@anthonylane, your question was our first Question of the Week, so we’re going to dig into your original post a bit for this one!
So let’s start with your metrics from WKO5- your FTP and FRC are really strong. CX will tax that sustainable power. And because CX also rewards your ability to surge, sprint, and take micro-rests in between (see Dr. Cheung’s reply in the thread about Lessons from the Pack), maintaining that with a high FRC is beneficial. However, those numbers won’t be spot on accurate since you’ll have more time off the bike (running), and that’s just not accounted for as well as if you were, say, doing a road race where you’re on the bike the entire time. Plus, you’ll have some very high HR responses, and power may be zero at that time. So you could and should see your metrics change throughout the season.
Let’s think about the adaptations you have and what you’re trying to maintain or build through the season.
- Endurance - You’re in-season for CX, so I would ask if you need 2+ hours of endurance every week when you are only racing for ~60 min per week?
- Tempo - this is a great endurance workout that also has the potential to add a lot of fatigue.
- Intensity - Your race days of course are high intensity. The interval session in that case is the question mark. To your points above, I would suggest that option A) threshold development (or maintenance) is going to be tough to do 1x per week with potentially a lower total volume than you may have had earlier in the year. Option B) anaerobic capacity and repeatability sure sounds like a good option to me initially, and you already seem to have a pretty well developed system there. Option C) aerobic endurance is something I would put less focus on at this time of the year because it’s going to require more time. Time and intensity don’t go well together over the long term with respect to recovery.
As you come into the season, think about it in terms of refining what you already have. Essentially, all of your fitness is already there from your previous training this year. There’s not much more to get, so it will come down to how you utilize what you have.
For your Tues or Wed interval session, I would lean into option B) race specific efforts/anaerobic capacity and repeatability. When working on this, I would normally aim for 4-6 quality sessions for that type of development. In your case, you’ll get 1 opportunity per week to achieve that outside of a race scenario. This may be enough to take you through the season. But pay attention to your ability to perform quality sessions. If this begins to drop, you might then consider changing things up to include some threshold work to take the load off the body while balancing out the systems you’re working. Long story short, remain a bit flexible as you get through the mid-season. So consider how you can maximize these sessions. You’re applying your fitness on Saturday or Sunday at the race. What can you determine from races you’ve already done that can help inform your training week to week? For example, are you slow to accelerate out of corners and can use short HIIT sessions to develop your acceleration? Do you have a couple massive efforts where you tap into that FRC, but then find 25 minutes later there’s not much left in the tank? 30/30’s might be great for helping you work on your application of the power and repeatability. Or simply, is there a skills component where you have the power, but for example maybe struggle on cornering and not being in a good position to use the power? In that case, riding with some buddies or completing your interval session on similar terrain can help with your skill development so you can feel more comfortable coming into the race next time.
Lots of options there, but in general to tie things up, I would lean toward working that top end, and more specifically, refining it so you can best utilize it on the weekends. We can generate adaptations in the top end fairly quickly, compared to aerobic/threshold adaptations, so you can get some good bang for your buck here. The other side of the coin is recovery. I would encourage a reduction in volume (let your CTL drop). You might have one week where you don’t do as much volume or don’t have a “long” ride. This type of reduction in volume can go on for a couple weeks at a time before you would see appreciable changes in VO2 max, and the reduced volume can help with recovery especially later in the season when we can get mentally fatigued. This might be a consideration as you near the last 2-3 weeks leading up to State Champs. If you’re accumulating 10 hours per week now, you might drop that to 5-7 hours as the season starts to wear on the body a bit.
Let us know how you’ve been doing so far, and it would be great to see a follow-up on your progress near the end of your season, maybe when you’re having those celebratory beers on week 10!
That said, I think it is an important skill to work on, and a worthwhile substitute when you can’t get in your ride for whatever reason. Just remember that an hour run is not the same as an hour ride. Very different things. I don’t think you need to run that much, and eventually I think you want to get to the point where your runs are fairly race-specific, so short bursts, potentially up a climb or staircase. But if you aren’t prepared for such things at the beginning of the season, work up to that with some easier running on trails or grass.