[Closed] How long to be a credible Cat 4 or am I just crap (road content)

Only an observation from what you've said on here K, clearly you know best but from a total observation POV, it looks like to me you are doing too much "stuff"

Anyway, next race is when ??

😆

What's the specific target?

Top 5 24 Solo Vet, with a stretch to 3rd. I was 8th last year.

Anyway, next race is when ??

Ha Ha. Saturday - Rd 2 of the one I've been moaning about, I decided to go an do it again with the strategy and advice above at the forefront of my mind.

Quick straw poll. Many on here competing and doing well at more than one discipline at a time?

I race Expert XC in the Midlands (and just about starting to get some form back!) and am a Cat 3 in road racing (in which I can hold my own). Haven't done any TTing or CX for a long while, but may have a tinker later in the year.

will you be there Molgrips?

Yep - home town, closed roads, it'd be rude not to.

[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/please-sponsor-me-lets-make-it-interesting ]Sponsorship thread[/url]

Quick straw poll. Many on here competing and doing well at more than one discipline at a time?

Not me, focus is all on road racing with some crits from time to time. I think if you want to commit to something that the training has to be so specific that not many people can be successful across many disciplines - not talking pros here, and obviously some people are just naturally good/talented, but for the mere mortals who have to work at fitness/skill.

I'm still very sore, whiplash has gone but bruised ribs impacting ability to train/race so DNS in my race yesterday. Can't see me being fit enough in any sense of the word for this coming weekends stage race either. Can't climb out of the saddle or sprint due to the pain in my ribs and its another hilly course so not ideal!

I think if you want to commit to something that the training has to be so specific that not many people can be successful across many disciplines

I think it depends on what kind of success you are going for. Competent amateur - I think you can do road and MTB. Anything more you might need to specialise.

Some things are exclusive based on physiology though - being a strong track sprinter doesn't lend itself well to hilly MTB marathon races, I suspect 🙂

*waves* at DGOAB, thought you'd given up on STW but you seem to keep coming back to the racing threads 🙂

I race Expert XC in the Midlands

*waves*
We probably ran/slid past each other at some point yesterday 😆

Oh I wish I could have, been ill and snotty all week so didn't race yesterday 🙁

Also Lee, checked the results and congrats on the podium!

I think it depends on what kind of success you are going for. Competent amateur - I think you can do road and MTB. Anything more you might need to specialise.

And that's really the point. If you're after points in a 34 race then you're up against a bunch of 3's who are already well experienced and chasing points for their cat 2. Also if you're just dabbling you're up against a bunch of racers who's training will be focused solely on that discipline. Unless you happen to have a real natural aptitude for it then it's going to be hard. So fine to dabble but be realistic about expectations and who you're up against.

TBH, if you're main goal is to be good at 24hr solo XC why are you bothering with racing a 1hr thrash around a circuit?

Kryton are you staying overnight on Saturday in Cardiff? Fancy a pint or a spin?

Its this years goal MrBlobby, it might not be next years. I accidentally did well last year so thought I pursue it as a potential, plus I like the Bonty and am going with friends. The road crits are because I'd quite like to try my hand at road racing, and they act as good training events for the XC races also.

The "multi discipline" issue is interesting; with 6-7 hours only a week to train I might be better of focussing on XC only in 2016, just using the road bike to train and for fun road rides rather than crits.

molgrips - Member
Kryton are you staying overnight on Saturday in Cardiff? Fancy a pint or a spin?

I am! I've bribed - my wife has little bike-empathy - a weekend away by treating the family to a weekend in Cardiff. I have to dutifully do some sightseeing and shopping + dinner on the Saturday but could find some time somewhere.

Hah, I have to do the same thing with my tentatively planned Trans-Cambrian way attempt in July.

Let me know what you fancy. Could be a quick spin around town.. there isn't really any gentle off-road to do. I'm expecting a couple of others to be down too but I am not sure if they will come. What's your start time?

Well, 8:50, but in the interests of getting the kids home for bed on time I'm going to try to join the 7.45 pen illegitimately with a club colleague.

Ooh, I wouldn't.. you might get DQed... It looks like a slick run operation.

The "multi discipline" issue is interesting; with 6-7 hours only a week to train I might be better of focussing on XC only in 2016, just using the road bike to train and for fun road rides rather than crits.

