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Well, it’s Saturday, and that means tomorrow is a race day – so today’s workout is Can Openers.

Here’s the drill:

– Warm up for 1/2 hour or so.

– Follow with several short attacking efforts, IE 30 seconds at 80% of your max, or pretty damn hard.

– Back off and spin for 5 minutes.

– Follow with 10-15 minute effort at AT level, or CP30, or “I could talk to you if I had to, but I don’t want to” level.

– Spin for several minutes.

– Follow with 5-6 full gas start efforts on a straight section of paved road, level or slightly uphill.

You want to begin these from a dead stop, with one foot unclipped.

Do not stop until you get at least 3 perfect starts in a row, and I mean perfect; this is the cross equivalent of practicing free throws. make ‘em count.

… spin out the legs, go home, and get ready for the race.

Sound familiar?

Yup – this is a pretty standard, week-in and week-out day before race routine.

How is it working for you?

This is an important question, and one you need to answer.

Try varying the routine and see what happens; throw in a few more short efforts. Go a bit longer or a bit shorter on the longer interval. Try just spinning the day before instead.

Do you find that you really kick  A** on the second day of a 2 race weekend? Try really amping it up on the preceding day – up as in “Damn… that felt like a race…”

Experiment.

Figure out what works.

Have fun…

M

pS – crappy weather means more trainer time, and limited opportunities for sheltered warm up pre-race. Tomorrow I’ll post a quick and dirty trainer warm-up that makes a great pre-race or even day before opener… and it’s easy to remember!

~ by crosssports on October 24, 2009.

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