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"Training" in Training Races
How to use training races effectively

  Written by Adam Hodges Myerson
  Cycle-Smart President
  March 13, 2005

Many of you will begin racing in the next few weeks, if you haven’t done so already. Unless you’re somewhere warm where the early season races actually mean something, most of you will start the year with a month or so of training races to get your feet wet (often quite literally). Training races are a great way to evaluate your early season fitness, sharpen your skills for the real races coming up, and get some higher intensity, variable power training done in a mentally easier environment.

There’s always a catch, and here the catch is that many riders forget the “training” part of “training race.” The excitement can often be too much, ego takes over, and people race themselves into the ground before the season even starts. If you participate in training races this winter and spring, it’s imperative to lay down some rules for yourself based on your training needs and follow them to the letter, however difficult it may be to hold back when the attacks are going up the road.

Cycle-Smart Training Articles A Case For Base    by Adam Hodges Myerson    February 2, 2007 Power, Stability, and Confidence    by Adam Hodges Myerson    September 20, 2006 Training While You Work    by Adam Hodges Myerson    April 25, 2006 Surviving The Trainer    by Adam Hodges Myerson    March 2, 2006 You Gotta Have A Plan    by Adam Hodges Myerson    January 8, 2006 Peaking For Cyclo-Cross Nationals    by Adam Hodges Myerson    November 29, 2005 How To Improve Your Starts For Cyclo-cross    by Adam Hodges Myerson    October 18, 2005 Interval Training for Cyclo-Cross    by Adam Hodges Myerson    September 9, 2005 Hang On To That Form!    by Adam Hodges Myerson    August 9, 2005 Resting Your Way To Fitness    by Adam Hodges Myerson    June 22, 2005 How Long, How Hard, and How Often?    by Adam Hodges Myerson    May 25, 2005 Warming Up    by Adam Hodges Myerson    April 11, 2005 "Training" in Training Races    by Adam Hodges Myerson    March 13, 2005 Preparing for a Cyclo-Cross Race    by Johs Huseby    November 16, 2004 Choosing Between a Club or a Team    by Kirk Albers    October 6, 2004 Running for Cyclo-Cross    by Adam Hodges Myerson    September 22, 2004 My Aching Back (and legs, shoulders, hips, feet, neck)    by Christine White    August 4, 2004 Key Workouts for Early Season Mountain Bike Racers    by Kurt Perham    July 14, 2004 The Philly File    by Adam Hodges Myerson    June 12, 2003 Training Weaknesses, Racing Strengths    by Adam Hodges Myerson    May 15, 2003 The Lanterne Rouge - The fine art of driving the bus in a stage race    by Adam Hodges Myerson    April 18, 2003 Choosing a Coach    by Adam Hodges Myerson    March 13, 2003

One situation that often arises is that short days and bad weather can limit your training time, right up to the point the training races start. This leaves many riders going from 0 to 60 in an incredibly short time, and leads directly to an early exit to the season. Too much supra-threshold work too soon, without the aerobic foundation to handle and recover from it, will always put you on the first bus home. Don’t start the training races unless you have at least one 4-6 week cycle of aerobic base training done, including extended intervals in the Light (81-90% of threshold) and Middle (91-100% of threshold) zones. You don’t need to be fit enough to win, only fit enough to participate and not set yourself back from having done so. (See other Cycle-Smart training articles for more explanation of power and heart-rate based training zones.)

In most cases, racing to win these early season training races won’t be your goal, and it’s crucial to remind yourself of that. No one gets a pro contract from training race wins. If you plan on participating, make the races fit your target. If you’re focusing on a mid-season goal like the Fitchburg stage race, then you should be limiting your anaerobic work in March and sitting in. If you need to be ready for Athens Twilight in April, then you might take a more pro-active approach, be active in the race, and try to raise the total number of minutes you can spend at and around your threshold, as well as your capacity for riding above it.

Either way, don’t race above your fitness level. If you bury yourself on a Sunday in March when you’re still trying to improve your form, you run the risk of losing training days during the week. If Tuesday comes around and you’re not recovered enough to train because you went beyond yourself on Sunday, you either lose a training day, or end up over-training because you needed the recovery but trained regardless. In both cases, you stunt the development of your form, and the racing is counter-productive.

This doesn’t mean you can’t win early season training races even when you’re holding back, contradictory though it may sound. If you know, for instance you’ve only been able to finish 30 minutes of intervals near threshold in your training but find that you’re fit enough to sit in comfortably during the training race, you might allow yourself the last 30 minutes of the race to be more active. Still, you should do your best to avoid extended period above threshold or going with absolutely every attack. Even if you find that just sitting in is challenging enough for you to get the intensity work you need for the day, you can always allow yourself the freedom to take part in the sprint for whatever places are remaining. In this case, the total amount of time you’ll be in the red zone is limited to one final effort, so you can only do so much damage.

Often you’ll find that you’ll actually be sprinting for the win, which is an excellent lesson in itself. Sitting in during these early season events is an prime time to actually watch and study a race while being a part of it as it unfolds. If you’re sitting in, don’t do so mindlessly. Ride close enough to the front to watch the race as it goes on. Mark every attack, and who goes with it. See who’s fit, and who might be someone to follow when the real races start. See how moves you might have gone with otherwise play out. By doing this, you can start to get a sense of the ebb and flow of the race without having to make tactical decisions while you’re at your limit and can’t think straight.

The lessons you learn in this approach to training races will hopefully stay with you when you find yourself in an important event, and help you with your patience and choice of tactical moves to make or go with. And in the end, if it does come down to a field sprint, you’ll find yourself fresh and ready to make a full-strength go at it. In general, holding back now will let you continue to build your form but still get the benefit of racing, allowing you to be in ideal form when the events that matter come around, and the racing is finally more important than the training.


To learn more about Adam, or for more articles by Cycle-Smart coaches, visit www.cycle-smart.com.

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