dismounts, mounts, technical cornering, steep descending, off cambers, sand, technical single track etc. If you can't do walk on slow speed cross mounts at will without a huge flying leap or balk in any way at cowboy or step through dismounts then work those until they're second nature.

Good luck,
-Dave
 
It's never too early to do a power test. In fact its important you establish some kind of baseline now so you know what levels to train at. This also allows you to monitor your progress in the coming weeks to see if your training methods are effective or not.

You mentioned you picked up a copy of racing and training with a powermeter. There is a self testing protocol in there that has you do a 5 min all out effort, followed by about ten minutes of rest then a 20 min all out effort. The 5 min test establishes your VO2 max power output, and your 60 min power output (threshold power) correlates with 95% of your 20 min effort. There are arguments for and agaisnt using the 20 min test to establish your threshold power output, but in my experience using that protocol has correlated very well with my threshold/60 min power output. However, I would say it's essential you do NOT omit the 5 min all out effort prior to performing the 20 min all out effort for two reasons 1.) 95% of your 20 min effort will not correlate as well, and will likely overestimate your 60min power 2.) the data you get from the 5 min effort will allow you to estbalish training zones for VO2max intervals, which are critical for cyclocross training.

As pointed out, intervals will help you develop the power necessary to meet the demands of racing cyclocross. Intervals are also a time effective way to train, allowing you to see progressive results with less training. It sounds like you had a hard time packing volume in your schedule before, and if this is still the case I would suggest starting interval training now. The trick will be to keep yourself at an intensity that allows you to perform intervals 2-3 times per week, which will provide you a potent training stimulus. I would start with a total interval work time of about 20-30 mins per ride i.e 3x10mins, and add 5-10mins of interval work time to one ride per week. Given your age and the riding background you provided, you can probably perform these intervals at 80-90% of your 60min power (as determined from your self test). If your intensity is too high you will find you need more time to recover and will be less likely to repeat these efforts throughout the week, thus taking you longer to see results. Once your able to build yourself up to about 1 hour of interval work time i.e 3x20, and can repeat that effort 2-3 times per week, you will probably be ready to incorporate more race specific training into your schedule. These can include VO2 max efforts (lots of good examples in the book you purchased), and intervals closer to or at your threshold power output.

As Dave mentioned, I would suggest doing some work on your cross bike. Perfecting your bike handling skills, dismounting and remounting, and running over barriers can save you A LOT of time and energy in a cross race. I have been able to beat riders much stronger than myself in cross races simply by refining these skills. If you watch some races you will see some guys have huge motors and are doing all the work down the straights, then they come into a corner and look like a baby giraffe trying to walk. Don't be that guy. Build a course near your house or find a weekday series to go practice at. You don't even have to race it, just show up early and practice on the course for a while and have fun. Best of luck in your cross season!
 
sorry for jumping in, but I am in a similar situation to the op, only I am preparing for mtb xc races, so if I do the following its a plan !

2 x longer road rides ( at what intensity )
3 x 3x20mins at threshold, do most of these on mtb
practice skills

...and I'm good to go ?

regards power figures, do I just keep an eye on them see if they are going in the right direction ?
 
Thanks dave & bmoberg337 for the replies and good advice....

So basically keep it simple to begin with, do some threshold intervals mixed with skills training and a few road rides thrown in for good measure.

I had thought about doing most of my rides on the road or turbo, keeping close tabs on the power figures and a day for off-road skills training, but both of you suggest nearly the opposite, more time off-road and intervals done on the cross bike. Will gave it a go and report if anything is worth reporting. Maybe when races start I may come back for more advice, thanks guys.
 
Originally Posted by uptheswa ....regards power figures, do I just keep an eye on them see if they are going in the right direction ?
Yep pretty much. Some folks test a lot and try to keep close track of things like FTP. Nothing wrong with that and it can be motivating but just tracking the power for your solid interval work tells you what you need to know. Are the numbers moving in the right direction? You'll know if you were working as hard as possible for the duration, if you're not sure then pick up the pace on the next interval and see if you can actually complete it without backing way down to recover. This stuff self corrects very fast and you don't really need rigorous testing to know if your sustainable power is improving and you should be able to tell easily enough if you're being lazy and taking it too easy during focused interval work.

