How does 8 miles of pure suffering on Sundays instead of long miles at sweet spot compare? Cross is my favorite discipline out of the three I race (XC and Crits) but it seems like 8 messily miles (45 minutes) at threshold does not really do a lot for long term gains.
Should I not even worry about it as Crit season does not start until March/April of next year and that would allow me plenty of time to prep?
Yes it probably is. Racing isn’t training but who cares! You said cross is your favorite so race the shit out of it.
Are you a pro and getting paid to race XC and/or Crits? If not, then you should base your training around the discipline that is the most fun for you and race those events. Keep it fun or you will burn out.
Like most everyone else here I get to pay to race 
but yes I agree on beers, hand-ups make racing more fun although 8 miles does not seem like any type of “real” workout although I am beat down like no other afterwards
I’ve learned to relatively let go of my OCD of chasing CTL at the moment. In July I was at 100CTL and now I’m probably around 60 but hardly paying attention. Sure I could probably do longer endurance sessions in between CX specific workouts, but I’ve been mainly doing 1hr sweet spot (Tallac is a favorite of mine) with some type of CX interval workout in between, and maybe Pettit or whatever endurance to keep things lighter. At this point all I care about is the racing and being as fresh as I can so I can be competitive (in my case just trying to be midpack lol), in November I can start to think more about base for next year, but I’m not really focused on road racing, just going out for fun long rides
I love this forum, I been grappling with the same question.
I did find the racing the other disciplines helped my CX racing for sure! I always laugh when I see the CX races are like 12-15km, at threshold, for 50 minutes. Amazing how little ground we cover!
Nothings stopping you from getting in some extra time after your race (unless you podium).
Warm up 15 minutes.
Race 45 minutes.
Cool down 15 minutes.
Sweet spot 20 minutes.
Cool down 10 minutes.
Boom 90 minutes.
Beers Ben, BEERS (j/k, not really), but I tend to get lost in after race conversation with my teammates and friends along with watching the “A” race guys suffer (because that just feels good after suffering myself)
I may have to tighten up and get those after race miles though as I know it will benefit me in the long haul
Just started first week of SS Base HV…going to swap the easy Friday and 2hr Saturday workouts (so Hunter on Friday and Pettit on Saturday). On Sunday, try to do a longer pre-ride before the CX race.
Probably not too bad during the first week, but during other weeks, I might have to do a -1 version of the Saturday workout on Friday and possibly skip out the easy Friday workout on Saturday.
I remember from doing the HV last winter, that the Thursday workouts were tough.
I like doing CX races on Saturdays, because then I can do a long endurance ride on Sunday. CX races on Sunday mess up the whole weekend, because I have to keep the Saturday ride short to save energy for the race.
On SSB HV, I’ve now realized that I should only do the scheduled low-TSS ride on Fridays, nothing on Saturday, and race Sunday (only time I can race on weekend). Doing something like 100 TSS on Friday - like I did last week - is much too taxing for Sunday race for my middle-aged body, especially after the tough Tues, Wed, and Thurs. workouts.
As others have posted, I’m trying to go early to the race to do a pre-ride and maybe even do a Pettit type workout in the afternoon/evening after the race to get the TSS I want for Sunday (gotta go straight to car immediately after race to do family stuff unless there is a special dispensation for having a podium finish).
Basically, I’m missing out just the Saturday 2 hr workouts from my SSB HV…but cross is too fun!
Can you rejig your week and gain the longer ride elsewhere? 45mins of CX will have a huge TSS (you might want to look at TRiMP instead of power-- obviously any running won’t be calculated by a PM). Railing myself in CX made me realize how much I could suffer on a bike and how high I could hold my HR while racing which, in turn, made me attack harder in Crits, hold breaks longer, and stay away in breakaways more often.
Darn, I just realized that I could’ve just shifted the plan back one day so that I can do the Sunday plan ride on Monday. Doh!!! Oh well.