Workout Of The Day for Monday, 11/9…
Well, you can probably guess what’s on tap for today…
That’s right, it’s a Recovery Ride day!
Get on your bike.
Spin around for an hour or so. No pressure on the pedals, just make ’em go around in circles.
No efforts, no intervals, just pedal around until your legs loosen up. When that happens, go home. Get some rest.
Easy, right?
OK – now for some follow up on the weekend’s racing, and your Game Planning.
How did that go this weekend?
I had a long post-race debrief with an athlete today, and an awful lot of what we wound up talking about was the Game Plan.
Here’s some of the stuff that came up – maybe it’ll help you too, eh?
Pre race –
You need to game-plan your pre-race routine, too. Have a plan in mind for when you show up at the race.
– Know how long it takes you to get warmed up, and how long it takes you to get ready to warm up!
– Drive time?
– Parking?
– Filling the tank & emptying the bowels?
– Unpacking & kitting up?
Time ’em all up, do the math, and plan for the reality – not the optimistic “guess!”
– Know the times that the course will be available for preview, and when it’s off limits.
– Got an extra bike? Wheels?
First thing you should do when you show up at the race venue is figure out where the pits are, and find out how long it’s going to take to get there and back. Sometimes it takes forever to get to and from the pits, and you can pretty easily blow your course preview opportunity by wandering around the course trying to find the pit. Don’t turn your warm-up time into a pit safari!
Here’s a tip; don’t ask the officials where the pit is.
Trust me on this; they might know where it is, they might not, and even if they do, they probably won’t know the fastest way to get there.
Look for team tents, and ask the mechanics at the biggest tent where the pits are and *how to get there.* These guys won’t steer you wrong – they will be spending the entire day running back and forth to the pit, and not only will they know where it is, if there’s a shortcut to get there, they will know it too.
Course preview, redux –
– I talked a fair bit in earlier posts about what to look for when you preview the course and Game Plan for the race, but here’s something that came up today:
Figure out when you’re going to need a “Plan B,” and well… plan one…
Here’s what I’m talking about:
In the Seattle Cyclox series, we had a little bitty sand pit in today’s race. If you were going well today, odds were you were going to wind up encountering traffic in the pit.
If you were smart, you planned for that in your pre-race course preview.
There were multiple lines through the sand pit, and to be prepared, you needed to ride them and figure out which one you liked most.
…and what your 2nd choice was…
…and where you needed to be to set up for each option…
…and what the last point on the course was where you could decide “A” or “B.”
OK. This is confusing.
Here’s how it goes come race time:
You round a corner and enter the sand pit section of the course.
You know what your favored line is, ’cause you pre-rode and surveyed the course.
Your line is open, so…
you hit it perfectly, clean the section, and rock on.
Your line has a lapped rider on it, so…
You hit it perfectly, clean the section, and rock on.
or…
You hit it perfectly, see that the lapped rider has bobbled, and…
Run into him. Fall flat on your ass.
or…
Get off the bike, run around lapped rider. Rock on (albeit slowly…)
…or…
You choose option “B.”
Ride alternate line. Clean it. Rock on.
Make sense? Good.
Here’s one additional little detail:
When you pick out that “Plan B” line, you also need to figure out where on the course you need to be to decide which line you’re taking.
Generally speaking, once you’re on a line you can’t change your mind – this just gets you planted flat on your a**.
Figure out where your go/no go point is, and stick with it.
Choose which line you’re taking early enough to nail it, and if you get deep into your line and it isn’t working… get off the bike.
Sure, this is slower than nailing the line…
…but it’s a lot faster than sitting on your a**.
G’night!
M
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