If I had a 24hr solo XC as my goal that's probably what I'd do.

Edit... having said that, off 6-7 hrs a week I'm not sure I'd have considered 24hr solo. I would have thought to be competitive you'd need miles. Must be a good natural fit for you.

TBH, if you're main goal is to be good at 24hr solo XC why are you bothering with racing a 1hr thrash around a circuit?

Exactly what I was thinking, they are essentially the complete opposite of one another. TBH I'd bin the crit racing, unless you are willing to use it as motivation for hard training in place of say a chaingang.

If you are doing well in XC and longer mtb events, then I'd strongly suggest that if you want a chance of success on the road you should be doing TT's and proper road races. Definitively not punchy, flat crits.

(Sportives are not races and don't need training for, unless you are starting out cycling IMO. Instead go and enjoy the ride, scenery and people.)

I watched the Barrow round of the Tour Series on TV last night (first time this year I've managed to see any of it), it looked really exciting and I suddenly wanted to be crit racing again!

I think if you want to commit to something that the training has to be so specific that not many people can be successful across many disciplines - not talking pros here, and obviously some people are just naturally good/talented, but for the mere mortals who have to work at fitness/skill.

I dunno, I raced Expert MTB and 1st/2nd Cat road for at least a couple of seasons, I think they backed each other up.
Track and CX racers usually benefit from crits too. I don't like too much specialising - I think it's beneficial to mix things up a bit.

I'd agree that XC, road races and TT's work fine together.

But crits and 24 hour mtb races, not so much.

Obviously if you are on a limited time budget like most of us, then you just have to make do with what you can fit in. But I'd try and at least tilt my training towards the event I was focused on most. Still all cycling is good 🙂

Edit... having said that, off 6-7 hrs a week I'm not sure I'd have considered 24hr solo. I would have thought to be competitive you'd need miles. Must be a good natural fit for you.

Well I got my 8th in baggies with no training or racing of note, 3 hours sleep, couldnt be bothered with the final lap at 11:59 on Sunday was riding an (ill fitting so STW says) Yeti ASR5 with a camelbak.

Although I expect competition to be stiffer this year, I'm 2 stone lighter in lycra, XC race fit (I like to think) and will be on a 24.5lb Anthem 29er with a bottle cage, and have a different strategy. 🙂

Yes I'm better the longer races go on, I seem to "last" better than some others. Personally I think XC with TT's for shits and giggles is the way to go.

Time trialling can be quite addictive. You have been warned 🙂

🙂 Following my profile test I bought some Deda clip ons...

I'm sorry that this last few pages seems to have evolved around me, I feel a bit guilty about the amount of real-estate I've used up.

There's some useful stuff in here though, I hope it helps others as it has refocused me, so thanks to the contributors so far...

Time trialling can be quite addictive

Not for me. I'm not that bad at it, I can summon up the required iron will for 23 (or 25!) mins but *** that shit. It's boring as hell. MTB racing is far more interesting!

MTB racing is essentially a TT.

MTB racing is essentially a TT.

I concur. Ok, you need the rad xc skillz, and weight takes the place of drag, but the effort is more TT than crit.

*waves* at DGOAB, thought you'd given up on STW but you seem to keep coming back to the racing threads

Yes I'm better the longer races go on, I seem to "last" better than some others

MTB racing is essentially a TT.

I don't think you could be more wrong.....XC racing is not comparable to a TT
only that they will both hurt.

MTB racing is essentially a TT.

Not at all.

1) in a TT you are aiming to be at your threshold power as consistently as possible, it's a sustained effort. In an XC race you are over and under all the time - the downhills are technical enough that you can't pedal at threshold, and the ups are steep enough that you have to go over.

2) TTs you just sit and spin, whereas in XC you have to handle the bike well, downhilling and doing singletrack as fast as you can.

3) TTs are usually as flat as possible, whereas XC is usually hilly. This means that the bug guys are better at TTing and the small ones at XC

would suggest you and crits will never get on!

This is quite possible. I did one 24 hr solo and gave up because whilst I did ok and I felt like doing more, I realised that neither my body nor my lifestyle were suitable for doing really well. My body wants to do short, hard and fast races, I feel so much better training for that than for long slogs. Other people I know are the opposite.

