Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

It sure seems strange to say this, but here we are… Saturday, August 11, and it’s almost cyclocross season.

The UCI race calendar kicks off in three weeks. 

Yes, you heard that right. Three weeks until the season kicks into gear in China, with the Rochester weekend right on deck a week later .

Like it or not, ready or not, we’re about to start the season.

Even if your local racing isn’t quite as imminent, it ain’t far off.

Time to start thinking about the season. Now.

I’m not saying that you should be out there on your CX bike this weekend doing hot laps (well, unless you’re going to those China races, or plan to be at Rochester. If that’s the case, maybe you should be.)

No, quite to the contrary, for most folks I think these next couple of weekends are best spent getting in some long, hard miles, to work on building your endurance base for the long winter season ahead.

Note, please: You don’t have to do this.

It is possible to have a good cross season without putting in any long rides, ever. If you’re racing for an hour, you can get away with never really training for much longer than race duration.

I’ve worked with extremely time-crunched clients who simply didn’t have the time to do anything long, ever, and we were able to make it work.

But it ain’t easy.

Volume can solve all manner of problems of form.

So if you can?

Get out there, and get some distance in this weekend.

3, 4, 5…6? hours.

Whatever you can.

Road, mtb, even on your CX bike… doesn’t matter.

Just put in some miles.

Hard miles.

Both.

Go as long as you can, as hard as you can.

The shorter you go, the harder you go.

This isn’t long, slow distance eating we’re talking about, this is “Oh crap, how the hell am I going to finish this ride” kinda stuff. The type of ride where you barely manage to drag your ass in the door of your house when you get home. The type of ride where, when you get home, you need to chug a can of coke to summon the energy needed to order takeout.
4, 5, 6 hours of glorious suffering. That’s what we’re talking about.

The goal here is to be pretty much shot when you’re done.

Ideally you’re going to try this on Saturday, then wake up Sunday and do it again.

String two days of this sort of work together this weekend, and you’ll be giving your fitness a serious kick in the ass.

Fair warning though; end of day two you will feel kinda like you ran into a truck. Like you kinda maybe don’t want to wake up the next day. Or ever.

“Epic” is an overused word, but if you can make this weekend “epic”?

Nailed it.

You’ll be glad you did in a month or so.

Enjoy!

M

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~ by crosssports on August 11, 2017.

Posted in Cyclocross, Masochism, The Workout Of The Day, Volume!