Tim 

Just wanted to let you know my CX plan is still empty

thanks 

Patrick 

Think everyone posted, sorry was traveling.  Jill you still want CX plans?  or back to road?

I have a few more cx races, so I think I'll stick to the cx plan.  My schedule is still empty.

Jill - yes, just needed to know which plan you needed, posting now

My acct still appears blank. Can someone tell me today's workout please?

@JillWhite Assuming your CX plan is the same as mine, here's the workout:

plus 20 bike lifts before you get started.

@TimCusick please post my workouts. I still have a blank schedule. Also, can someone again tell me today's workout? Thanks, Max, for yesterday's!

In case you're still having issues, here's what mine says for today 11/3. But I think mine is not the same plan (not doing the cross plan)

DAY 3 – ANAEROBIC CAPACITY TEST CCTEST
WU:
10-15 Min Warm Up, progressing to Zone 2
TARGET: (PW: Z2 / HR: Zone 2 / PE: 4-5)
CADENCE: Self Selected with 2 x 1 minute Fast Pedals to wake up legs
-------
MS1:
1 x 5 Min Opener Interval
TARGET: FTP (PW Z4/HR Z4/RPE 6-7)
REST: 5 minutes of easy riding then complete MS2
CADENCE: Self selected
------
MS2: 1-Minute Test. Find a quiet road, flat or with a slight uphill grade. Start from about 20 mph out of the saddle HAMMERING (self-selected cadence); go as hard as you can go in the beginning! Sit as you need to and try to push out the entire minute. This is hard! Once complete, spin for 5 minutes and then repeat the test.
-------
CD:
Cool Down 5-15 minutes
TARGET: (PW: Z1/HR: Zone 1/PE: 2-3)
CADENCE: small chain ring

jill - I am trying to load, thought I had but something wrong.  I put in support ticket and trying to load now

Jill - looks like it works now, can you check and confirm?

Thanks, Tim.  Yes, I have workouts now!  Sorry to be a pain, but I'm really burnt out on cx at the moment.  Could you please switch my schedule over to road?  Thank you.

Sure, no worries but at the USAC summit, cannot do till tonight, will try togged Debi to do it now....

No problem. thanks!

Noticed the last planned road workout was yesterday, is that intentional  @TimCusick ?  

All - sorry was at a conference all weekend and again, delayed overnight in travel.  Just got in, let me grab a shower and find some clean underwear and push up plans.  Today is a rest day.

Actually, everyone looked neatly organzied by categories so pushed up plans.  Please check and make sure yo ugot right plan.  There are two people still on cyclocross, let me know if you want the base training plan in your account and can post...now for shower

Hey @TimCusick, I've finished the cyclocross plan, but I plan to continue my season for another month (though I'm probably just one race per weekend). I think I'd prefer to start the base training plan, but what do you recommend? Does it depend on my road goals and what I'm planning for the racing season?

@TimCusick - Barring injury or gaining 10 lbs during the holidays I am racing CX nationals the first week in January. I have been following your plan... mostly. 

First, I am skipping every 3rd or 4th weekend of racing to keep me fresh until January (and to keep my wife from killing me). 

Second, I found that multiple weeks of 2-3 HIT sessions a week plus 1-2 races on a weekend (so ~ 4 total) really burned me out after a couple of weeks, so I have been trying to alternate the number of HIT efforts each week. In some weeks I substituted a long endurance/tempo ride. This has helped me feel fresher and stronger. P.S. I'm 48 and take longer to recover than I used to. 

Third, this time last year we reviewed my season and you prescribed a bunch of threshold and sub threshold work. I tried to maintain a steady diet of this during the year (I raced TTs) and continue to throw them into the mix every 1-2 weeks during CX season. 

The HIT sessions are usually either a) what is posted in TP, b) a Threshold (Over-unders) session, or c) a workout from your most excellent CX webinar. I try to vary the workout demands during the week. 

Sorry, the length of this post got away from me. 

In summary, my plan is to continue the above going into nationals while making sure to get some additional recovery time and some long road rides so I don't burn out in intensity. I will start off season in January and start base in February. Does this make sense? Any advice?

Thanks

Whatever Patrick is doing, I wanna do too. He's going like the fire. I am just ashes.

Joking aside, same goal, getting to CX nationals, same age group. An appropriate combo of threshold and HIT sounds kinda perfect. 

A few general answers.  First, the reason I really do not like just writing training plans for cyclocross is that the intensity of training (dealing with fatigue) typically requires a more flexible approach.  When I coach a cyclocross athlete, I rarely write more than 2 weeks at a time.  For those extending out to nationals, the trick is managing such fatigue so a few tips:

1. Assuming you have good base fitness, freshness will trump fitness in race performance.  We tend to think about training as dose/fitness reponse, in CX think about about is as dose/performance response.
2. Google "undulating periodization" and read up on that, works well in "sub-seasons" for athletes that have already completed a lot of the season following a classic linear approach.
3. As part of #2 you need to remember the cost/benefit of training specicifity...as you gain anaerobic fitness you will lose aerobic fitness....at some point you need to take a cycle and rebuild the aerobic fitness.  Again this is why it is so hard to just write a plan for people, I track the aerobic fitness and when i think it has dropped to a point, stop and spend 2 weeks doing an aerobic build (lots of Tempo and SST as main focus).  Based on some of hte posting, some of you might be there now, some might be dealing with this in other ways.

I will post some guidance but really need to be thinking about the above points....

Tim

Thanks for the useful nuggets of info. The management of freshness makes a lot of sense and "I found some undulating periodization" resources for Bidybuilding and TRI. At first blush it appears to be about mixing specificity each week. 

A couple of questions about #3. If I track aerobic fitness with the stamina metric in WKO4, how do I spot a drop off (comparing time periods? Is there an article you can point me to?).  Is it detrimental to rebuild aerobic fitness too close to nationals?

Thanks

Thanks, Tim,

Makes total sense, looking forward to your further guidance, meanwhile will definitely go back to tempo/sst for this week and next and then see how I feel. Probably heading to 3 or 4 more races before Nationals.

^super helpful Tim

Does anyone know if we still have a discount code for upgrading our training peaks accounts?

I can get one but if you sign up tomorrow there is a cyber monday sale (check site tomorrow) for 25% off I think....bigger then the one I shared

Tim - just a heads up that my TP account is empty going forward. I can fill in my own mix of workouts based on your advice from a few days ago as I continue to aim for CX nats, but wasn't sure if that was your intent or an oversight. Thanks

Patrick, you and someone else are blank now, need to go look.  I can load a plan to CX nats later today.  Sorry, hard to write so many different plans and this week crazy.  Should i also load the "group" plan for you?

Sounds good. Thanks

that other rider is probably me. 
Like Patrick, I was going to add my own, but your guidance would be much better. thanks, Tim.