Cyclopark May 26

Well, nothing ventured nothing gained I guess! Actually this is not dissimilar to one of the sessions on my training plans of last year, just a bit more intense.

Will have a go next week...

A very good training session for cyclocross, which is all about punch, sprint corner sprint corner etc, is Tabata.

http://andywaterman.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/tabata-training.html

Give Andy's very good blog a read about it, it really helps with races like crits and cross etc. I used it a lot last season, and noticed a massive difference in my ability to go with moves and hold wheels when i really couldn't the season before.

Give it a go. It hurts, a lot. And if you feel like you want to puke at the end, or do, you know you've gone deep enough. Doing it on the turbo is best as its a bit more risky on the road, and finding a good long straight stretch of road is often tricky.

It could be a good session to add in once a week, twice a week max. No more.

Some people consider this sort of thing mumbo jumbo or a waste of time, but there is only so much you can get out of training miles and miles. It's why pros still use motor pacing to replicate racing as best they can.

I'd also recommend some good core work, yoga or pilates. Something I also did last cross season, and it really helped with the punishment of that sort of race.

I'm currently training for a half marathon in october and enjoying my running quite a bit. But I'll be out on the club run again soon, hopefully.

A full on race flat out right from the off for your type of rider. Ouch it hurts bad.

Yeah, done that, suffered badly for it and also been shelled so know where you're coming from mate.

So, to avoid a massive dose of lactate if it all kicks off as soon as the flag drops and not carry the burden of it throughout the rest of the race, carry on with your 15 min turbo routine and include 2x30 sec flat out reps in the last 5 min, getting to the start line with a good sweat on. Your chances of then being able to stay in the first 10-15 riders where it's so much easier greatly increases.

Go kick some ass in the next one and dish your own pain back.

Hope to see you out in an hour or so............

lechef wrote: I'm up for Dunsfold if you fancy a lift share i could pick you up on the way, might even, weather permitting join you tonight

Yep - let's do Dunsfold. And since the chaingang is on tonight shall I pick you up on my way past at 6.30?

Ah!!! Greeny simple answer with your style of riding cyclo park is not for you I'm up for Dunsfold if you fancy a lift share i could pick you up on the way, might even, weather permitting join you tonight

Interesting points Jonesy. As is common with SL Cyclopark events there was very little track time between the women and 4ths rolling in and us starting. I had planned for that by taking the turbo with me, and I did a 12-15 minute routine. To be fair that only included a spin out at the end, maybe I should have done longer and more?

At the start I deliberately plonked myself on the front row to counteract the concertina effect you speak about. Unfortunately, unlike the last two 4th Cat races I did there the pace was so quick so fast that I was badly outpaced over the first couple of laps, plus my cornering was a bit shit to begin with also. Sadly that did leave me at the back and making too much effort out of the corners. As I mentioned, some of the other new 3rd Cats were bombed out completely within a couple of corners, so it wasn't just me!!

Bottom line is that Cyclopark is all power, brake, power, climb, descend, brake, power, repeat ad nauseum. At my absolute fittest last year (which I'm nowhere near just now) I only just managed to hang in a 4th Cat bunch that started with less than 25 riders, notwithstanding my flying finish to 5th place. Thus tackling more than 40 lean and mean 3rd Cats was perhaps always going to be a bridge too far.

Weather permitting I'm planning to venture to the flat, wide-cornered plains of Dunsfold on Wednesday. If I can't stay in the bunch there I know something is wrong...

I don't beleive you got shelled out through lack of fitness or speed, there must be some other reason.

1) What was your warm up like. Were both aerobic and anaerobic systems activated (that includes 2 x short max efforts)?

2) Were you caught out of the slipstream from riders in front. If so why? What position were you when it happened? Remember the elastic band effect from half way down the bunch where the back riders have to travel faster than the front riders, especially out of corners.

3) Other reasons. C'mon Greeny, you have enough fitness now to stick with em so there must be some silly reason that got you shelled out.

To think that you're not a million mile away from making one smart move that'll win you a race

The rudest of awakenings continues! Probably my most savage pasting since my first Hove Park crit back in 2011; maybe Cyclopark wasn't the ideal place to test out my modest recovery in form.

I can't remember precisely if it was the second or third lap when I was shelled out, but it was pretty early on. The only minor consolation is that I lasted longer than the two other 2012 season 4th Cat graduates whose names I recognised, both of whom were out the back almost from the start!

Having travelled all that distance I decided - unlike them - to stay in the race as long as I could and just treat it as a solo time trial, something I've got quite good at since joining the 3rd Cats...

I only called it a day after being lapped, though that still meant totting up yet another DNF. But before then I went as hard as I could, averaging a 164bpm heart rate (maxed out at 178 in the race) for a full 45 minutes duration, so at least there was some training benefit.

Not sure where I go from here - to the much more forgiving Dunsfold most likely.