As long as the numbers move in the right direction over time then don't sweat the details too much. If you stagnate or start going backwards then it might take some troubleshooting to figure out what's not working for you which could be too much work just like it could be not enough work or not enough of the right work for your needs. That's where personalized analysis comes in but start by riding a schedule like you describe, perhaps a bit less on the high end and a bit more on the Tempo or sustained endurance end depending on how well you recover from the harder days. Ride at least five days per week and six or seven can work if you're disciplined enough to take some of those easy and recover on the bike and not try to hammer every workout.

Lot's of ways to skin the training cat, but mostly ride a lot, ride harder on some days, ride longer and steadier on some days, ride easy or take some rest days, ride some on terrain that will build the riding skills you need and stick with it for extended periods. Personally I wouldn't do every ride on the MTB or at least not every ride on technical trails as it can really beat up your upper body but definitely do enough to keep your off road skills sharp.

Good luck,
-Dave
 
[SIZE= medium]uptheswa, a lot of the above mentioned training principles can be carried over to mtn xc training. This is my main discipline, but to be honest most of my training time is spent on the road. It’s a lot easier to hit your training zones, and maintain them, on the road because you are not dealing with undulating terrain. That being said I make it a point to hit the dirt at least once a week to keep my bike handling skills sharp. A week or two before a big xc race is when I spend more time on the mtn bike and will do race specific efforts. [/SIZE]
[SIZE= medium]In my experience, doing intervals slightly below threshold, roughly 85-93%, are a lot more effective and specific to mtn xc racing than doing intervals at threshold. This can help build a good foundation for the fitness needed to race these events. Throwing in VO2 max intervals at the right time can also add a good boost to your training. [/SIZE]

[SIZE= medium]Bernard, it’s definitely beneficial to get seat time on the cross bike, but in terms of building a solid foundation there is nothing wrong with doing this on the road or trainer, whichever you prefer. However you decide to set up your training zones you should get a feel for what it’s like to push at these different intensities. For example, if you decide to do intervals at 85% of your threshold then use your powermeter to make sure you get up to that zone, but then try to ride off of feel. Don’t be a slave to the numbers on your powermeter, glance at it from time to time to ensure you are staying around the intensity you want to be at. If your training is structured and progressive then in a few weeks you should start to notice that when you feel like you are pushing 85%, your wattage is now up a couple of watts from where it was before. As Dave mentioned, this is a way to gauge progress and establish new training zones without doing a self-test every couple of weeks. It really is that simple and you should see results, if not your training maybe too hard or too easy. [/SIZE]
 
Originally Posted by jbernard .

So to the crunch of my question. I know there is a lot of info on here, and I also just bought a copy of Training & Racing With A Power Meter, but I would like a helping hand to get started. As I have basically begun from stratch again, I reckon my power stats would be pretty low ( i dont think I did enough last year to even make much headway into building any decent power improvements ) and could possible have a lot of room for improvement initially. Is it too soon to do a power test ? and if not do I only need to do a FTP test to get started or should I test 1 & 5 mins as well ? What should I aim for in the next two months before cyclocross begins to get most use of this time ? Any other advice how to plan training to maximise training time to make best improvements ? Thanks in advance for any replies to my newbe questions.
With the changes in the licensing for 2013, you should be racing as a Cat 5 in any USA Cycling sanctioned event. That usually means a 30 minute Cross race in most parts of the country. You will be required to race 10 races at this level. This should give you a real good feel for your strengths and weaknesses within a true race with your peers. As has been stated earlier and as you will see, some folks have great transfer of bike handling skills from other disciplines, some folks have a great Cyclocross motor, some folks have both. Cross is a little different animal than road in terms of fitness and training. As a focused CX rider that also dabbles in the road during the season, there is nothing better than watching a skilled road racer suffer through a Cross race.

To answer your direct questions, first, it is never to early to do a power test. The numbers you get may change quickly, but those changes should also motivate you to keep working towards your goal. Follow the instructions of whatever process you are going to use (there are several out there and probably several threads debating the theory behind each one) to complete the test. They are laid out in a certain way for a reason and set up by much smarter people than I. There has also been great advice written above to answer your training question, but I would also suggest that you get some anaerobic training in. If you are racing Cross properly, you will be anaerobic early (usually by the first corner) and often during a race. Your ability to get some recovery from that state will determine your racing success. The only other thing that I see beginner CX racers regularly doing is really hammering out of corners. Practice staying smooth as you apply that power, your legs will thank you when they are needed for the sprint at the end of the race. My coach always used to remind me, "slow is smooth, smooth is fast," which I honestly really truly understood until I started racing some National Level Races.

Hope you enjoy CX. Warning..... it is addicting!
 

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