Mixing CX and Winter Road Training

Had some great questions from a young rider (20 something) from TX re adding in some CX endurance rides and how that would impact training for the upcoming road race season later in the winter and into the spring. Here was my reply: That really is about it. I'm not opposed to the time of 4-6 hours. I think it is good to get in the long rides especially given your upcoming racing. Too many people never get those hours in and then wonder why they suck at 80 mile races. You have to be used to riding that long and with working in varied intensity otherwise the first hard effort leaves you off the back. I do also want to be sure that we don't get mentally burned out. Even though these are B or C races I know that its hard to not race at full throttle. Our weekly tt is a C race. Tell that to my heart and legs! You're young and highly motivated and I want to make sure we keep the latter going through a long season. Just being aware of it is a step in the right direction. I don't have any major concerns as we'll add in the proper recovery. At the USAT coaches clinic the one presenter said that he makes everyone he works with take off one full week for every 200 hours of training/racing. He had a pro who once they worked through the races on his schedule and the training owed him 4 weeks off as a recovery. personally I don't know that the physical side gains much after the first week off. I could see the 800 hours he accumulated requiring a mental break. Still not sure that 4 weeks would;t work the other way and make me feel like I had lost everything. I tend to go with the one-liner block training: we don't go through big base, build, peak as much as keep training for a variety of power outputs over various time frames and take off days each week to recover. Its kind of a cluster of short and super intense and long and mildly intense but I think the average age grouper/non-por cat rider keeps interested and doesn't burn out. Ideally.