Should you race Cyclocross? By Joe Friel
If you’re like many riders, you were burned out by June this year. After some time off the bike and a few group rides you probably finished the year with a couple of criteriums and now you’re ready to go again. In fact, you’re thinking about doing some cyclocross races. Your timing is just right since the cyclocross season is in full swing in many places.
When I hear of riders being toast by June, I wonder why. How come they couldn’t make it through the entire road or mountain bike season like other athletes? I believe the answer is that they rode too intensely too early in the season. In fact, cyclocross may even be part of that problem for these riders.
‘Cross and Burnout?
How could cross lead to burnout? Every time you go to a race or do an anaerobic workout there is a certain amount of physical and psychological stress created. This stress causes the body’s many systems to work overtime, especially the endocrine and sympathetic nervous systems which prepare the body for fight or flight. Together they get the body ready to face an artificial “crisis” such as a race or hard workout. These systems can handle only so many crises in a short period of time before they are exhausted. Some liken this to having just a few “matches” to burn in a season. Once they are all used up with races and very hard workouts extensive rest is needed to create more matches.
So it may just be that racing ‘cross is what caused you to burnout by June since it is so highly anaerobic and stressful. A few athletes are able to handle all of this anaerobic effort year round without frying. They are the exception rather than the rule, however.
‘Cross and Spring Fitness
Will doing cross races make you more fit for road racing and mountain biking? If you have an important, road or mountain bike race planned for January, then ‘cross is a great way to prepare. Your anaerobic function will be peaked and ready to go. But if your first important event isn’t until spring, the anaerobic fitness gained from ‘cross will be long gone, or you will be totally spent trying to maintain it (in other words, more burned matches).
Read more about spring fitness and planning your season in the full article.
Joe Friel is the author of The Cyclist’s Training Bible. Answers to frequently asked questions on the topic of this article and others are available on his web site at http://www.trainingbible.com/.
Get a cyclocross training plan and start training with TrainingPeaks today!
Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 3:56PM
Reader Comments (2)
Youve got it backwards, road will burn you out for cross season
Chris...
...