CX season is upon us here in the great state of Minnesota with our 5-7 week TNCX (Tuesday Night CX) series starting this week. So while these aren’t USA Cycling sanctioned races, they are competitive and nice to use as training races. This year I have aspirations to podium the state clydesdale race in November.
I just wrapped up a rest week (last week) after doing 3 weeks of VO2 max work. I hadn’t done any threshold type stuff for a while so I went out and sent a 2x25 last weekend purely on feel and managed 268w and 270w, respectively. In May/June I was doing these types of longer efforts in the 250-260w range so I feel as though the VO2 block gave me a bit of a boost. I’d like to continue to build on this and raise my FTP as I feel that will be my biggest hurdle if I want to podium at state.
Knowing that I will have 1 weekly race for the next 6 weeks, what would you do with the other days of the week in order to continue to raise FTP?
I’m less concerned about building my TTE like I would be in the spring as I have no long duration races on the calendar. From now until November is all about cyclocross. My races tend to be 40-45 minutes long.
Curious to hear how you would structure the next 6-8 weeks if you were me.
Edit to add: I will anticipate some of you will tell me I need to rest. And I hear you, BUT…I feel like I’m ready for a second hard session come Friday. I tend to no ride on the weekends so I recover Saturday and Sunday and do a light spin Monday and then race again on Tuesday.
I agree with you that you don’t need to “rest”… as you mentioned you have that build in… but I would recommend you don’t focus on your FTP during your racing block either. Instead focus on racing tactics, skills and getting faster.
A weekly race makes training tough. Maybe you can fit in a second workout and a long endurance ride? Make sure you recover from each session before going to the next one. Going into races fatigued is fine but be aware how it wears you down as the season progresses.
My advice: enjoy the racing block then get back to work (after a recovery week or two).
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Seems like you just got a 10-20W FTP bump. That’s a great jump in FTP post-VO2max, so you’d be way better off trying to extend things at threshold than trying to do a bunch of suprathreshold or over/under sets to eek out a few more watts.
If I were working with you, I’d recommend the opposite of what you say you want, but since you say that’s what you want, then I’d start with over/unders as your other work set, and caution you that you probably shouldn’t expect a whole lot (or really any) FTP gains in the next two months given what you just experienced post-VO2.
Now, all that said, normally when someone has a race block like this where they’re going to have one big-time, anaerobic, punchy race every week, I’m not worried about FTP gains at that point. We’re working sustained power on the side while trying to maintain freshness for their event. So for a crit racer, I’ll often have them doing a sweet spot type ride during a weekly race block like this.
My gut feeling is you’re asking a bit much of yourself and being a bit greedy, so I’d exercise caution here so the wheels don’t come completely off.
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Not a recent racer, not an experienced coach. Just a guy:
I’d let TR build a plan and put 3 of the 6 Tuesday Night World’s into the plan as C races. I’d put the November State race in as an A race. Train through the Tuesday night races, maybe moving your Monday workout to Sunday if you can, and if you care enough about the exertion on those Tuesdays. If it doesn’t work, don’t worry, they’re Tuesday Night races where the skills and handling are more important than any fitness gains (but racing will bring exertion either way).
Given that I know I’m volume-limited and a volume-responder, I’d try to get as many minutes of chamois time in between now and A- race. Without a history/expectation of weekend rides, you should be able to get either a long-ish ride in on Friday or a second interval workout.
Good luck on Tuesdays and at States.
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Hey @anthonylane Super cool you’re doing the CX season!
Super good feedback from everyone already! Especially @kjdhawkhill mentioning letting TR take the reins on building a plan and scheduling your Tuesday races, except I would make them B Events so that you have openers the day prior, since you’re not riding over the weekend. Then set the state Clydesdale race in November as your A Event.
Now, my personal advice, having an extensive background in CX racing, I would not focus on FTP. At this point, it is best to practice skills. You can have all the watts you want, but if you don’t know how to maintain your speed, going in and out of turns, hopping off your bike and getting back on, effectively shouldering the bike, being able to clip in on first contact, etc…then you’re leaving lots off the table. This is why I love CX, because it requires a lot of various skills than just watts!
It looks like you’ve already done the work and gained the watts, so if you focus on practicing your skills and ability to maintain speed, these Tuesday races can be great practice, and fine-tune things leading up to Clydesdale. And then it’s just a matter of staying fresh (which the plan can guide that), so you don’t get to states burned.
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