Intro to 'Cross

The two-minute 'cross clinic
Dave Carr, Sep 1998

The question In a message dated 98-08-25 16:55:22 EDT, smoon@sirius.com writes:

> Would you be interested in sharing your vast knowledge of training for
> cross with the rest of us? I would love to see an example of your weekly
> training schedule - weights? running? road? skills/technique?.....

Aha, don't consider me an expert. I can only speak from my own experience but here goes. Dave's 2 minute 'cross clinic.

First of all: My #1 challenge in cross season is getting consistent training. The daylight goes away and with it go the good group rides, in particular the twilight crits which are excellent training. Plus bad weather comes into the picture, plus if you are burned out a little at the end of the season you can have trouble with motivation. So my #1 rule is: Find a set of training rides that you can stick with consistently. If you can find races or fellow cross racers to train with regularly, that's great for fitness and motivation and consistency.

Here are some components of training.

Fitness training You need to go at a high heart rate for 30-45 minutes. I read an article that said that elite 'crossers do the whole event at or near LT, up hill down hill whatever. Basically there's no time to recover on the course, so if you try to do it like an interval--sprint, rest, sprint, rest--you'll just blow. I was talking with a fellow 'crosser last night at twilights and we agreed that twilights are perfect training for 'cross. Unfortunately, those are done for the year. He also mentioned motorpacing, but that's unrealistic for most of us. TTs are good physically, but they are so mentally taxing you'll find it difficult to do these more than once a week. So find something that works for you and gets your HR up for a good half hour or more.

If you want to get a little more specific, a good workout is over-under intervals. That's where you ride just under your LT, perhaps on a slight incline, and do intervals of a couple minutes just over LT, then perhaps four or five minutes just under LT, then over, under, etc. with the toatl session maybe 20 minutes. These are very tough to do but they are very effective in that they teach your body to recover quickly from those times in the race where you have to go harder--runups, hills etc. Over time, these workouts will also increase your power at LT. Just don't overdo it.

Great training is to get together with friends and practice on a circuit. Last year I heard there was a bunch that went out of the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley every Saturday. There's also the weekly DFL outlaw cross in SF every week starting in Sept.

Some interval training is also good. Hill repeats, rollers, sprints, etc. If you do too much TT-type work, especially alone, you'll get dull. Again, if you can find a circuit and do it with friends that's the best.

A note on road group rides. Many of your teammates and regular road group ride participants see autumn as a time to ride "tranquillo" and will either go too slow to do your fitness any good or will resent you for pushing the pace. So do these rides mostly for fun and recovery. On the other hand, there are some group rides populated by psychos who go hard every day of the year so maybe those will be good for you.

Strength training Cross requires total body strength in ways road riding doesn't prepare you for. In particular, hoisting the bike and running up hills become very tiring very quickly and will limit your performance in a race unless you work on them. Here are some factors:

a) Weights. Do leg presses or extensions (carefully!) and leg/hamstring curls to develop power. Do calf lifts to develop the running up hill ability. Do bent over rows and upright rows or cleans to develop the bike lift ability. I do a LOT of upright rows. Do bench press and seated rows to develop pecs, biceps, triceps and delts/lats for the yanking on the handlebars ability. Do situps and back extensions to develop the abdominal strength to tie together the upper body and legs. You can ask someone at the gym to show you those exercises. Traditional "circuit" training does some of all of these. You need to achieve balanced strength so one part of the body doesn't yank another out of joint.

b) Running. Do some light running to develop muscle tone and technique, no more than 15-20 min at a time. I don't like to do a lot because it can mess up your cycling muscles, especially early on when running hurts. Be very careful running downhill as you can easily injure your supple cycling quads. Run on grass or a treadmill to make it easier on you. For the real running strength which you need in the hills, do stairs. As you get stronger, you might run stairs with weights to simulate carrying the bike. Or carry the bike itself.

Another note on running--here's a little tip. When running uphill I've started to adopt a stride that's more like a race-walk than a real run. Running for me is like a lot of little lunges that waste a lot of energy and are very tiring for me. I find I can go faster with less effort if I take longer, smoother strides, like a fast walk. Try this yourself and see if it works for you--running is one of my weak points.

Skills training Cross is a technical TT, a sport of seconds: seconds gained or lost every time you encounter some technical obstacle. So practice. Good fitness is wasted without good technique. Come to the cross clinic to learn the skills or ask someone to show you. Go to the DFL cross races in SF (when are they anyway?) and practice. Get a book and read it (Cyclocross by Simon Burney, from Velo Press, look in Velonews for an ad, or www.velocatalogue.com.) I have a copy I can loan.

Here are a couple of specific pointers to look out for as you're learning. These are refinements for someone who has already learned the basic skills. Do that first or you might not understand this advice.

(a) For your dismount, learn to place your right hand on the top tube just before you jump off, and put your weight on that hand. Stabilize the bike by leaning the saddle against your right hip. The big advantage of the hand on the top tube is that when unclipping your left foot it allows you to sort of hang in the air supported on your hand while you extricate yourself from the pedal.

(b) When running with the bike on shoulder, especially uphill, make sure to keep the weight of the bike as far back as possible. It'll keep your posture upright, which makes it easier to breathe and to scan the trail ahead.

(c) If you're nervous about the re-mount, remember to land on the saddle with the inside of your thigh and then slide into position. If you flicked your pedal properly during the dismount, your right pedal will be in position to immediately start pedaling, which is a plus. Always make sure you are moving quickly before remounting.

Racing Have fun. Focus on technique and don't get over your head by trying to compete too hard. The speed will come over time. Watch the other races to see how it's done.

