Originally Posted by
burnthesheep
I'm new also, and time crunched but not too bad.
After my first race I'd say this: if you want to do better in the cross races, spend more time on courses or doing hot laps for intervals than I have done.
Figure out how long a "lap" takes you. Then, figure out how many laps to get to 20min. Do 2x20min of "hot laps". Could be your back yard, a park, a real course, whatever.
So, doing your intervals on the cross bike doing some kind of obstacles you get a two-for-one.
That's a fun idea. I have a park nearby that has loads of singletrack that I could make a course out of. Maybe on my short mid week ride I'll try that, as on thee weekends the trails fill up with people and it would be more entertaining that a road circuit.
I went out Sunday morning to do 4x8's on a loop and somewhere along the way I thought I was out to do 8x8's. Needless to say I was exhausted but excited to do some goal oriented structured workouts. I love riding my bike and like getting faster, I've just never tried to stick to any sort of training plan so it's exciting.
Thanks guys for the continued ideas and advice!