Track/CX/Century training - What plan/s?

Training
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1

Hi there, looking for some advice on which plans I should be going after.

Last year (18/19) was the first year back racing CX after a few years out, I’m not particularly competitive and never have been but I enjoy the racing.

I’ve recently got my accreditation for the local track and have been attending regular training sessions there throughout Jan/Feb/March.

12 month goals

  • Attend more track sessions, learn more track craft, race tactics/strategies
  • Work up to a double century
  • Race another season of CX
  • Try my hand at racing track league
  • Get my 10TT down to under 25min(athletes trial)

Training up to this point

  • September - loosely followed CX speciality whilst racing
  • January - Couple of weeks off then started SSBLV1
  • Just started SSBMV2

FWIW - 187cm, 88kg, 258ftp but I’ve done 280 for 30mins during a TT.

What I think I should be working on

  • Strength training for the track
  • Loosing a bit of weight
  • Short repeated efforts
  • 20min efforts

After SSB I had planned

  • General build
  • Short power build
  • CX speciality
  • Maintenance

I’m having difficulty in deciding what order I should have the different plans, how to fit heavy lifting in for the track and also improve my endurance for longer club runs. Have I too many different objectives for 12 months or is there a better way of arranging this?

2

Unless you’re focusing solely on sprints and kilo I wouldn’t worry about heavy lifting as much. Cross and the rest of track racing can be pretty compatible training wise. Even knocking out some centuries is helpful if you’re pursuiting. Certainly doesn’t hurt if you’re more omniun focused.

1 Like
3

Hey there!

We don’t usually recommend back to back specialty phases (like you plan to do with General and then Short Power builds).

We typically would rather recommend training in this format: Base > Base > Build > Specialty > Build > Specialty.

You can double up on Base as much as you want, but generally, Build and Specialty come as pairs. In cases where athletes have the time available, we recommend re-building instead of doping two back-to-back phases. Build phases are over-extensions and create a lot of fatigue, whereas Specialty phases under-extend and serve to refine.

In your case, although you want to work up to a double century, the majority of your cycling goals for the next 12 months focus on riding and racing efforts that more closely match the Short Power build instead of the General build.

You’ll want to take a look at your future plan structure and adjust it to not have back-to-back Build phases. Best of luck!

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4

Thanks for the explanation.

There isn’t enough available time to fit in a Build > Speciality > Build > Speciality before the start of cross season.

If I rejig things so that I end CX speciality on the week of the first race, and then run the short power build before that, it leaves me 6 weeks between my SSBMV2 and the Short power build. Should I add in another 6 weeks of base or is there something else I can do, which’ll help complement the longer summer rides and won’t leave me being a little bored of SSB?

5

I’m pretty sure the track league is mostly points, scratch and elimination races.

At the moment I’m struggling to fit in any lifting, I’m on the bike 5x a week and it feels like I could easily overdo it if I start doing any lifting on one of those off days.