Joe Baker is a keen racer and saw some good success on the road, however, for the first time ever, he's going to be turning his hand to the mud. Joe will be tackling a Cyclocross race, juggling busy work life, he needs to optimise his time on the bike. This is why he decided to use Zwift to help him train and build in the high intensity that he needs in order to perform. He also spoke to CX legend Nick Craig to get some top tips and insights on how he should tackle his first race.
How do you think he did?!
This video was created in partnership with Zwift
How do you think he did?!
This video was created in partnership with Zwift
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SportsTranscript
00:00I've got a bobble hat on and I'm in a cold muddy field. That means one thing, cyclocross.
00:06Cyclocross is a discipline that's well and truly on the rise. You see cyclocross races last a
00:11maximum of just 60 minutes in duration which means they tend to be one hour of adrenaline-fueled,
00:17fast-paced racing. And that's why over the last few weeks I've turned my hand to the mud to get
00:22ready for today, my first ever cyclocross race. So here we go, session number one. First place
00:28to start is by building the engine. So my first session is Wout van Aert's VO2 max session,
00:34courtesy of Zwift. This is shown to build aerobic capacity even though we're working in that zone
00:39five. So it allows you to get a really efficient workout in just 56 minutes. This being my first
00:45session, I have had to allow a little bit more time just to get the Zwift Hub 1 set up, but that's all
00:50been pretty easy. The Zwift Hub 1's only got a single sprocket at the back and that means it's compatible
00:55with almost any bike. So we're starting pretty easy just building the engine. Over the next few
00:59weeks we're going to be looking to sort of touch on all the different physical attributes I'm going
01:03to need in the cross race. So first of all we're going to look at building the engine, we'll then
01:07move on to some top end and then in the final run up to the cross race itself we'll look at really
01:12sharpening both the mind and the legs ready for race day. Hello again, so you join me in my second week
01:19of training, first week done and it's all gone pretty well. I've actually found that Zwift bringing
01:25a level of gamification to my training has really allowed me to escape after work, get on the trainer
01:30and actually it's been a really nice way to unwind and do something positive as well for my body.
01:35First of all this session has quite a lot of sort of randomized efforts which is really similar to a
01:39cyclocross race and then the second reason is that I'm a racer at heart. I train to race so any level of
01:46competition into my training, even if it's not a live race which you obviously can do on Zwift,
01:50just really helps me push myself that little bit more. That's a wrap for the Crit City Downtown
01:54Dolphin, easily the most intense session I've done so far. Hopefully we'll see some gains rolling into
02:00next week. Hi everyone, so I've come into the office on my own for what is going to be my last
02:05hard session on Zwift before my race. It's Monday currently so this is sort of my last chance to
02:11really get everything out and then over the next few days I'm going to be sort of relaxing more
02:15and letting the gains absorb. Hopefully, fingers crossed for good legs on Sunday.
02:20So I'm halfway into the warm-up for my last hard session. As you guys can see, plenty of red and
02:26orange simulating anaerobic efforts. The nice thing though is that once I get to the end of this
02:30session I really can relax. I feel like I've smashed that Tom Pigcock session out of the park.
02:40Time to reap the benefits now. Roll on the weekend. So it's race day, there's about 45 minutes now until
02:47the start and I think it's safe to say I'm going for a pretty unorthodox warm-up. I'm actually warming
02:52up on Zwift. Now the reason for that is because it allows me to use the same session that I've been
02:59using pretty much for the last four weeks for some of my warm-ups. I've tried it, tested it, I know it
03:03works. I'm going to get on the course, go for a little practice, check out the conditions and then
03:08get to the grid.
03:20Oh well, as expected that was bloody hard. It was really nice I managed to like get into quite a rhythm
03:27and having done the hard training sessions I've done previously I kind of mentally I was already
03:33I was ready to suffer if that makes sense which was really good. It was really interesting actually
03:36out on the course you could really see where the sort of different components of training aligned.
03:40So in terms of like that building the engine there's quite a long climb just down there you
03:44probably guys will have seen. Probably good sort of two three minutes every lap and having just the
03:49ability to go again is really helpful. It's been great fun to get back into some form of competition
03:54again and amazing to try something new that I haven't tried before. All that remains to do is
03:59say a big thanks to Zwift for helping get me in some form of competitive shape. Thanks to Nick Craig
04:05for making sure I didn't crash too many times and a big thanks to Wessex League as well for putting
04:09on such a brilliant event. If you did enjoy the video drop a like down below, subscribe to the
04:14the channel for more content and I will see you again very soon.