- This time of year for many of us in the norther hemisphere
road cycling events can dry up
and that can be really frustrating
cause after a summer of riding
this is pretty much when we've got our best form.
- Yeah so rather than waste that form
why not convert your attention
to one of the popular off season disciplines:
cyclocross or hill climbs.
Coming up our GNC tips on how
to make the most of your form this autumn.
- Fall.
- Autumn. - Fall.
Yeah sorry fall.
(upbeat music)
- Cyclocross is great fun I think.
And personally I always found the change as good as a rest
from a long, hard summer.
To do it you will need an off road capable bike.
Be it cyclocross bike like this one.
A mountain bike if the events that you're choosing
to ride will allow it.
And many local ones do.
Or indeed, dare I say, a road endurance type bike
with disc brakes and enough clearance
to fit knobbly tyres on.
Now when you do start racing
a cross event lasts between about 40 minutes to an hour.
So if you're coming off a good summer of riding and racing,
then actually the duration will be no problem to you.
So instead to convert that summer form to cross form,
you need to concentrate on two things.
Short, sharp, intense effort and your technique.
Cause when you actually do a cross race,
although it might feel like one long,
slightly sick making interval,
it's actually loads of short, super hard efforts
interspersed with recovery
that's so brief you might not even notice it.
Particularly if you're trying desperately to stay upright.
- And this is exactly why microintervals are a great way
of getting yourself cyclocross ready.
So try this session out.
Head out for an hour.
Within that hour do an eight minute interval
where you're going flat out for 20 seconds
and then recovering for 10 seconds.
Repeating until the eight minutes is up.
Start by getting two of those eight minute intervals done
within the hour and build up gradually to three
or maybe even four as you adapt your road form
to cyclocross form.
Gotta do one.
- Another great way of converting that form to cyclocross
is to do longer sweet spot intervals.
So you want to think on a 90 minute ride
to do about two 20 minute blocks at sweet spot.
So that's about 90% of your FTP.
If you don't have a heart rate monitor
sustainably hard would be a good description.
But we're gonna intersperse it
with some real high intensity.
So do 10 seconds seated sprints
every two minutes.
Just to get those legs working.
And then as you build up
and get used to it
maybe add in another block
or even extend it to two 30 minute ones.
Just make sure you get that all important 60 minutes in.
- These two sessions should see you
really sharpen up for cyclocross races.
But as we said earlier,
technique is as much a part of this discipline.
So reserve a session or two each week
for having fun off road.
We've got a playlist here on GCN
where we tried to teach Matt how to ride off road
and we won't say he became an expert
but he certainly got better.
Things to practise include getting on and off your bike,
clipping in which is something
admittedly Matt always struggled with.
Then attacking those short, sharp, steep climbs.
Be it either on the bike or off.
And then getting used to handling your bike in the dirt.
Certainly quite different to riding on the road.
But combine that technique practise with a little change
in your training and you will be tearing up
your local cyclocross races all fall or autumn.
Depending on which one you want to say.
- Another arguably even more brutal off season discipline
is that of hill climbs.
Which really do what they say on the tin,
ie you ride from the bottom to the top of the climb
as fast as you possibly can.
Now that can span from anything from around one minute
to 15 minutes in duration
depending on the length of the climb
and also your own ability.
It has to be said they tend to be on the shorter side.
- They do, so this means that with your summer form,
you're gonna need to focus solely
on short, sharp intervals.
So unfortunately, this means it's gonna hurt.
Much like the hill climbs themselves in fact.
But coming up there are a couple of session ideas
to help make it more bearable.
- For session number one,
you want to warm up for a good 15 minutes
whilst at the same time riding towards a local hill climb
which is at least two minutes in duration.
This session is not complicated.
You simply ride the two minute climb
as hard as you can six times
with five to six minutes of rest between each one.
It is important to take a decent rest
between efforts on this session
so that you're targeting the right system.
Cool down for 10 minutes at the end and you're done.
- Session two is more of a pyramid style affair.
So again get in a good warm up
this time riding to a climb
that is three minutes in duration.
Your first interval is 30 seconds, a flat out.
Your next one minute,
then 90 seconds and so on adding 30 seconds
to each interval until you've done a three minute interval.
Then you reduce by 30 seconds
so your last one is another 30 second interval.
Now this totals up to 11 different intervals.
And you want to have three to four minutes easy
between each one.
Probably rolling back down the hill.
- With either of these sessions you shouldn't be afraid
of spending quite a bit of the intervals
out of the saddle like Si.
After all that is how you're going to get the most power
out up a climb if it is short and steep.
And actually for some strange reason Si and I have found
it's our arms that need training more than our legs
for hill climb season.
- Now aside from this technique is less important
with hill climbs than it is in cyclocross.
But you could always spend a bit of time
losing some weight from your bike
because every gramme counts.
You don't need that mate.
- Don't litter though.
- Just give it to our domestiques.
- Matt!
- One of the most important parts
of both of these disciplines
is that you arrive at your chosen event fresh.
So with that in mind
you should probably just kick back a little bit,
enjoy yourself, spend a bit less time on the bike.
Focus on those specific intervals.
Maybe take a couple of easy days before an event
so that you're fresh enough.
And also don't be afraid to maybe take a week off your bike
so that you can totally reset.
Your summer form will carry you through
a good couple of months won't it?
- Yeah a lot of hill climbs
believe it or not are won on the sofa
you have to be really fresh for those short, sharp efforts.
Now as ever we would love to hear
how you get on at your chosen events.
Be they cyclocross or hill climbs.
Let us know in the comments section down below.
And also if you're very experienced
in either of those disciplines
and you've got your own advice
that you would like to give our viewers,
please also leave that in the comment section down below.
If you haven't subscribed to the channel
you can do so now by clicking on the globe.
And if you'd like to see our introduction
into the world of cyclocross with Matt Stephens
you can find that video by clicking just down here.
- Yeah and funny enough we've actually avoided
making a video about hill climb events.
So perhaps one for the to-do list.
But nevertheless we've a video about how to improve
at short, steep climbs
so exceedingly relevant just down there.