Get ready to race with your heart rate at the redline for the full length of the race!

Yup! Been shortening my Zwift sessions and trying to go close to redline for 30-35 minutes, along with some big efforts thrown in here and there. Glad the Cat 5 races are only 30 minutes!

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

Congrats on the new bike. Cyclocross is alot of fun. I started racing CX about 4 years ago.

Its a tough race. I spend alot of time maxing out my heart rate and wondering why I paid to do this, but after the race cant wait to do it again.

I got a single speed CX bike 2 years ago. I find racing single speed even more fun than on the geared bike.

Welcome to the tribe. It’s the absolute best. The racing, the racers, the skills, the fitness...everything. Love posts like this. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have. A good post on CX specific training buried somewhere here on ST if you get hooked! Get that bike set up tubeless if it’s not already!

That part makes CX sound amazing. The bruises and cold weather less so.

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The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Any cyclo cross around orlando?

I’d love to go tubeless but my deal with the Ministry of Finance (aka my wife) was that all I needed was the bike. Took my SPD pedals off my ancient mountain bike and using 20 year old mountain bike shoes!

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

With any luck, it may cost less than you think. Research if your tires and wheels are tubeless ready. TLR is the magic phrase, but other brands have different designators.
If they are TLR, you only need sealant (Stans is ~$20), valve stems (~$15), gorilla tape. Seating the bead with a normal pump may take some time, but if you have access to a compressor, you are set.

(BTW, some tires may not be explicitly TLR, but may still do just fine tubeless. It'd be something to test out. If your wheels are not TLR, don't even bother!)

Congrats! This will be my 2nd season and after 5 races last year I'm totally hooked. I'm terrible at it, but don't even care because it's so much fun.

You can give many tires and wheels a tubeless conversion even if not explicitly stated as so.

Welcome to the OVCX! This area is a hotbed for cross, you're going to love it. Don't forget the other two series in our area, Cap City out of Columbus and Indy Cross over in Indianapolis. If you want a little bit of a tune up (and some cross points) before the OVCX starts, check out the Lady Gnar race east of you. The Lionhearts will also have a race the week before on the 1st over in Mason. I also highly recommend coming out to the Kings CX TT on Wednesday nights if you can hack it or find some other 'hot laps' type of group ride. That'll give you some good experience before we get going in full earnest.

Don't miss out on the Red Kite weekend, Cap City on Saturday and OVCX on Sunday. . . beach riding, lots of sand. . . lots of fun!

Some CX training insight here:

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...=cyclocross#p5470709

This will be my 4th year at CX and I'd race every weekend if there were races! Its like running a 10K at your 5K pace : ) And this year I'm going all in and running tubulars! Good luck, hope you love it like the rest of us!

She won’t notice! Those tires are tubeless compatible. Just take it back and ask them to convert. Maybe 50 bucks?

Canyon's cyclocross bikes are on sale - I just got one for my wife and I and there is a weekly cyclocross series in town I live in in Alaska. Looks fun. New bike is fantastic to ride (and super cool in 'lightning yellow') - actually think it will be good training bike for triathlon too as it is set up pretty aggressively and the roads here are better ridden on big cyclocross tires.

Seriously, OVCX is quality racing. You'll have a blast.

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I talk a lot - Give it a listen: http://www.fasttalklabs.com/category/fast-talk
I also give Training Advice via http://www.ForeverEndurance.com

The above poster has eschewed traditional employment and is currently undertaking the ill-conceived task of launching his own hardgoods company. Statements are not made on behalf of nor reflective of anything in any manner... unless they're good, then they count.
http://www.AGNCYINNOVATION.com

Yeah, i was really hoping to get to several of the King’s CX TT events before the season opener on 9 Sept, but I don’t think I’m going to be able to do any except the one on the 5th. Is the Kings course open any other times? I’d love to just go there and ride.

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Yes it's open whenever you want. It's in decent shape even with all the rain though I did get a bit muddy today.

A background in tri and time trial could be handy. Bouncing the HR off the limiter and running.

I think a good workout may be runup intervals or a gravel ride bricked with a hard 5k run.

I’m trying this fall also. I’ve two left feet, so, will eat dirt at least once myself this season.

Cyclocross is hella fun. Make sure to train your legs in that zone 4-5 as well as training your liver for copious alcohol consumption (you know, to get the full cyclocross treatment)

I hope you get a chain catcher on the front.
Doesn't look like it from the pictures.
2x is fine but much easier to drop a chain in CX.

One tip... low tire pressure. As the local speedsters for tire pressure advice.

i'm thinking about picking up a cross bike as a commuter for this winter - anyone else done this?
my route is all paved road shoulder, but it rains like mad here in vancouver and the braking my tri-bike scares the crap out of me in traffic sometimes

If you've got run fitness at all, you'll be fine. I don't bother running more than 20 minutes twice a week just to keep my legs honest and really not until a little later in the season since most running doesn't happen until we get to the sloppy conditions in Oct and Nov.

Background in triathlon helps. . . but cross isn't really about riding at the limit consistently. It's more about riding above the limit and recovering without blowing up nor slowing down. I do lots of muscular endurance building into the season and now I'm doing lots of VO2 intervals.

Yeah, good call. I just went and checked the bike and it doesn’t have one. On the tire pressure...yep, the guy who is sponsoring the team talked to me about that, and it makes sense. I’m sure I’ll be asking lots of questions on the proper pressure.

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

I’m trying to steadily increase my beer consumption as part of an overall training package...

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.