Prepping for Cyclocross Nationals

On Thursday January 9th, assuming a road-closing blizzard or ice storm doesn't shut down highways betweenWest Texas and Colorado, I'll be in Boulder racing the 2014 Cyclocross National Championships for my age category.

The 2014 championships take place over a five-day period from Jan 8 through Jan 12, with male competitors in age groups 60-64, 65-69, and 70+ racing together at 9:00 am on Thursday morning.

I'll be joining 65-70 other old cyclocross racers from across the nation who’ll be competing for the highly coveted national champion's Stars and Stripes jersey in their age group.

Realistically, my goals will be to just keep the fast guys in sight, not get lapped, and - most of all - have fun in the process.

The weather on January 9 is something that all racers will have to contend with.

January mornings on Colorado's Front Range can be dry with nice (comparatively speaking) temperatures in the 30s, but it could also be brutally cold with sub-zero wind chills and snow.

Like all of the cyclists who'll be competing in the various categories, I've trained hard for the event.

My training program for this race started back in early July when I decided that the CX nationals would be my primary goal for the 2nd half of the year.

Simply put, I've spent the last six months preparing for one 40 minute race.

During July and August, the workout objectives were base endurance and strength. I accomplished those by riding a lot of miles on my road bike (including the 3-week, 560 mile Tour de San Angelo), doing twice-weekly strength sessions in the gym, and doing a two-week block of altitude training during August by riding high country mountain roads and trails in Colorado.

In September, the focus shifted to improving my anaerobic threshold (the maximum heart rate I can sustain for 30-60 minutes). These threshold workouts included moderately hard efforts such as two times 30 minute intervals (after a warm-up) at a heart rate that was at or just below my threshold at that time.

The threshold intervals were done both at high pedal cadences of 90-100 RPM to improve pedaling efficiency and also at low 50-60 RPM cadences in a hard gear to build strength.

The training progression continued in October with a shift to specific cyclocross skills, race simulation workouts, and early season races such as the local Wednesday evening cyclocross series.  I also started doing most of my workouts on my cyclocross bike riding mountain bike trails and rough dirt roads.

The local Wednesday evening races provided a real-world environment where I could test my fitness by chasing the younger fast racers, and the race simulation workouts helped improve specific skills such as sprinting up to speed after corners, dismounting and running over barriers while carrying the bike, riding through deep sand, and (when weather conditions allowed) going fast in slippery mud.

During the local races and simulation workouts, I captured heart rate and speed data using a Garmin Forerunner GPS watch. The data was analyzed post-workout to identify improvements from past training sessions and also to determine "how hard is too hard" for future reference.

In November and December, the training program shifted to a combination of shorter but very intense intervals at a heart rate well above my sustainable threshold and also racing selected Texas Cup cyclocross series races.

I also added in twice-weekly sessions of short uphill sprints, bleacher runs in a stadium, and short runs carrying the bike through loose dirt and sand to prepare for the obstacles that the CX Nationals course will have.

My goal of racing four or five Texas Cup events during November and December didn't work out as planned because of family activities and job duties on weekends. To continue building race-specific fitness, I substituted hard 40-60 minute race simulations on each of the missed Texas Cup race dates.

The past two weeks have been spent "sharpening the sword" by doing a short but very intense workout every third day followed by two days of easy recovery rides.

This final phase of preparation is called "tapering" with the objective being to achieve peak fitness by letting the body recover from the previous months of hard training while maintaining a high level of neuromuscular stimulation via the every-third-day hard efforts.

I've also made it a priority to work out early in the mornings on cold days to get used to riding in the cold and to practice dressing for those conditions. The odds are that the early morning race time temperature in Boulder will be in the high 20s, so being ready for winter conditions is a critical aspect of the mental and physical preparation.

Like all of the cyclists who’ll be competing at nationals, I've done the hard work needed to prepare for the event, so on race day it will come down to who has “good legs” that day and who avoids mistakes such as going too hard early in the race or crashing on roughsections of the course.

The weather and altitude (5,500 feet) will both have a significant impact on the race's outcome.  Dry weather and moderate temperatures will dictate a completely different race strategy than bitter cold with snow or ice on the course.Given the higher altitude, it will also be important to avoid going too hard and getting into oxygen debt early in the race.

My expectations for CX Nationals race are realistic, with the goal being to race as hard as I can and hopefully place in the top 25% of my category.  Anything higher than that will be gravy and anything lower will be disappointing.

Stay tuned - next week's post will be a recap and analysis of the race.

Upcoming Events

Feb 14: Funnel Cake 5K, roadlizards.org

Mar 22: Crazy Desert Trail Race, roadlizards.org