Arse 🙂

I was just reading this http://www.rideabout.co/how-to-prepare-train-for-xc-racing/#Racing_for_fun

This would suggest you and crits will never get on! I'm barely getting going by the time a crit is finished even if I extend my warm up. Road racing is the way to go

I know we talked about not including club runs, but maybe this describes in a nutshell why I can ride 10 miles out of a valley to the meet, do well at the front, sprint for the cafe at the end after 100k and end well, then ride 10 miles home.

I always thought a road race was an extended crit and I be doomed to failure...

Well that's a load of rubbish, have you seen how 'big' Wiggins is?

Plus XC is essentially a sustained effort, pretty similar to a TT. But quite different from a road race or crit.

Well that's a load of rubbish, have you seen how 'big' Wiggins is?

By road standards he is. How big are the other good TTers?

Plus XC is essentially a sustained effort, pretty similar to a TT

No, it's over/under. Get a power meter and do both, compare graphs.

Club runs bare little relationship to racing, so are not a good way to judge form. Some really strong club run guys make terrible (road) racers.

Xc Racing has high oscillation in terms of power output with high developed aerobic and anaerobic systems needed. Research suggests anaerobic performance can be a good indicator of XC performance: XC requires lots of short bursts ranging from 5-30seconds. Just look at this weekend’s World cup, do they really look like they are doing a TT in terms of effort?

In a TT you are looking for a sustained power output without much deviation in terms of power. Completely dissimilar to and XC race

FWFW I just look at my Strava analysis for Crit vs XC race and it mirrors welburns description.

So er, perhaps I should save £15 this weekend?

I always thought a road race was an extended crit and I be doomed to failure

So er, perhaps I should save £15 this weekend?

Play to your strengths!

If you're a long haul trucker, then do that.

Ok thanks, I might look into that.

In the mean time, If I start tomorrow which is coincidentally my next "ride" day, the TrainerRoad Cross Country MTB plan fits [i]exactly [/i]to end on the weekend of the Bonty.

In addition, looking at the plan, substituting the mid week session for the Beastway series I'm riding Wednesday nights, and the weekend session for the club ride or the monthly Mus Sweat and Gears races actually fits the profile of the turbo sessions/plan.

Wowee, after three pages I found my calling, saved £15 and got my next training block all in one 😀

Plus XC is essentially a sustained effort, pretty similar to a TT
No, it's over/under. Get a power meter and do both, compare graphs.

Time trials can be be very over/under, especially sorter ones. You have rises and dips, changes in wind strength and direction, road surfaces, etc. You can go a lot faster as you learn when to push a bit harder and when to back off a little.

Time trials can be be very over/under

Depends how hilly. Our local 10 is undulating but nothing like off-road steep. The local very experienced guys all said to keep constant power rather than go over/under. Because going over fatigues you much more quickly. It's not possible in an XC race because the hills are so steep you'd be at a crawl.

Having said that, from a physics point of view it uses less energy to keep to your average speed, so if you trained for anaerobic power you'd do better if you went over/under. But since most TTs aren't hilly you wouldn't train like that, TTing is seen as being about threshold power.

In the mean time, If I start tomorrow which is coincidentally my next "ride" day, the TrainerRoad Cross Country MTB plan fits exactly to end on the weekend of the Bonty.

In addition, looking at the plan, substituting the mid week session for the Beastway series I'm riding Wednesday nights, and the weekend session for the club ride or the monthly Mus Sweat and Gears races actually fits the profile of the turbo sessions/plan.

I dont use trainer road so dont know what the plan entails but if it is based for XC racing (something relatively short and sharp) is it going to be suitable training for a 24 hour endurance race?

Actually I shall start "Cross County Marathon" Omar which is:

[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/473/18347875411_7729472316_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/473/18347875411_7729472316_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/tXkE8v ]TR[/url]

Move Tuesday and Thursday back to Monday & Wednesday. So I'd be using the Turbo Monday by substituting Wednesday for an actual XC race, and the weekend ride for a club road ride, but that is what I'd do on the turbo if life gets in the way of those. Fits nicely, and goes on for 8 weeks.

That looks grim.

If I were training for XC marathon I'd aim to do one or two 3hr rides in the evenings, on road. Late at night after the kids are down. Then some hill reps on Saturday and however long I could manage on Sunday.

