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2026-10-30

Course pre-ride with skills and openers

  • Id: 2026-10-30-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: Oro-Medonte, ON
  • TrainingPeaks ID: 3968330190

Objective

Learn the Nationals 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. The openers are the final sharpener before a title race. Changed Oct 25: two final-corner sprints added, after the sprint finish at Major Taylor. Changed Oct 26: bike check added after the dropped chain at Major Taylor.

Workout plan

  • 15 min easy warm-up.
  • 25 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.
  • 2 sprints out of the final corner to the line, at race speed, 3 min easy between. Pick the line and the gear you want on the last lap.
  • 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, 25 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
  • Repetition block: 2 reps
    • Step: Final-corner sprint (maximal), 10 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.
  • After Sunday's dropped chain: check the chain guide or catcher, the derailleur clutch and chain wear on both bikes today.

Notes

Walk the start and first corner, and check the pit and wheel plan for mud.