Go back to the NVV Cyclocross Circuit

The question	In a message dated 98-08-25 16:55:22 EDT, smoon@sirius.com writes: > Would you be interested in sharing your vast knowledge of training for > cross with the rest of us? I would love to see an example of your weekly > training schedule - weights? running? road? skills/technique?..... Aha, don't consider me an expert. I can only speak from my own experience but here goes. Dave's 2 minute 'cross clinic.
First of all:	My #1 challenge in cross season is getting consistent training. The daylight goes away and with it go the good group rides, in particular the twilight crits which are excellent training. Plus bad weather comes into the picture, plus if you are burned out a little at the end of the season you can have trouble with motivation. So my #1 rule is: Find a set of training rides that you can stick with consistently. If you can find races or fellow cross racers to train with regularly, that's great for fitness and motivation and consistency. Here are some components of training.
Fitness training	You need to go at a high heart rate for 30-45 minutes. I read an article that said that elite 'crossers do the whole event at or near LT, up hill down hill whatever. Basically there's no time to recover on the course, so if you try to do it like an interval--sprint, rest, sprint, rest--you'll just blow. I was talking with a fellow 'crosser last night at twilights and we agreed that twilights are perfect training for 'cross. Unfortunately, those are done for the year. He also mentioned motorpacing, but that's unrealistic for most of us. TTs are good physically, but they are so mentally taxing you'll find it difficult to do these more than once a week. So find something that works for you and gets your HR up for a good half hour or more. If you want to get a little more specific, a good workout is over-under intervals. That's where you ride just under your LT, perhaps on a slight incline, and do intervals of a couple minutes just over LT, then perhaps four or five minutes just under LT, then over, under, etc. with the toatl session maybe 20 minutes. These are very tough to do but they are very effective in that they teach your body to recover quickly from those times in the race where you have to go harder--runups, hills etc. Over time, these workouts will also increase your power at LT. Just don't overdo it. Great training is to get together with friends and practice on a circuit. Last year I heard there was a bunch that went out of the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley every Saturday. There's also the weekly DFL outlaw cross in SF every week starting in Sept. Some interval training is also good. Hill repeats, rollers, sprints, etc. If you do too much TT-type work, especially alone, you'll get dull. Again, if you can find a circuit and do it with friends that's the best. A note on road group rides. Many of your teammates and regular road group ride participants see autumn as a time to ride "tranquillo" and will either go too slow to do your fitness any good or will resent you for pushing the pace. So do these rides mostly for fun and recovery. On the other hand, there are some group rides populated by psychos who go hard every day of the year so maybe those will be good for you.
Strength training	Cross requires total body strength in ways road riding doesn't prepare you for. In particular, hoisting the bike and running up hills become very tiring very quickly and will limit your performance in a race unless you work on them. Here are some factors: a) Weights. Do leg presses or extensions (carefully!) and leg/hamstring curls to develop power. Do calf lifts to develop the running up hill ability. Do bent over rows and upright rows or cleans to develop the bike lift ability. I do a LOT of upright rows. Do bench press and seated rows to develop pecs, biceps, triceps and delts/lats for the yanking on the handlebars ability. Do situps and back extensions to develop the abdominal strength to tie together the upper body and legs. You can ask someone at the gym to show you those exercises. Traditional "circuit" training does some of all of these. You need to achieve balanced strength so one part of the body doesn't yank another out of joint. b) Running. Do some light running to develop muscle tone and technique, no more than 15-20 min at a time. I don't like to do a lot because it can mess up your cycling muscles, especially early on when running hurts. Be very careful running downhill as you can easily injure your supple cycling quads. Run on grass or a treadmill to make it easier on you. For the real running strength which you need in the hills, do stairs. As you get stronger, you might run stairs with weights to simulate carrying the bike. Or carry the bike itself. Another note on running--here's a little tip. When running uphill I've started to adopt a stride that's more like a race-walk than a real run. Running for me is like a lot of little lunges that waste a lot of energy and are very tiring for me. I find I can go faster with less effort if I take longer, smoother strides, like a fast walk. Try this yourself and see if it works for you--running is one of my weak points.
Skills training	Cross is a technical TT, a sport of seconds: seconds gained or lost every time you encounter some technical obstacle. So practice. Good fitness is wasted without good technique. Come to the cross clinic to learn the skills or ask someone to show you. Go to the DFL cross races in SF (when are they anyway?) and practice. Get a book and read it (Cyclocross by Simon Burney, from Velo Press, look in Velonews for an ad, or www.velocatalogue.com.) I have a copy I can loan. Here are a couple of specific pointers to look out for as you're learning. These are refinements for someone who has already learned the basic skills. Do that first or you might not understand this advice. (a) For your dismount, learn to place your right hand on the top tube just before you jump off, and put your weight on that hand. Stabilize the bike by leaning the saddle against your right hip. The big advantage of the hand on the top tube is that when unclipping your left foot it allows you to sort of hang in the air supported on your hand while you extricate yourself from the pedal. (b) When running with the bike on shoulder, especially uphill, make sure to keep the weight of the bike as far back as possible. It'll keep your posture upright, which makes it easier to breathe and to scan the trail ahead. (c) If you're nervous about the re-mount, remember to land on the saddle with the inside of your thigh and then slide into position. If you flicked your pedal properly during the dismount, your right pedal will be in position to immediately start pedaling, which is a plus. Always make sure you are moving quickly before remounting.
Racing	Have fun. Focus on technique and don't get over your head by trying to compete too hard. The speed will come over time. Watch the other races to see how it's done.