Workout Of The Day for Wednesday, 12/2… “To skill, or not to skill…”

Howdy folks,

Well, it’s Wednesday, and typically that mean I’m sending you off with all sorts of skills related esoterica and bizarro technical advice.

Maybe not this week.

Look, at this point you’ve either got it nailed, or you don’t. Any new skills you work on are for next season.

– Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

So, today? If you decide to make today a skills day, go out and buff the rough edges off the basics.

Get your dismounts and remounts razor sharp.

Polish those shouldering skills.

Practice starts, full gas, go until you get 6 in a row perfect.

Do a little bit of everything, and make that little bit perfect.

That’s not really the workout, though.

For today’s workout I’m going to give you a couple of options…

– If you have ready access to the terrain, do the skills work as above, and follow up with a Practice Race.

Focus on shorter efforts at or above race pace.

5 minutes on, 5 minutes off, for a total of 1/2 an hour.

Be fast, be perfect. Go as fast as you can while riding 100% in control.

Keep it fast and short, get it done and go home.

– Racing this weekend? Doubling up, even? Portland races maybe?

– You can do the above workout, but make sure you limit it to the 1/2 hour.

Tight, fast, go hard for a short period, go home, recover.

– No proximity to a good course to do some skills work? Regularly scheduled skills sessions over for the year?

– Give some thought to taking it easy today. Are you fully recovered from yesterday? If the answer is anything but a resounding “Hell Yeah!,” take it easy today. Go for a 1 hr Moderate Road Ride.

Not quite a recovery ride, but no hard efforts. Turn the pedals over for an hour in a meaningful fashion, but no anger in the stroke, if you get my meaning…

– Feeling pretty good? Want to get some work in?

Look… I’m hesitant to give much intensity today, but the truth is that lots of riders get used to their routine. If you’ve been riding a Wednesday night practice session all season, it might be a good idea to get some intensity in today.

This is where a coach can really help you, someone who can look at your data objectively and say “uh, yeah – no. Take it easy today.” or, “sure. you ride great after a hard mid-week session.”

having said that, if you want/need some intensity, here’s a tiny little bit for you. The optional intensity workout for today is 3×8 minute intervals.

Warm up well.

Find a low traffic, flattish stretch (loop?) of road (or do on the trainer…)

Roll up to speed and start first interval.

Interval length is 8 minutes.

Rate of exertion is actually pretty close to your 20 minute level – on a “perceived exertion level” it winds up being just one little notch higher…

Recover for 2-5 minutes after interval

Repeat, for a total of 3 intervals.

Go home, recover, rest.

Done racing for the season?

I don’t want you to feel left out, so here’s some work for you…

– Write down a list of all the basic cyclocross skills, and the variations of each:

IE – dismount:

Stepthrough, Cowboy, Pontoni.

This should take a while.

When you are done, go over the list and grade yourself on each skill.

Give yourself a grade for where you are now, and where you were at the beginning of the season.

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