I'm such an idiot. That ^^ is the XC short one. This is the one I'll start tomorrow (XC Marathon).

[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8847/17724317784_647b0d04f9_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8847/17724317784_647b0d04f9_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/t1eLaW ]TR2[/url]

I'm rather ambivalent about that ^. Can't see the intensity but even if it's quite extreme where's the volume? 5-6hrs and <400 TSS doesn't seem very 'marathon' focussed.

I'm only training for 12hr races and I do lack top end punch but <600 and 12hrs a week with a 5hr ride feels light for me.

ps this puts some pressure on me lapping quicker than you at 24:12 (Torchbearer for me) 😯

It's trainer road - so it's all indoor and as such can only be so long.

As I said, personally I'd get out once for a long evening ride rather than do a load of 60 min sessions.

I did say, one of the mid week's is replaced by a 90 min XC race, and the weekend replaced with a 110k/4hr road ride.

Bear with me, I trave around the country for work and work variable hours so its not always easy to stick to a routine (AND two young kids). I average about 450-550 TSS usually.

Adsh, the Tuesday intervals shown vary from 108-160% FTP, the highest ones on Thursdays 130% and the indispersed sprint intervals 200% or as high as you can max out. Bear in mind that cadence will vary, so some of those will be spinning out, others <70rpm to promote muscular endurance growth.

There is no coasting on a Turbo...

Bear with me, I trave around the country for work and work variable hours so its not always easy to stick to a routine (AND two young kids)

I know what you mean. I only get good training in when I'm away somewhere with accessible riding for a decent period of time - I can ride all evening then 🙂

Plus XC is essentially a sustained effort, pretty similar to a TT

Nowhere near. I've got power files from both flat and hilly TTs and there is absolutely no comparison to an XC or CX race. Even a flat circuit such as Sherwood is far more variable.

Oh I wish I could have, been ill and snotty all week so didn't race yesterday

Also Lee, checked the results and congrats on the podium!

Bad times, sorry to hear that. Cheers, felt good on only base miles, and one of the few times that being tall and able to shoulder a bike effectively has helped in an MTB race!

My bad - I barely go over FTP even! With travel and kids thats good going. Plus tss seems overly volume oriented to me.

Turbo work its dedicated. Persoanlly id rather git myself than spend time on one. I love riding i dont like training for the simple gain of more power. Maybe thats why i struggle sometimes in races.

Xc races do feel different to time trails. When i do a tt it is constant effort but when ridingnoff road my power ouput is all over the place.

What surprises me ina crit race my output for an 80kg rider to finish in bunch (i keep on mucking up and doing sustained efforts on the front because i think no one is working hard enough) is only 230w average and peak power is 750w or so. More like an xc race really. Im pretty crap at sprinting i should just go of the front and break and let it hurt.

My training is far more unstructured. It involves riding a fair bit 12hrs a week or so inc races. I ride hilly routes to build up leg strength and spend a bit of time every week on a single speed mtb. All that time and people who spend less still out me but would i enjoy it doing turbo trainkng no i would git myself to end the pain. Currently i see races and i am doing two a week as my intense interval training. The rest of the rides and lower intensity endurance or recovery rides. So entering a race and getting fropped is not a waste. Ride the full course as hard as you can. In time you will improve.

It also take a good while to build strength in your legs.

if your doing bonty 24, surely you need to be doing some longer rides? whats your longest ride to date this year?

Long rides for 24hr are needed. 3 to 4hrs as often as you can. You need endurance. Hill reps are fine but endurance rides are essential.

I live in London, have a 60hr a week job which keeps me away from home at least 2/5ths of the time and two kids I'd like to spend time with. I don't need the long frequent rides as previously evidenced, I can't ride to work and it's not easy to ride out from home and dedicate a whole day to riding. That said my longest mtb ride this year was the BORS 100k in just sub 6hrs, road 140k in 3.5hrs. I am capable of doing those on a bowl of Granola without issues. Every Sunday is a 3-4 med-hard road ride over rolling terrain, I get about 100miles a week in.

Bm0p700f - interesting numbers - last Saturday's was 266w average 1101w peak on a Flat dry course. The two I finished in the bunch in January were 240w average for me.

