Originally Posted by
Blue Cord
I have legs for the first lap and the I fade FAST, going backwards while not fun I try to learn something each race but the field is much faster than me and I have finished last twice, ahead of the DNFs though
. Is Men's 4/5 freaking competitive like this everywhere? Cat 3 MTB is joke compared.
In my region, Men's 4/5 is fiercely competitive. For us, CX is still enough on the fringe that the people who know about it are those crazy/motivated enough to seek it out.
As for performance, the intensity of the "intervals" and lack of recovery time in CX is a major factor in adding to the suck. Unlike typical road racing, CX forces you to dig deep into your anaerobic energy system (glycolysis), producing lots of lactic acid and leading to rapid muscle fatigue until your body adapts to deal with it. Your aerobic system is still working hard (as shown by your HR monitor) but muscle fatigue is probably the limiting factor here. This has been my first full season of CX, and I've found that training short max effort intervals (1 min on, 1 min rest) in 10 or more interval sets has been a big help. This can be tough to do on the road, so a stationary trainer is helpful for this kind of work.
I've also learned from observation that the fast guys have learned how to not waste any energy. They carry a huge amount of speed into and through the turns and they're amazingly fluid through barriers and run-ups. Pay close attention to the elite riders doing barriers and notice how through the dismount, run, and re-mount everything is smooth and flowing. That kind of stuff only comes with lots of practice. I try to ride over to the nearest local park at least once a week and spend 30 min to an hour doing CX skills drills. I suspect the good CX racers do a lot more than that.
Keep at it and you will get faster (maybe a lot faster) -- but it will take some CX focused training more than a couple races.