Cool vid. I watched the first lap. Those crashes made me lol! You should have put the wood down and made the pass on that guy you sat on for the beginning bc you got swarmed on that straight by others who had the same idea. Good luck in your next one
Are your HR zones definitely set up right? You have 9+ mins of coasting but it barely ever gets below threshold?
Good video 
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Thanks! Both of the guys in black/orange shirts are my teammates, but that did not at all account into my race “strategy”. I knew I couldn’t put much distance on one of them (white helmet) or the other couple guys that passed later on, so just sat in and followed lines. I should have been a bit more aggressive and made a pass early on, and then whatever happens, happens.
I’ve gained a huge amount of confidence between last two races and managed to cut down my deficit by a fair bit. I normally brake far too much for corners, partially a result of surging too much and not scrubbing speed early enough, and partially a result of just getting too excited. A lot of that was corrected for this race, though I need to work a bit more on putting power down earlier on in the exit. There were a couple corners where I absolutely was able to rail them and a couple that I continue to struggle with for one reason or another.
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The zones were auto-set in intervals.icu, looks like threshold was set to 168bpm though. I don’t often use intervals.icu though other than for comparing power, so I’m guessing it chose 168 based on some activity in the past few years and I never updated it.
If I understand LTHR correctly, it can be estimated by taking the average HR for the last 20m of an all-out 30m effort. Training Peaks estimates threshold HR at 179, which seems roughly correct. 190 would be far too high though.
I updated in intervals.icu but I can’t figure out how to back-date it so the activity updates. Here is TP:
edit:
My HR variability in a cross race is extremely low. Excluding the start, it basically sits flat. Here is the last race, though every other one is nearly identical, other when I actually blew up and had to slow down significantly to recover.
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Did not look like it, threshold set to 168bpm … 10-11 too low!
Any TR forum folks planning to attend the Trek or Fayetteville world cups? I’m planning to race 4/5 the Sunday morning of Trek and then stick around to watch the world cup races.
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@IvyAudrain Awesome! Any downside to running them on dry days when the course is almost all grass?
First race in the Sac CX series features a ton of off camber grass. I’m thinking maybe the extra grip would be great in those conditions as well.
for your first season or so, go grip over rolling resistance. The difference in speed isnt massive, the difference in grip is. Whatever time youll make up for in faster tires will be lost 10-fold when youre on your butt after sliding out on wet grass. Dont ask me how I know that… haha
Anyone gonna be at Charm City this weekend?
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I’m really appreciating how every race opens my eyes to new learning experiences. Had a race yesterday that involved 180 turns going up and down a ski slope on semi-wet grass. Going up was brutal engine-wise, but going down was treacherous skills-wise. Downhill, I was braking a lot and found tri-poding around turns allowed me to keep the speed high and me to stay upright. I biff’d it once hitting a small hole in the turn causing my bodyweight to pitch and front wheel out from under me. Any tips for off-camber turns?
I found this guide on reddit kinda helpful. That + just practicing a fuckton (find a good hill and just do laps)
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First race as a cat 3 yesterday. Finished 3rd (out of 5 but we’ll keep that quiet lol). First time racing for an hour as well so I made sure to go out steady and pace well. Race went for 1:05 total and I felt really good about my pacing actually. Felt “easy” for the first couple laps if I can ever call a CX race that, and I settled in to a good steady pace, felt strong finishing and in the red for the final lap, wanted to die on the finish line. Don’t know if I could do another lap, which I feel like is the way to finish a CX race. I managed to pull back the guy in 2nd but didn’t have anything left in the end.
Had good power numbers, 298W avg and 326W NP. It was a good course for me. Lots of steady pedaling and able to keep the power down through most of the course; no dismounts or running, but felt technical enough that it wasn’t just a grass crit. One interesting analysis point I found was lower coasting time than most CX races. I had 17% coasting yesterday, when I normally have around 35-40% in previous races, which would include all the running portions.
Easy rest week this week leading to my A gravel race next weekend, then possibly my last CX race of the season in a few weeks due to work. Maybe I can convince the wife to drive up to Nationals in December.
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I had a mud race last weekend. I did pretty well in the results but made a huge mistake in lap 1 by not being in the top few. The break went after a few minutes and I had to fight through the pack to start chasing. Cost me the race for sure. Also, I realized I’m very bad at racing in the mud lol. I ran many sections that I knew I couldn’t ride but later watched the pro race where they rode every feature pretty flawlessly. I was very impressed and I appreciate the bike handling component that goes into CX much more now. I have great power but it’s all for playing catch up without the handling skills
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Thank you for the guide. The hot lap idea is also a good idea.
A bit random, but kind of fits here. Does anyone know what they did to the Louisville world cup CX course? It doesn’t look like they have any races there after building a permanent course?
Oh I know this terrain VERY well.
All your power would be zapped using any mud on grass. The best move here is IRC Serac Edge. They have so much side bite to carry tons of speed on off-camber grass and to really rail corners.
If you want more of an all-arounder that’s a compromise for those two: IRC Double Cross.
Since you’re in Sac, feel free to email sales@squidbikes.com, tell them I sent you and they’ll check any IRC inventory they have and you can do a local pick up order no problem. 
Man, I miss racing that series. One thing I remember about the early season SacCX races is the dry grass being ground into powder and occasionally becoming quite slippery in places.
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Was rad seeing you race in Baltimore this weekend! Im pretty new at cross but between that, road and MTB racing, I can wholeheartedly say that was the hardest thing Ive ever done on a bike!
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Drew Dillman is a rare pro-level CX racer with race footage recaps, highly recommend
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I have been out of CX for sometime now. Outside of the pros (which I would expect to be about the same), how are the size of the amateur classes this year? Up, down, same?
The best way to figure that out would be to go to BikeReg and look at how many folks registered.
Here’s for the first round in Chicago.
Here’s who’s currently signed up for Trek this weekend.