I don't have a lot of input... but it's a very interesting thread, so keep it up please guys.

I'm planning on getting back into Gorricks this year later on, so it's all very interesting to me, especially as I've recently borrowed a Turbo for the times when I can't get out on the trails.

road 140k in 3.5hrs

40kph average? clearly in a group, but if your able to do that, you shouldn't get dropped in a 3/4 crit surely?

60 hours work, young family, limited training time, you need to pick something that fits your schedule better rather than diluting all your work doing bits of this bits of that,

either that or just enjoy what your doing and not get hung up on the position

Lol, no my maths/typing is wrong - 32kph 3hr 50min.

60 hours work, young family, limited training time, you need to pick something that fits your schedule better rather than diluting all your work doing bits of this bits of that,

That's apparent, yes and therefore...

I'd already decided - I'm going to stick with XC as my main focus. I may try the odd TT, or Cat 4 crit when thier's nothing on for MTB should the opportunity arise but for "Training" or "fun" purposes. I didn't mention this mefore but I feel 100 times more comfortable at an XC race than a Crit. My decision literally took a weight off my shoulders last night.

For example, the January Hillingdon winter series is a great blowout and chance to test one's fitness & skills after the winter period, close to me and relatively cheap.

But I'm going to stop hunting / bleating about road points.

60 hours work, young family, limited training time, you need to pick something that fits your schedule better rather than diluting all your work doing bits of this bits of that,

Given those constraints I'd not be picking long endurance events to train for as those typically need a lot of training time spent in the saddle. But if it works for you and you enjoy it then fair enough. TBH, given your constraints I'd be pretty bloody pleased with what I'd achieved!

interesting numbers

FWIW, last (and only) crit I've done was 245W average and 260W NP, comfortable and well below threshold, but I don't think that really tells you much about how easy or hard it was. Finished in the lead bunch but spent a lot of time on the fringes and in the wind. Second go at a crit tonight and I've a new plan 🙂

Just for a laugh, here is a crit...

[img] [/img]

It would probably be spikier if I had any top end!

And here's a reasonably flat time trial...

[img] [/img]

Anyone have an XC race with power to compare...?

But I'm going to stop hunting / bleating about road points.

Thread closed 😉

Anyone have an XC race with power to compare...?

Yep, this is me at Mud Sweat and Gears in March on a flat course.

[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/323/18350501536_5f53570da0_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/323/18350501536_5f53570da0_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/tXz7Mw ]msg[/url]

Yes there really was a huge starting sprint. Also worth bearing in mind my max HR is 178 so you can see how hard I'm working.

Sounds like you've made the right decision in easing off with the road racing, although for pure XCO they're the most similar event power wise (depending on the race and circuit) short of Cx.

The great thing about cross country is the variability of it all. As in, the range of efforts is incredibly varied - from 15 seconds flat out at the start/finish, to 10 minutes above threshold (Hopton 2013 anyone?).
With this in mind, you should be training for a pretty balanced power profile, with a slight bias towards your strengths (>1 hour from the sounds of it). To illustrate, in an average week of training, I'll be doing 40x6 second sprints, 4x20 minute efforts as part of a four hour ride, and everything in between. The exception being anything over 5 minutes and under 15 (these length efforts have been shown to induce fatigue without stressing the body enough to cause significant adaptations). And an interval on the mountain bike is very different to that on the road - 15 minutes on the road will come out at about 350w normalised, 400 max and 200 min; whereas 15 minutes on the mountain bike will come out more like 300w average, but ranging from 800 to 0w during the effort.
So mix up your training - different length intervals in different disciplines.

BUT, there's a 24hr long spanner in the works. Although it might be on the same bike, a 24 solo is to a XC race as an ultramarathon is to the 1500m. I.e. you might be able to do resonably well in both events at an amateur level, but to do really well you'll have you specialise.
It's not like by focusing on one you'll have to drop the other - you'll be able to compete in either race with the fitness gained by training for the other.

So if I were you I'd make a decision now as to which event you really want to target , and get out training - there's still time to get some good 12hr weekends in before Bonty!!

(^ Not the words of a sport scientist, just someone who wanted to help 🙂
)

That's strava estimated power, ignore it

Hard effort there Kryton. Be good to have real power though as I suspect your average was quite a bit higher than 128W!

