Crit Training Help...

[Luke]

OK you pedal freaks...

I need some Crit advice.
I need training tips.

I ride as much as possible, I eat healthy, but Crit's keep kicking my ass.
With season winding down...it's time to prep for next year.
I've been able to hit about 7-8 races over the past few months, but I still find it hard to hang with the pack for the entire 30 minutes+3 laps.
(I'm cat 5, and only been racing for about a year.)

I don't have endurance issues...weekend rides are typically 40-60 miles, and with our very hilly area...we still roll out with 18.5-19.5 averages.
I can turn a solo 75 miles a stay in the 17.5 range with 3,500 ft of climb.
<Not bragging or whinning, just letting you know my general abilies> LOL

Short TT's with a paceline I can hang at the 21-22 mph...anything more and I burn out.

These local Crits are avg. in the 23-25.5mph average. I CANNOT HANG !!!
I last about 17 minutes, on a good night...then get dropped.
If I pull out, and wait to get back in the group, I may get another 8-10 minutes in...before dropping off the back.
I know these can be tough...The first year I don't expect much more than finishing.
I can get out front...or stick in the pack...until the same thing happens.
It's not a fear of speed or bike handling issues...it's legs and lungs.

I need speed over endurance in these shorties.

(((5'-9" and 160 lbs.)))

Interval training??
Weight training??
Hill repeats??

How do I become competitive?

Let's hear it Crit racers...

[JoB]

I used to be sort of ok at crits.

1) specificity, specificity, specificity: 7-8 crits is not enough to compete with folks who've been doing this all season. if you can do a mid-week 'smackdown' training ride, that certainly helps.
2) if you are not within the first 5-7 spots, it's really hard to stay on.

In short: keep building your base over the winter, then mix in some more intense efforts before the first early crit (you can ask about those 6-8 wks before your first crit). then get to doing crits when everybody is at the same level.

Makes sense?

[Matthew Strongin]

I'm far from an accomplished racer, but the thing that's worked for me to at least stay in the pack or finish near the front is training for the short intense efforts. Most of the racing down here is crits or circuits. I do a lot of interval training with short recovery to get used to being at my limit, recovering quickly, and preparing to go again.

JoB makes a good tip too about doing the early season crits. The pace isn't as high as people are racing into shape.

[Chance Legstrong]

A couple of things stand out
and if i generalize too much it is just the perception from your post



Crits aint' road racing
- if you want to do well in crits why are you doing 40-60mil hill rides? Rhetorical.
- of course you need endurance and there is certainly a time and place for enduro rides (off]early season)
- 30+5 whether it's a cx, tt or crit requires the engine to be warm to hot.
- it sounds like perhaps you are coming in cold and go red too early and can't recover
- cat5 or 4/5 crits are notoriously known for how the pack surges in and out of corners, even straights. so being able to handle the numerous amounts of acceleration will help- odd/even intervals, or surprise intervals.

Are you racing GWC next weekend? Maybe we could hook up.

Carry your fitness into this fall and take advantage of the cooling weather to keep getting in the miles then as the season approaches then we can start talking specificity.
Racing cross? helps with going deep. If not, no big deal either.

the MO/Illinois calendar doesn't change all that much from year to year, so start thinking about the crits you want to be on for.

[jellysidedown]

- it sounds like perhaps you are coming in cold and go red too early and can't recover
- cat5 or 4/5 crits are notoriously known for how the pack surges in and out of corners, even straights. so being able to handle the numerous amounts of acceleration will help- odd/even intervals, or surprise intervals.

These two things. Good warmups are critical. Use a trainer if you have to. Start with some openers the day before the race, rather than coming in totally rested. Warm up gently at first, but make sure you at least get in a few minutes of zone 4 shortly before the race.

Find the smoothest wheels you can, try to relax and roll the corners rather than play the accordian. Even if you have to give up position. Easier said than done, but braking/sprinting will kill anyone. You'll get there.

[sonny]

As someone who just got on the bike for the first time in a year this past april and bought their very first racing license concurrently, i would echo specificity, but really, just RACE RACE RACE!

I have raced into fitness this season with weekly training crit(s) and short-ish weekend road races. Don't think of it as too much more than training and relax your expectations. Have fun and learn all the ways (from doing) you can blow up being stupid. 2 races/week should stress your system properly and spend the rest of your time noodling around town in the little ring and find some short steep hills to crush intervals on when you feel like it. Find your economy on the bike, it takes time--

Above all have fun!

