00:00I've got a bobble hat on and I'm in a cold muddy field. That means one thing, cyclocross.
00:06Cyclocross is a discipline that's well and truly on the rise. You see cyclocross races last a
00:11maximum of just 60 minutes in duration which means they tend to be one hour of adrenaline-fueled,
00:17fast-paced racing. And that's why over the last few weeks I've turned my hand to the mud to get
00:22ready for today, my first ever cyclocross race. So here we go, session number one. First place
00:28to start is by building the engine. So my first session is Wout van Aert's VO2 max session,
00:34courtesy of Zwift. This is shown to build aerobic capacity even though we're working in that zone
00:39five. So it allows you to get a really efficient workout in just 56 minutes. This being my first
00:45session, I have had to allow a little bit more time just to get the Zwift Hub 1 set up.
00:50But that's all
00:50been pretty easy. The Zwift Hub 1's only got a single sprocket at the back and that means it's compatible
00:55with almost any bike. So we're starting pretty easy just building the engine. Over the next few
00:59weeks we're going to be looking to sort of touch on all the different physical attributes I'm going
01:04to need in the cross race. So first of all we're going to look at building the engine, we'll then
01:07move on to some top end and then in the final run up to the cross race itself we'll look
01:12at really
01:12sharpening both the mind and the legs ready for race day. Hello again, so you join me in my second
01:18week
01:19of training, first week done and it's all gone pretty well. I've actually found that Zwift bringing
01:25a level of gamification to my training has really allowed me to escape after work, get on the trainer
01:30and actually it's been a really nice way to unwind and do something positive as well for my body.
01:35First of all this session has quite a lot of sort of randomised efforts which is really similar to
01:39a cyclocross race and then the second reason is that I'm a racer at heart. I train to race so
01:45any level
01:45of competition into my training even if it's not a live race which you obviously can do on Zwift
01:50just really helps me push myself that little bit more. That's a wrap for the Crit City Downtown Dolphin
01:56easily the most intense session I've done so far, hopefully we'll see some gains rolling into next
02:00week. Hi everyone, so I've come into the office on my own for what is going to be my last
02:05hard session
02:06on Zwift before my race. It's Monday currently so this is sort of my last chance to really get
02:11everything out and then over the next few days I'm going to be sort of relaxing more and letting
02:16the gains absorb hopefully, fingers crossed for good legs on Sunday. So I'm halfway into the warm-up
02:21for my last hard session as you guys can see plenty of red and orange simulating anaerobic efforts.
02:29The nice thing though is that once I get to the end of this session I really can relax.
02:36I feel like I've smashed that Tom Pidcock session out of the park. Time to reap the benefits now,
02:43roll on the weekend. So it's race day, there's about 45 minutes now until the start and I think
02:48it's safe to say I'm going for a pretty unorthodox warm-up. I'm actually warming up on Zwift. Now the
02:53reason for that is because it allows me to use the same session that I've been using pretty much for
02:59the last four weeks for some of my warm-ups. I've tried it, tested it, I know it works. I'm
03:04going to
03:04get on the course, go for a little practice, check out the conditions and then get to the grid.
03:20Oh well as expected that was bloody hard. I think it was really nice I managed to like
03:25get into quite a rhythm and having done the hard training sessions I've done previously I kind of
03:31mentally I was already I was ready to suffer if that makes sense which was really good. It was really
03:36interesting actually out on the course you could really see where the sort of different components
03:39of training aligned. So in terms of like that building the engine there's quite a long climb
03:43just down there you probably guys will have seen. Probably good sort of two three minutes every lap and
03:49having just the ability to go again is really helpful. It's been great fun to get back into some form
03:54of
03:54competition again and amazing to try something new that I haven't tried before. All that remains to do
03:58is say a big thanks to Zwift for helping get me in some form of competitive shape. Thanks to Nick
04:04Craig
04:05for making sure I didn't crash too many times and a big thanks to Wessex League as well for putting
04:09on
04:09such a brilliant event. If you did enjoy the video drop a like down below, subscribe to the channel for
04:15more content and I will see you again very soon.
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