CX Hurts....

[madisongrrl]

I'm an avid Sport level mountain bike racer and I usually do reasonably well. My fitness took a bit of a dip this year because my hours/stress at work went up while my training went down. Even so, If I put in enough training this winter, I'll probably be able to race in the Elite class sometime next year. That being said, I SUCK at CX... I had my second race this weekend and it hurt so bad that I couldn't stand it. The best part of the race is the finish. The pace is so fast that I crack...and have to drop back. I feel that a 2 hour mountain bike race is easier than a 45 minute CX race.

It seems to me that in CX there is no place or time to recover. If you do, you will be dropped. I'm also finding that having a good start is imperative...which is true of mountain bike racing...but I think is even more important in CX (as yesterdays race taught me). Also, drafting is helpful. It seems that in the Cat 3 races, some teammates are working together.


For those of you who race, what type of training do you do? Specifically what type of high intensity interval training do you do?

My goals for CX are 1. Have it hurt less, thus making it more enjoyable. 2. Finish a little higher up in the standings. 3. Settle in more....right now I feel these races are chaos and I'm not super comfortable like I am when mountain bike racing.