Just looking for some thoughts:
I am headed to Austin in the end of October for the 70.3. Cyclocross is fairly big in my area and the races/clinics have started over the past few weeks.
I was thinking about signing up and doing a few, over the next three weeks, to switch up my bike training. I have never done a CX race before. Is this dumb, should I just wait until after Austin?
Thanks
It’s an hour-long race over a month before your 70.3 you’ll be fine.
If you’re talking “switching up bike training”, be aware that the demands of CX are much different that ‘steady-state’ tri-bike training. CX is all about extreme power surges, sprinting out of corners, etc. While a single event shouldn’t affect your 70.3, that CX *training *along the way might. Just be sure not to forget your priorities.
Like another poster said, just doing the race(s) would be okay, but if you start training for them you’ll be “dumb”. CX training favors more anaerobic development and you mostly want aerobic leading into a race as long as 70.3. 1-2 races aren’t going to hurt, but deciding you want to race and train for CX as your bike training is a mistake.
How’s your bike handling? Do you think your skills and seriousness level make you think that crashing/injury is a low probability (not any greater that road training).
the biggest risk will be having a blast and signing up for more races and forgetting completely about the 70.3
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I did a CX race one week out from the 70.3 WC a few years ago and had the race of my life at the WC. CX is one hour, all out and you should recover quickly. Just make sure your bike handling is up to scratch as CX can be pretty brutal.
I would do it and have fun, CX is a blast.
You’ll need a couple of days to recover from a cross race. No big deal. You could do one a week before and it wouldn’t really affect things. Cross racing is just too short of an event to cause a serious training issue. BUT, there is a possibility you could crash and injure yourself. So that is something to consider.
As most of the other posters have mentioned it is basically a completely different sport. The only thing that they really have in common is riding a bike. Triathlon racing is steady state. CX racing is as far from steady state as you can get. That is especially true when you’ve never done it before.
If you want to do a couple in addition to your specific 70.3 training, that is probably fine. If you are replacing training with CX racing it is probably not the smartest thing to do.
I’m doing my first CX race tomorrow and have Augusta 70.3 next weekend. I’m not worried at all; I say go race
Thanks for the input!
There are races this weekend and the next. I am going to go for it.
I will report back on how things go.
It’s an hour-long race over a month before your 70.3 you’ll be fine.
Most likely it’s only 30 or 45 min at that… most places only the Cat 1/2s race for an hour.
The events are nothing but pure fun if you have the right attitude.
I’d warm up well before and do a cool down spin after. If you have a good base, this is a fun way to use anaerobic work to up your cruising speed and your short duration bursts as needed to pass or hit a small rise when TT’ing. Even in a short cross race, you’ll be plenty gassed by the end given race intensity.
If, however, you are short on aerobic work, I am not sure this is the best use of your weekend time in your final run-up to your half.
As a new entrant, if you have a high FTP, you could do quite well if you also have good mtn bike skills as it’s an interesting combo between your overall engine, your top end, and solid bike handling skills.
Enjoy it-
J
Treat it like you would a FTP test. You’ll recover fine. Go have some fun. Mentally it’s good to switch it up training. You’ll be glad you did it.
The heckling should improve your mental toughness
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it should be fun, the races in your category will be short, like 40 mins. I’d just do your normal training and jump in a cross race for fun. You still need to get your overdistance work in sometime though.