Originally Posted by
jsigone
The Socal race schedule just got release and I was hoping there would be some more road races in there (better at endurance stuff), but NOPE almost all crits. I counted about 25 races in the season that I can do, only 5 are road races. Since the other 80% is crits, whats the best way to go about training for it? I've only been in one crit last yr and rumors around said it was the fastest pace one of the season. I only last about 10 minutes of the 30 minute crit. I didn't know what to expect off the start, I needed a heavier warm up time. Sure my goal is to survive a race, but what should I do to get to that point of doing 25-30mph for that length of time?
The thing about crits and road races that most new racers overlook is that they are going to be decided by how much power you can push, for how long. The positioning thing comes into play a bit more in crits, obviously. Your "endurance" really doesn't matter much, because your races won't be long enough for that to affect the race.
In a crit it's a matter of surviving the initial surge(s) for the 10-15 minutes, moving up or getting off the front in the middle part of the race, and surviving/maintaining position or staying away in the last third.
A road race is similar, but probably easier for newbies. Generally, the only really hard part of the race is the last couple of miles towards a mass sprint, or whatever long climbs you might face along the way. Similar increases in effort to a crit. The draft in a road race really makes it a matter of hanging out till you hit the 5 mile climb, and then it comes down to the all-knowing, all-seeing equalizer: power.