another training question

[madisongrrl]

Some of the cross races I've seen here so far, have sections of soft-pedaling, but then that's because of the way the course was laid out.

I raced Cat 3 CX series in WI last fall. We have a wide variety of courses (there are 8 races in our series) and if you soft-pedal, you will be dropped...and it will be race over. CX is the hardest, all out effort that I've ever made. Its balls out, all the time, no stopping, no recovering, hack up a lung when you're done and try not to puke (sounds like fun, huh?).

I've also raced Cat 4 crits (which are very fast around here) and last week I had my first ever Expert mountain bike race (we also had Pros in our race because they combine Expert & Pro...and let me tell you, the start of the race was absolutely painful). IMO, CX is much harder on the lungs and I usually feel more like crap when I'm done, as compared to Crit or Mt. bike racing. Sitting on someone's wheel in a crit is almost effortless....its like getting sucked along in some kind of vortex.