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Interval Training for Cyclo-Cross
What do you need to change in your interval training for cyclo-cross

  Written by Adam Hodges Myerson
  Cycle-Smart President
  September 9, 2005

Cyclo-Cross is hard, plain and simple. There are very few sports that require the intensity of cyclo-cross over the entire time of the event. If you could take the feeling of two boxers going toe-to-toe in a wild melee of punches, and then somehow make that last for an entire hour, you might get close to the sensation of cyclo-cross race.

Some might argue that like cyclo-cross, a 40K time trial also lasts about an hour, and requires the maximum effort possible over that time. This is true, in terms of generally defining the effort as “as hard as you can go for an hour.” What’s different about cyclo-cross, on top of the fact that it’s a cold, muddy, and slippery version of the 40K time trial, is that the power requirements are different. The way you spread that “maximum effort” out over the course of the hour varies dramatically.

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If you were to look at a graph of power and heart rate for a flat 40K time trial, you’d see two very steady, even lines. And so your training for time trials would reflect just that; a lot of steady-state intervals of various lengths, consistent in terms of both heart rate and power.

When you look at a power and heart rate graph of a cyclo-cross race, however, what you see is strikingly different. The heart rate line will look similar to the 40K TT: absolutely pegged for the entire hour. The power is where the difference lies. The “maximum effort” you produce for a cyclo-cross race is one of sharply varying power, showing the effect of varying terrain. ‘Cross is a sport of transitions and speed changes. Full on the brakes here for this corner, full acceleration out of the corner. Foot out and sliding across an off-camber hill here, sprinting up over the other side there. Coasting in a bit before the hurdles, followed by a max effort run, remount, and re-acceleration. Whereas average power for a 40K TT will see you actually riding at that average power during the event, average power in a ‘cross race will consist of continual 500-1000 watt fluctuations around the average, even though both will keep you at a heart rate at or above threshold for the duration of the event. This is the key difference.

So then, what do you need to change in your interval training for cyclo-cross, compared to what you might do for the road or mountain bike season? First and foremost, you should decrease the volume of what you did in the summer, if you were training for longer road and mountain bike events. In this case, your focus is switching from 2-3 hour mountain bike races and 2-4 hour (or longer) road races, so your volume of training should reflect that. On the other hand, I find that many people are struggling to get in the time to be fit for anything more than 1 hour criteriums in the first place, so I often leave their volume of training for ‘cross the same. Criteriums and cyclo-cross training is actually incredibly compatible, as I’ll show below.

In turn, you also want to focus on the intensity. That doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily do more interval training than you did in the summer, but you’ll do it in a more compact way, and in shorter workouts, with less time spent riding easy. Base fitness is still important to ‘cross, because you need a certain level of form to be able to recover from the stress of your interval training and racing, but endurance in and of itself is not a priority. When you plan your interval work for ‘cross, you want to think in the same terms as you do in the summer, and define your work in categories of intensity, duration, cadence, terrain, and frequency. I’ll outline all the options in those parameters similar to what I’ve done in my articles here for the road, now with ‘cross in mind.

Maximal Intensity: If you think about ‘cross in terms of constantly varying power outputs at a steady threshold heart rate, then you can then try to think about what situation you’re in when you make efforts at those varying power outputs. When you’re making maximal efforts that are under 15 seconds in a ‘cross race, you’ll find the things you’re normally doing are short run-ups, sprinting out of corners or hurdles, or sprinting off the start line. So those are exactly the activities you should work on in your sprint workouts. Keep the efforts between 8-15 seconds, give them 100% effort, and try to reproduce your race situation so you can boil things down and combine technique work with physiological training.

High Intensity: 1-4 minute efforts over threshold are what make up much of the hour in a ‘cross race. It’s not that you spend a continual hour over threshold, it’s that you spend 1 minute here, followed by 10 seconds of coasting, and another minute here, followed by a minute of steady riding just below threshold. The efforts are scattered throughout the race. That means you don’t need to go out and do an hour’s worth of 3-minute anaerobic intervals, especially if you’re racing 1-2 times a week. If you race twice, in fact, you should skip these intervals altogether. But when you do them, it’s best to do them in a ‘cross-specific way; on a more open course you know well, where you can really put 100% effort into the interval without fear of crashing in a turn or getting too much coasting in the middle of the effort.

Middle Intensity: Middle makes up most of the “glue” of a ‘cross race, and is that 5-20 minute-long effort just below threshold you make when you’re biding your time in a group, or riding steady between sections just trying to maintain your tempo. In your training, this is where you can work on varying power levels but within a set heart rate zone. Again, on a ‘cross course, keep the heart rate steady, but unlike what you would do on the road, you want the power to change based on the terrain. Sprint back up to speed after every corner and punch it after every dismount, trying to get back up to your “cruising speed” where you know you can settle down again at the power that would put you in the middle zone if the effort stayed steady. Another ideal way to train in this zone is to motorpace. It may sound strange to motorpace for cyclo-cross, but motorpacing requires the same type of varying power effort at a steady heart rate as cyclo-cross and even criteriums, and can be effective training when your favorite ‘cross course is under a foot of snow, but the roads are clear.

Light Intensity: You’ll almost never be in the light intensity zone in a ‘cross race, which is that steady effort just above easy that you might do sitting in in a road race or criterium, and you can hold for 30+ minutes at a time. It’s still important for ‘cross though because it helps build your overall fitness in such a way as to allow you to handle the higher intensity work to come and recover. You still need to be able to have the base fitness to warm-up, pre-ride the course, race, and recover. So in your workouts, light can serve as your warm-up effort before your higher intensity, as well as the bulk of the intensity you’ll do on your longer road ride. This should consist of. 1-2 hours of work in light in a 2-4 hour ride in the ‘cross season. Aiming for a high cadence of 105 RPMs will help you maintain some suppleness to offset all the grinding you’ll do in the mud the rest of the time.

Because ‘cross is such a high-intensity, full body sport, one of the biggest things you need to focus on is recovery. You may find that after a weekend of racing you won’t be ready to train again until Wednesday or even later, especially if you’ve done two races. By focusing on full recovery between racing and training, and ‘cross-specific intervals when you do head out to train, you should find your performances on the weekend improve accordingly.

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

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