Any of you PodiumCafe types a 'cross racer? I would like to get some training tips

It does sort of depend on how heavy you are. I’m reasonably light so I can get away with 20psi if necessary but I tend to go for about 40 on fast harder courses and about 30 when I feel I need more grip. But as I say, not at all an expert here! I sometimes creep around outside sign in and feel other people’s tyres for comparison!

But here you go:
1) for most short hard efforts that are abundant in Cx, I do lots of microbursts (30s sprint, 30 s recovery, repeat 6-10 times, do two sets with 5 min between). Sprints are as hard as you can go. Also put a practice course together with short sharp steep hills, do hot laps and ride that hill as hard as you can each time.
2) 36/46 and 11-25. But I rarely get out of the big ring while racing.
3) I weigh 140, and ran tubes and tires last year. I was running about 25 psi but did flat at a couple of races. I recommend going tubeless, cxmagazine has a great article on the subject, just search for it. I’m a big proponent of the thumb test for checking tire pressure.

About 65-70 psi. Lower gearing is better, I almost never use the big ring but I might if I had compacts. Run the roots standing up slightly off the saddle if you can.

Drills? Just me, but I do some moderate road miles <30) with lots of 1 minute or less efforts. Or do laps on the CX circuit in the hood.

I raced a full cross season this year and while I had upgraded to Cat 2 at the end of the season, it was my first season so I’m still learning too.

Cross requires a number of things.

1) Pure muscular strength. Unlike road racing, a lot of the accelerations and harder efforts in cross are low-rpm efforts (like borderline run-ups) which mean you can’t simply be good at hard efforts at 100rpm.
2) Ability to repeat anaerobic efforts over and over and over and…
3) Sustainable power. You can only raise your ability to go anaerobic so far before you have to “upgrade” from a 4-cylinder to a 6-cylinder.

So, here are my answers to your questions.

1) Make sure you enter cross season with a good base. Even if you’re racing road, I’d suggest a month of endurance and tempo workouts (more of the latter if your ride time is limited) before your cross season to rebuild some of the base you inevitably lose if you’re racing a lot over the summer.

When you start training for cross, build strength first, then focus on anaerobic. You don’t have to go to the gym – in fact, I prefer to do my strength work on the bike. Slow down to 6mph or so in your 53×12-14 (depending on fitness level) and then explode until you hit 28-30mph or get close to 90rpm. Ride easy a few minutes in between, do 8-10 a workout. I did these 1-2 times a week before the season

Also, like Chris said, it’s good to do either hard tempo workouts of 30min or so or focused lactic threshold intervals of 10-15min with 3-5 minute recoveries in between. From what I’ve read and found a balance with in my training, it’s good to do these once a week if you’re racing weekends.

As you get into the season itself, cut out the strength work and do anaerobic workouts. 30 seconds on / 30 seconds off for 10min (building to 20 over time) is a great one, as Albertina said. So is doing 5-6 reps of 20 seconds on / 10 seconds off. Anything like that works. Again, usually once a week.

Most cross racers I know do hard workouts on Tuesday and Wednesday and then recover Thursday before opening up their legs on Friday. That’s in the season with races every weekend, though.

Finally, if you’re in your first year or two of racing cross, you’ll probably get faster by working on your technique at the expense of pursuing further fitness gains. So, you may want to do workouts 1 day a week in season (assuming racing both weekends) and skills work 1-2 days a week for your first season or two. This comes from a guy who lost a podium spot in the last 500m of a bigger race because he couldn’t remount as quickly as the guy behind him…

2. I run a 46/36 right now and 11-26 on the back, but that’s because it came stock on my bike. I’ll be switching to 46/38 and 12-26 next year. I only really used my small ring for really muddy races this year.

3. Roots and bumpy stuff? Barely standing off the saddle, knees and elbows loose. Really, keep your elbows loose is the best advice anyone can give for every part of cross racing. Especially turns and bumpy stuff.

4. I run 26psi with tubes (I am 148lbs / 67.5kg). But, there is more to it than that.

I ran tubes and tubeless this year as I didn’t have the money for a tubular wheelset and tires (next year!). I was able to set up tubeless easily with my tires and rims (Vittoria XG, Bontrager Race Lite) but wasn’t able to run the lower pressures I was hoping for. I found that I couldn’t run below 32-33psi without burping air when really pushing the tires on off-camber turns. If I had tubeless specific rims, this wouldn’t be as constraining. If I had tubeless specific tires too, I could easily run 25psi. Just remember, not all rims and tires work equally well.

I settled on running tubes for the last few races of the season and was able to run 26psi without pinch flatting despite bottoming the rim out multiple times per race. I was able to do this with a few modifications though. First, I ran larger than normal tubes – 35-43mm tubes for my 33mm tires. The bigger tube equals less stretch in the rubber equals thicker tube when inflated equals harder to pinch flat. I also used a TON of talc / baby powder on the insides of my tires to make pinching less likely and put a some Stans sealant in my tubes. Not as light as tubeless, but I could run the pressures I wanted, which I was happy to trade off for (I’m a bike handler more than a power guy).

1) Hill sprints (running) – pick an adequately steep hill and sprint all out up for 30s. Recovery is 90s (which is usually how long it takes to walk back down). Once per week, start with 4 sets and work up to 10.

2) 48/36 × 13/26

3) Agree with Douglas, just keep loose and keep pedaling. Another good reason for course recon before your race.

4) For clinchers start off with 40psi and do a practice lap, then let out air accordingly until you’re not quite bottoming out completely when you hit a root or sharp rock. There isn’t really science to it, more like feel. The practice laps are critical to get a feeling for the course and what you can get away with without pinch flatting. It’s tougher if you’re heavier (I go 175 at race time).

for all the comments and the OP. really useful being a CX novice and not a very good one at that either!

I did 3 races this season, and 3 last season .. so am still a novice :-)
The courses they produce over here (outskirts of Vienna , hence login name) usually have following
section of stairs to run up:
I love these, one of few places i can overtake .-)
off camber descents:
learning how to improve balance on bike
short+sharp climbs:
maybe only 10-20m long, but 30% incline
I need more power !
connecting sections either through woods/asphalt
tyre pressures my concern on tarmac – if my piggy bank allows,maybe I’ll try tubeless

My bike (Ridley Crossbow) has gearing 50/34 12/27 … the courses seldom allow chance for big ring, so on one hand I need to spin like crazy, but then on the climbs I have to do low-rpm geargrinding.
I’ve managed to hook up with a group of fellow racers who go training in some local woods – this definitely helped technique in tight sections .. but I lose the front end a lot (learnt how to catch it!), no doubt because I am runnng WAY too hard tyres which are only good for tarmac not mud/corners/climbs ahem.

I’m not as young as most of you are, so let’s see how my body responds to the strength training skills :-)