Edit: Ride to races, this has helped me soooo much. I take an hour to warm up, really.

[DOOFUS]

nothing to add, but to strip it down and make it concrete

1) positioning. the farther up front you are, the easier it is. racing in the back half of a crit is harder because of the "yo-yo" effect in and out of corners.

2) warm up. you need 15-20 min of easy zone 2, then 1-2 5-minute zone 4 efforts, then a few hard :30-1min efforts with long rest to really get open.

3) specificity in training. the anti-powermeter folks will gripe about the jargon, but looking at other guys' files and mine has shown me a consistent pattern for racing crits in the winning break or from the front where the action is. The average power may only be 70-80% of threshold, but the "normalized power" is usually from 95-105% of threshold, and the cadences are in the 95-105 range for the (masters races) 45-minute crit. you need to train to replicate those demands -- be able to repeat short zone 5-6 accelerations over and over for 40-50 minutes, at high cadences.

two ways to approach this:

a) raise the ceiling. being able to repeat those :15-:30 bursts is easier when you raise what you can put out in :15-:60 seconds. once a week, do some :30-1:00 intervals on the flat, all out, cadence 110+, with long rest in between (4 times the interval length). 10-12 minutes worth of "on" time should fry most cat 2-3 racers. if done hard enough.

b) raise the repeatability. two ways to do this:

1) work on repeating maximal efforts on short rest. the :30-:30 workout described in the recent Velonews is perfect. 4 :30 sprints, all out, high cadence, on :30 rest. you should be ready to quit on #3, and #4 is agony. this simulates the last two-lap frenzy. 5-10 minutes of easy riding between sets, do 4-5 sets.

2) work on repeating sub-maximal efforts on short rest. when I looked at my best crit results from races when I made the break (and got smoked in the sprint -- I'm a pure TT'er), I saw the pattern I mentioned above -- normalized power between 315-340w, average power between 250-260w, cadence around 100rpm, for 40-50 minutes. I started doing workouts that reproduced that pattern. 40-50 minutes of going :30on,:30 off, 1min on, 1 min off, :15 on, :15 off, or ladders of :15-:15, :30-:30, :45-:45, 1min-1min and back down -- for 40-50 min straight. Ugh. The "on" parts have to be as hard as you can sustain for the workout duration. The sensible way would be to start with 10min chunks of this kind of work, with 5 minutes between sets, and gradually decrease the rest until you can do one continuous effort of the same duration as your race. As a bonus, sometimes I'll do a chunk of 35-40 minutes right after one 3-5min all-out effort. that replicates a crit that starts crazy fast and then settles in to a hard but sustainable in-and-out-of-the-corners rhythm.


do your local training crits (TNWC!) to get better at positioning and bike handling. Do specific crit prep workouts in the summer when crit season is at its peak.

[DOOFUS]

for the data geeks, a screenshot of the kind of workout described above.

you can see my cadence was too low -- legs were sluggish from climbing 54 stairs four times that day, and teaching classes (first week of school, not used to being on my feet as much, and we have a new building, where I'm on the top floor. new stuff to get used to!). power was a bit low as a result. when I"ve done that workout well, cadence has been 95-100, even with the hills thrown in, and power has been higher as a result -- 328-335wNP. high cadences give you the higher power.

you also see that I didn't do a proper warmup before that 4-minute, 400w blowout effort up the hill around the 14-minute mark. why? sometimes you don't make it to the race on time, or this happens, or that happens, and you only have 10-15min. it's kinda crazy, but I think it's good to practice that now and then in a workout so it's no big deal if you have to do it on race day.

but, you see the pattern. big VO2 effort, then a whole crapload of little 400-475w spikes on short rest, for 45min.

[bigbill]

Start on the front or get to the front asap. Stay in the top ten riders for the first half (either lap count or time) to survive the burnoff and then figure out who the players are. You need strength and power to hold your position so the training efforts that Doofus describes are vital, especially on technical courses where you are slowing and accelerating even on the front. The front is easier.

[Luke]

All great advice...

I do prefer to be up front in the first 5 or 6 to avoid the dreaded slinky effect in cat 5...any further back and your f&cked.

It seems I need a better warm up...I've been just rolling easy for 10-15 minutes prior to the race.

I would benefit most from max effort/quick recovery work...I burn out too quickly and can't recover.

