[Closed] Racers room.

I know exactly how you feel. I won the local XC league last year and had every intention of throwing myself into the training in order to defend my title this year which, like everything else, isn't going to happen.
I didn't really know what to do with myself to be honest as I genuinely enjoy the discipline of structured training and get bored of just riding without any purpose - I understand this might seem a little foreign to some folk but I've been doing it for so long now I struggle to do anything else.
I've come to terms with the fact that there's not going to be any competitive cycling this year so I have embarked on a super-long 'base' phase in preparation for next season.
I've got a couple personal challenges set for myself such as local scalps to take on Strava and a few new places/routes to explore which is keeping me entertained but they're no substitute for the racing scene. Roll on 2021.

I've been doing some bikepacking which has been great. Have ridden the South Downs, Quantocks and New Forest recently. What I miss is the reason to get out the door on weekday mornings or evenings. I've got some brilliant places to work on sweetspot or vo2 max repeats but what's the point? Endurance is getting covered by my long bike trips and I'm doing some running and gentle weight training too. I dream up challenges like a fast SDW attempt but what I love is shoulder to shoulder cx and xc racing. My favourite moments have been scrappy cx battles followed by trying to balance 3 people on a box for a podium shot (EKCX, such a great league). Ten of us mobbing the vet podium a couple of years ago at Herne Hill (LCCA) was another golden memory.

Think it depends on your local league as to whether the chance of CX this season is dead yet? Some leagues definitely out of the game already, some are hedging their bets and have some plans behind the scenes. Friday Night Summer Series (Midlands Grassroots MTB series) put something out the other night about getting something together in 2020. Don't give up hope 😉

If you're that worried, Club 10s are starting up in some places 😉

You probably don't want me in here I'm a bit of an anti thesis.

Free of worrying about race results and on a new "traditional" plan, I've smashed all my targets, lost 8kg and raised my FTP from 3.5wkg to 3.89wkg.   More importantly my main goal was to improve climbing and my sustained power and fitness has increased a lot - 20% lower HR at Threshold Watts for example - which I put down to having a much bigger base made of many, many hours of Z2 earlier in the period.

I am entered for the Gorrick 8hr having missed the 24/12 12h National which was the target event.  The 8hr remains as my only target, but I have a non-race target of achieving 4w/kg at my next test in 2 weeks time.  It'll be very tough because above threshold work is my weak area but hey, its something to aim for as Threshold work has been added in front of the 8hr.  It doesn't matter if I don't achieve 4wkg, I've done enough in the areas that matter this year, FTP is not the whole story.

The way I'm feeling with weight loss / strength and fitness gain is giving me a lot of enjoyable moments on any kind of bike to the point I'm currently highly motivated, despite a lack of racing.

With a TT power profile, I've also enjoyed taking part in Zwift Club TTT's incorporating those as 40 minute threshold intervals into may training.

I don't think we'll see any kind of racing until next Spring, as people will remain cautious about winter Flu/COVID and second spikes, but I'd like to think I can get out to a couple of Winter/Spring races if it becomes possible.

Just started on weekend CX training and looking forward to some sort of season, whatever the form may be. I'd like to say I've missed MTB racing although I haven't done it for a few years so hard to comment. CX is a different story though, last weekends training session with the kids got the buzz back. My power output's increased over the last few months as well as an increase in stamina so I can't complain as I've been pushing myself where I can, no structured training as such, just riding hard when time permits. 900 miles ahead of my annual target and I've been at work full time since the lockdown in March.

After training consistently across winter for the first time in ages, I was hoping 2020 was the year when i got back to closed road racing, and did better than mid table mediocrity in XC races.  I've seen some good gains in power and stamina (thanks Sufferfest) and these are translating into quicker solo road rides and sticking with the faster club rides.  The local 10 last week was a chance to test things out in a race - just 8 seconds slower than PB (without a push off), so room for improvement but not bad for first race.

Still hoping that Hammers8 will go ahead in October, I can feel myself starting to drift off the training without a potential target.

All my races for the year have been canned, and some were never planned to go ahead for this year anyway - 10@Kirroughtree, Muckmedden 6 Hour, 10 Under the Ben, Relentless and the Glentress 7. I'd been holding out for Relentless then realised it wasn't going ahead this year anyway!

It's a bit sad because I only got back into racing last year after a 7 year gap and I was on the podium at everything I did apart from 10 Under. Off the back of it I trained hard all winter (just road and MTB riding, I don't Zwift or Sufferfest or anything like that, just good old riding hard in the pissing rain) but didn't do as well as hoped at the Strathpuffer (mostly because I was on a team of non-racers and we weren't actually taking it seriously!) so I was keen to do well this year.

In some ways it's a blessing - I got a knee injury in April and would have died at 10 Under! I've also got back into Strava a bit and have surprised myself by starting to get some top 10 achievements again after a few years without any which are surprisingly good motivation.

I've been competing in the Strathpuffer as part of a quad team for the last 3 years and have been gearing my training around that event at the end of January for the past few years, including this one. The organisers are optimistically hoping that the 2021 event will go ahead so I'm continuing to lay down a good base level of training before starting to focus my training on August / September time.

I've also just bought some power meter pedals for my roadbike(s) which has given me some more motivation to keep up with the training.

I'd also been planning to have a crack at the Loch Ness 360 MTB event at the end of May this year, however that has been postponed by 12 months until next year. I should be in a better shape for it next year with my new power based training regime!

I had the wind taken out of my sails when after a winter of training in the rain my key event was cancelled. It was Alps Epic, a 6 day mtb stage race. It's been a dream to compete in something like this for so many years, I was so excited.
I've rolled my entry over to next year but now my partner (it's a pairs race) is going cold on the idea. All the uncertainty is doing my head in! I just want to knuckle down but without concrete goals it's so hard to get out the door sometimes.
Cx may happen to some degree but I can't imagine it'll be any more than bubbles of say 30 riders in a TT format. Not really something that excites me.

Any ideas for alternative goals?
I've been looking at self supported ITTs which are certainly something I could imagine doing, but I'm not keen on sleep deprivation.

Strava, koms, power targets don't do it for me, nor does riding TTs on the road.

Any ideas for alternative goals?

If your enjoying the bike-packing - JOGLE off road?

If you're looking for a short burn, then Take 3 now have a summer cyclocross series (TT format) with an MTB category.

https://my.raceresult.com/g3004/

This is at Dalton Barracks near Abingdon.  It is expensive for cross/TT (£18 for 36 minute race), but will be one of the few dirt based racing opportunities this year