Hmmm

I'm new to 'cross racing. Having raced my first and only race last fall I'm excited to give it a go again this fall. I'm wanting to do a few races. As I've read here it looks as if 2 x 20's are the recommended intervals if I don't have a lot of time for training. I'm planning on doing 2x20s once a week during my shorter ride.

As I have time to ride two days a week, what do you recommend for a longer weekend ride? Longer to me is about 3.5 hours.

I've been riding my 'cross bike on single track throughout the last year and am starting to feel much more confortable on it off road. I've also done a couple of 'cross clinics. So much so that I took that confidence into riding mountain bikes with some friends ended up hurting myself. This is why I'm planning on getting going on 2x20s once my rib is feeling better. Should be pretty soon.

redlude97

For pure fitness on 2 days a week I would do 2x20 and 4x8 both at your maximum pace. Those correspond to threshold and VO2max workouts respectively. If you're doing a longer ride on one of the other days, keep the intensity low for the remaining time but incorporate skills and handling into that time if possible ie mounts/dismounts, running etc

Hmmm

Cool. That'll be great. I have a closed loop close by I can hit on Wednesday mornings for 2x20s and a place I can ride some single track and end up at another closed loop to finish off with 4x8s on the weekend.

Thanks for the help! Aside from CX I want a boost in my performance to hang with some faster group rides so I'll give these a go.

Hmmm

Another maybe funny question. As someone that only rides with an iPhone, no computer, how does everyone time these out? Are you setting alarms every interval? Looking at the time? Or does everyone have a computer timing them out and I should stop living the "no Garmen, no rules" lifestyle.

kamesennin

No need to hit exact times on the intervals. For short VO2max intervals, find a course that takes you about 3-5 minutes to ride, and do repeats on that. For longer, threshold intervals, use a 5-10 minute course and run laps on that until the time is up. Exact timing doesn's matter as long as you hit the desired intensity for approximately the intended time.

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.

I carry over road bike, TT, and gravel fitness. But our gravel is pretty tame and not good for cross training.

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.

I'd do that.

Me carrying over roadie fitness keeps me mid-pack, but my lack of skills is appalling.

Losing a second or so per turn multiplied by 20+ turns per lap could be well over a minute lost per lap. There's no amount of roadie fitness I have that could make up for that!

So, doing your intervals on the cross bike doing some kind of obstacles you get a two-for-one.

Just me. I'm new. Listen to the vets to the sport. Just saying what I feel as a new guy I'm lacking most.........skills.

Hmmm

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!