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belgium, castelli, castelli women, cx, cyclocross, Denmark, woman, Women - February 15, 2018

My favourite training session: 15 – 15 – 15

When I see this on my training schedule, I know it’s going to be one of those days. I will go training for a maximum of two hours and come home broken. Even though it is hard, I also know it is one of my go to sessions to get ready for racing. Due to illness and injury I did not make worlds selection and as it is important to me to end this season on a positive note I decided to skip the January world cups and instead go on a training camp to get fit for the last cyclocross races of the season in Belgium in February. So I did this session twice while in the last block leading up to the races. What does 15-15-15 mean; 15 seconds sprinting, followed by 15 seconds maintaining the speed, followed by a 15 second rest. Do this for 10 minutes, have a 10 minutes break and do it again. I usually do this 4-5 times, so it simulates the length of a cyclocross race. What I like about this session is that it is very versatile and yet very specific. And as a bonus, you can do it both on ...

Road trip to Denmark!

It’s just over two weeks ago that I raced the cyclocross world cup in Bogense, Denmark. Just thinking back to that race is giving me goosebumps. Racing at home with all your friends and family present is pretty special at any time, so a home world cup is something else. I have never seen as much red and white or heard so many people cheering along a cyclocross course! I must admit that I was nervous travelling to Denmark. I drove our camper from Sidmouth in the UK, where I now live, via the channel tunnel, through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany to Bogense. After 1500 km of solo driving, and hours spent staring at the back of trucks, I was not 100% sure how the legs were going to be but as I had arrived 2 days before race day I was hoping for the best. Bogense is a little coast town on the north coast of the island Funen in Denmark, about 150 km from the town where I grew up on Zealand. The course was built right on the coastline and with a strong wind from the north, waves were splashing seawater on some sections of the course. For ...

A week in my CX training

What does my week look like? No two weeks are the same, the training I do, depends on a number of factors and what my race calendar looks like, but I want to give you a rough idea of an “average” training week. Monday—Recovery The main thing for me on Mondays is recovery and planning the week, do laundry, a food shop, etc. I can focus on training and work the rest of the week. After getting my race bags emptied I get on the bike to do an LSCT test, which is a 20-minute sub-max test designed to track levels of fatigue and adaptation to training (read more about the test). If I am really tired I get straight off the bike after the test, other days I do an easy hour. Tuesday—Technical day Tuesday is a double day: I start with a 30-minute run before breakfast. You use your muscles differently when running, so for it did not affect my cycling performances in races, I need to train my running ability. In the afternoon I spend up to 2 hours on my cross bike in the park or local forest. I focus on skills work and add efforts ...

A comeback is seldom without ups and downs

On Tuesday morning, I wrote a small post on my personal website about my first UCI race since January 2016. I had wanted to write it on Sunday night or at least Monday morning, but when disappointment hits, writing a post to tell the world about how badly you feel about a race, isn’t the first thing you want to do – or do at all. I spent most of the travel home and Sunday night being annoyed with myself, doubting myself and asking myself if I maybe should have just retired after all. I choose to return to cyclocross because I wanted to show that I have still more to give and mostly proof to myself that I could come back after a series of illnesses and injuries. But one thing that I have battled with more than ever since I made the decision to come back is my own thoughts. I have always said that my head is my Achilles heel and worst enemy when it comes to racing, sometimes I think it is worse dealing with that than the injury I have dealt with over the last 18 months. I am lucky to have a great partner ...

My journey back to cyclocross racing

Hi all! My name is Margriet Kloppenburg, 29-year-old Danish cyclocross racer. Some of you might have seen me showing off some great wet weather gear in the past and current Castelli catalogues. If you follow bike racing, you might also have seen my name in some road and cross results over the years or even seen me pop up on your TV screen on the occasions where our races have been streamed or televised. I met the amazing people of Castelli about 2 years ago while I was still living in Belgium (I moved to the UK in November 2016 with by British partner, James Spragg). Through some friends they contacted me to see if I wanted to help them out with a photo shoot near Oudenaarde, where I lived at the time. I had time, so I jumped in the project. It was a fun day out and we stayed in touch. I was over the moon when Castelli decided to become the clothing partner of Inthemud.cx (the cyclocross team we were, me and my boyfriend, until the end of 2016) for the 2016–2017 season. Our main sponsor very unexpectedly pulled out and we were left with no money ...

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My favourite training session: 15 – 15 – 15

Road trip to Denmark!

A week in my CX training

A comeback is seldom without ups and downs

My journey back to cyclocross racing

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