Here's a lap of pines red, done as fast as I could, Stages X9

[URL= http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz211/dansipods/A530F80B-592D-422C-A522-10B5E5915A32_zpsiegyz5nh.pn g" target="_blank">http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/zz211/dansipods/A530F80B-592D-422C-A522-10B5E5915A32_zpsiegyz5nh.pn g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

Yep, this is me at Mud Sweat and Gears in March on a flat course.
msg

Yes there really was a huge starting sprint. Also worth bearing in mind my max HR is 178 so you can see how hard I'm working.

That's an endurance racer's HR profile over an XC race if I ever saw one! You might be working quiet close to your max HR, but you're never far off the average with minimal drop off towards the end.

My HR for that race was all over the place in comparison
[img] https://flic.kr/p/tHpcBN [/img]

My HR for that race was all over the place in comparison

Can't see the image which is a shame as that sounds interesting. I saw the winning elite rider's HR trace from one of the Southern XC races the other week. I was a little surprised at how flat it was with very little variability.

Can't see the image which is a shame as that sounds interesting. I saw the winning elite rider's HR trace from one of the Southern XC races the other week. I was quite surprised at how flat it was with very little variability.

[url= https://flic.kr/p/tHL6C2 ]And HR from another race, this time a hilly one [/url]

Looks like you had the race in the bag pretty early on and backed off a bit? 🙂

Probably an age thing too, my HR doesn't really track power that closely as I've gotten older, I suspect my HR would look pretty flat near max (much like Krytons) if I did an XC race despite the variability of power and effort.

It's stuff like this that makes me really miss the data I'd gain from a PM on the XC bike! Looking at my last race is quite interesting to just see where I punctured... I should but I never actually wear an HR strap on the road bike with a PM.

I've got an M9000 stages coming so should be able to provide some more data soon

MTB race (FNSS at Mallory):

[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8760/18193389970_8520abeeec_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8760/18193389970_8520abeeec_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/tHFSZq ]Mallory FNSS[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/130716198@N02/ ]Mike Moore[/url], on Flickr

Crit race (again at Mallory):

[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/455/17758463594_bb4947bb57_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/455/17758463594_bb4947bb57_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/t4fLwN ]Mallory 3-4 Crit[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/130716198@N02/ ]Mike Moore[/url], on Flickr

Don't know quite how helpful that is though!

Double post!

[url=[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8788/17763503104_36e98e2463_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8788/17763503104_36e98e2463_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/t4GAAU ]Gorrick 100[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/68424083@N07/ ]adshools[/url], on Flickr]null

And a 6hr mtb race that's really a time trial as I was by myself for most of it so the variability is mainly terrain. HR drifts slightly upwards, power slightly downwards.

Well that was a bit rubbish. Cruised around for 9 laps, was well placed I thought coming out the last corner, about 3rd wheel, but got absolutely swamped in the 100m or so to the finish. Didn't even feel like I'd had a decent workout.

Having said that, only second race, and starting to understand what's going on a bit better now so that's progress. Kicking myself a bit for not going for it earlier up the hill into the last chicane. That was probably my best chance. Ah, maybe next time 🙂

Oh and that race reminded me of why I reckon an XC race is more like a TT than a crit. I'd never see HR numbers that low half way through an XC race!

Thruxton? Sounds like a typical Thruxton scenario 🙂

Yup, thruxton. Not much fun really TBH. May try Castle Coombe.

If you are finding it easy up to the end and then getting swamped then you need different tactics! 🙂

Yes indeed. I'm starting to have a vague idea of what's going on now so may even try some tactics next time out 🙂

Pleased to hear you've got yourself settled, Kryton.
FWIW this is a snapshot from my road bike result on a TT night on our sporting course. Power from P2M crankmeter. Couple of steep pulls and it's an out and back round a roundabout

[img] [/img]

I try to keep on threshold the whole way and towards the end the HR begins to spike. I'm always amazed at the crit riders with the spikiness of HR and how they can keep pushing on.

Well this was last night's race...

[img] [/img]

After the first two laps it felt like we were just counting down the laps. If I do another I'm going to try and make it a bit more fun. Spot the ridiculous push on the first lap to get into a doomed break 🙂