If I was only just a 'cross rider...

Chris Mayhew asked in the comments to this entry, "what would you do about it?"

In light of the recent post about how my first month of base is progressing, what I would do about it is prepare for 'cross in the same way I'm able to prepare for the road. When I'm doing these 30-hour weeks, watching my body change, feeling my fitness increase, I always wonder what I could do with this kind of form coming into the 'cross season. For my entire racing career, even if 'cross was my emotional priority, it's never been my practical priority. I was either in school in the fall, or overwhelmed organizing races and managing event series, and just holding on to the form I had from the road season.

Each year, I'm usually able to squeeze out about 3 weeks of build for 'cross, in August or September. As I've had more success on the road the past few years, I've had to keep racing at a high level later into the year. Meanwhile, the 'cross season is finally filling in and backing up to early September, so there's no gap like there was when the first big race wasn't until the first weekend of October.

So imagine a season where I pull up from the road completely, say, after Fitchburg, the first week of July. Take a week completely off the bike, and then start again, fresh, with no racing or traveling for a month, where I could do repeated 30 hour weeks, at home, sleeping in my own bed. Then, in August, start to add back in some local racing, at my level, no traveling, and still big weeks. Imagine a September with a CTL of 130, instead of 100. I humbly suggest that it's the difference between being in the first or second group for me.

I'm not as naturally talented as some of the guys out there, so I can't make the front group in the biggest races on 12-16 hours a week, 330 FTP, and good driving skills. But if I weighed 10 lbs less, was doing 350-360 FTP, and was floating down from 130+ CTL?

Yeah, I could go to Worlds on that. Absolutely.