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2026-10-02

Course pre-ride with skills and openers

  • Id: 2026-10-02-course-pre-ride-with-skills-and-openers
  • Title: Course pre-ride with skills and openers
  • Kind: workout
  • Discipline: bike
  • Surface: cx
  • Priority: key
  • Planned time: unscheduled
  • Duration: 1:10-1:20
  • Intensity: course skills, openers
  • Location: Baltimore, MD
  • TrainingPeaks ID: 3968330070

Objective

Learn the Charm City course at race speed and open the legs for Saturday.

Goal

Know every line, dismount and run-up before the start, and arrive on the grid sharp, not tired.

Reasoning

Friday is pre-ride day and skills practice happens on the real course. Charm City is a B race, so the openers are full quality.

Workout plan

  • 15 min easy warm-up.
  • 30 min of course laps with skills practice: first lap easy to learn it, then the key sections at race speed in short bursts. Dismounts and remounts, barriers, run-ups, off-cambers, sand or mud, and the fastest exit from each corner.
  • 3 x 1 min at 260-286 W on course, 3 min easy between.
  • 3 starts on the start straight: 15 sec maximal from clipped in, 3 min easy between. Pick your line to the first corner.
  • 10 min easy cool-down.

Structured workout

  • Primary intensity metric: percentOfFtp
  • Step: Warm-up, 15 min, 55-70, warmUp
  • Step: Course laps with skills practice, 30 min, 55-75, active
  • Repetition block: 3 reps
    • Step: Opener, 1 min, 100-110, active
    • Step: Recovery, 3 min, 50-60, rest
  • Repetition block: 3 reps
    • Step: Start from the grid (maximal), 15 sec, 150-300, active
    • Step: Recovery, 3 min, 50-60, rest
  • Step: Cool-down, 10 min, 50-60, coolDown

Fuelling

40-60 g/hr on the bike. Dinner tonight: familiar, carbohydrate-rich, low fibre, GF/DF. Extra fluid with electrolytes.

Constraints

  • Total time on the bike under 1:20. Stop practising a section once it is clean; repetition past that is fatigue.
  • Set race tire pressures and check the pit bike today.
  • The 3 x 1 min openers are part of the job: hit 260-286 W. In Roanoke the best minute on Friday was 254 W, and Saturday's legs were not open.

Notes

Charm City is a B race and the first benchmark of the build. Learn the run-up and the fastest line out of the long straights.