adam_mac84

WELL, it's getting toward the 2nd half of the road season... a season that I do not care about. My focus is cyclocross. Right now I am in a spot where my legs just always seem to be loaded up with acid. Having a hard time digging into the legs into the painful area... you know the feeling that I mean.

Last year I peaked perfectly for the 2nd half of CX season. We had 7 races in 6 weeks in a row. During the week, I would race sunday, rest monday, 25-30 gravel miles tuesday (easy), skills wednesday with very short mock race situations, gravel ride thursday, friday off, blow the legs out a bit saturday and race sunday.

With the above schedule, and a week off after the 6th week, my legs were smoking hot for the 2nd half of the season.

Now, for this season. I have started road racing, and have about 33% more miles in my legs now versus all of last year. Most of my rides are higher intensity and up to 40-50 miles max. I do sprint triathlons (which I think are great training aids for the 45 minute cat 3 races that I am in). First race was in early May. Since then, (nearly every week) I have been doing TT (15 miles) Mondays, Practice circuit race (75-90 minutes) Wednesday, where I cover attacks, go on breaks and generally flog myself. I try to fit a ride in thursday, but work occasionally screws that up. Then Friday/Sat/Sun i will try to get 2 30-40 mile rides in. If not, it is because I have a RR or TRI on those weekends, which has pretty much been 2/4 weekends per month for may/june/july.

The problem is, right now my legs just don't feel like they are improving, and I just can't dig into them. I am afraid that if I take time off right now, or reduce intensity etc, I will peak early. CX starts Sept 7 and my last race is January 4ish. Should I train through into CX season and let the legs stay tired, and start bringing my intensity down later in the season and hope the legs come around?

It's my first year with the higher intensity of road racing and more miles (3k so far, not a ton I know) versus last year.

Any thoughts or other information to help me out to not blow my CX season. Dont get me wrong, my legs are way stronger than last year... about 2 to 2:30 faster in a 15mile TT this year (24.8 avg). My TT still feels good, but if i make a jump for a break in a race, my legs just load up and I am done.

Sorry for the long post, i hope I organized it well enough (sorry for the capitalization)

Creatre

Sounds like you need rest. Take some time off the bike and get back to it and see how you respond.

chasm54

Sounds to me that you are tired and overreaching. Too many of your 3000 miles have been high intensity TT or race-level efforts. Wouldn't do any harm to back off a bit now and again, maybe making every fourth week an easy week?

adam_mac84

Thanks guys... My biggest fear is being able to get up to a high level again for CX season. I think the next week or so (starting today) I am just going to ride for fun and enjoyment

ericm979

If you take break now you'll peak later, not earlier. Load and intensity are what causes the peak, if managed right.

gregf83 

I would recommend reading Friel's training bible, specifically relating to periodization of training. Generally, it's a good idea to schedule a rest week every 4 wks (3 wks for old farts). Keep the same intensity in the rest week but cut the volume in half.