I do the long rides...and I enjoy climbing...Just want to get stronger over the spectrum.

Crits are a blast...more fun if your competitve.

and yes, I may do some racing next weekend CHANCE...not sure yet.

;)

[Mookies]

Practice jumping on wheels during attacks and accelerations...that really helped me keep position as the crits got faster.
We used to do a 'surprise me' drill during road rides.

[PJC]

Crits aint' road racing.

Amen...

Warm up is critical. You want to get 30 min in of varied efforts and you want to wake up the high end range of you power. You want to hit the line sweaty but comfortable. It's full gas from the gun.

Long mountain rides won't help your crit engine at all. You need lot of over/under work and anaerobic depth. 30/30 s are good and 1 and 2 min anaerobic efforts (done properly) are the key. Don't neglect your sprint either. Do a dedicated sprint workout each week during the season. Being able to link multiple efforts (90% plus)together without exploding is key.

The cool part is you can get a great crit specific workout in during the space of an hour and change.

Best of luck...get out of the 5s as quickly as you can.

[Luke]

30/30 s are good and 1 and 2 min anaerobic efforts (done properly) are the key.

Best of luck...get out of the 5s as quickly as you can.

Amen.

[Chance Legstrong]

Amen.

if you were planning on racing Friday nite at GWC. i'd give it a second thought
turn one turns into a bowling alley

[Luke]

if you were planning on racing Friday nite at GWC. i'd give it a second thought
turn one turns into a bowling alley

17 years of motorcycle racing under my belt...first turns dont bother me. LOL
Have to work that night at the shop tho. :(

[Chance Legstrong]

17 years of motorcycle racing under my belt...first turns dont bother me. LOL
Have to work that night at the shop tho. :(

i ain't talkin' about the hole shot
it gets even crazier for us at 9:00
flood light>>.pitch black>>floodlight>>pitch black
with Kenda 5hr and jelly belly driving us like bats outta hell
gawd i love crit racing!!

[Luke]

I tried more warm up this week...much better results.
It was the last Tuesday nighter, but I know what to work on in the off season.
I was able to get up front and pull for awhile in the B/C race,
but at the end I was off the back...until next year. LOL
(Me on the inside in red,white,and blue)
FUN SHIT ANYWAY!

tuesday night worlds.jpg
tuesday night worlds 3.jpg

[Osbo Gosley]

During the off season when you come to a gradual up hill take turns removing one foot for about a minute, then the other. Your stomach mucles will be sore the next day. That will teach you how much more you can get out of the pulling up motion. When you"ve improved the pulling up motion you will be able to save the big mashing muscles for the accelerations. You"ll also be able to roll along at a faster pace. Short steep hill repeats with fast spinning during recovery will help too. Believe me this works. I was still coming in 3rd in a 5 week crit series in Austin against 30+ cat 1-3s when I was 50 yrs old. Good luck!

[pdt]

sounds effective, but painful...

[MarkC]

Luke,

Why are you pulling if you are unable to finish with the field? Doesn't make sense to do that. Racing crits requires three thing:

Skills
Strenght
Smarts

Skills include positioning, cornering, drafting... There is no shame in sucking wheels and popping out with 100m to go for a good placement. Unless there is a tactical reason to pull you should never feel the wind. The adage is if it feels easy that's because it is easy. For everyone! Just wait and it will get harder. If you aren't finishing in the field that is a worthy goal. Giving a free ride to others won't help you at this point.

Strength is obvious and you'll train up to your level. With smarts you can race above your level and that will feel much better than two minutes pulling only to get popped and straggle in alone.

Smart is all about using your energy when it matters and reading the race situation. The best crit riders are often never seen until the end. When it counts. Breaks almost never matter in 4/5 racing. Don't worry about it, just avoid being caught out by pack splits. Always let others chase down breaks. They will do the work then get popped while you stay good to the end.

That said, decide what you are up for. Some riders just want to participate, have fun, get a workout in. Others want to race for the top placements. I suggest setting tiered goals:

Finish consistently in the field
Top 10s
Podium

In the 4s and 5s any decent rider can top ten just by being smart at the end.

Find some better riders in a 4/5 race and follow them around. Even better if there is a training series with some good 3s or 2s. You can learn more following a good crit rider than by reading. If you have experienced teammates just ask for live help. Someone will show you the ways and save a lot of time on the learning curve.

Good luck. Hope to see you report back with success stories.

Mark