The Workout Of The Day for Sunday, 8.21 – “Hills. I’s. Etc.”
Howdy folks,
I hope ya’all are having a great weekend! If you did yesterday’s workout, I imagine you’re feeling a little bit tired tonight?
That’s good.
As I was saying yesterday, for some of us, this is the last weekend we’re going to see for a while that isn’t going to have a Cyclocross race in it.
That’s pretty damn cool.
It also means that if you’re feeling a little bit tired today, you might want to take today completely off the bike.
Yup.
You heard me right.
Think about taking today off.
Go see a movie. Spend some time with your family.
Whatever. Do something other than ride.
Have some fun.
If you’re totally obsessed, today might be a really good day to work on your bike(s.)
Check your chain.
Glue some tires.
Double check that if you have more than one bike, they’re set up the same way. Have you double-checked your seat heights lately?
If you’re not racing anytime soon, and you need to get a ride in today, check out yesterday’s workout.
Did that yesterday?
Cool.
How about some climbing work today?
Your workout today is The Hills Have (small) i’s
Warm up, ideally in the course of a ride out to some hilly terrain.
Find a hill that will take you three to five minutes or so to climb. You should be able to do the climb in the big gear, but barely. It should be right at that level of steepness where you have a hard time deciding.
Hit the base of the climb hard, out of the saddle, and accelerate into it.
Sit down when you feel you’re starting to lag, and drop a couple of gears. Spin (but still fast, IE about the same as your 2×20 minute level.)
Stay seated for 5-10 pedal strokes, then…
Out of the saddle, Attack! Hard like you did at the base of the climb.
Same as before, when you start to lag, sit down, spin.
Repeat to top of climb.
At the top of the climb, get out of the saddle, and accelerate as the grade eases.
Power over the top and well into the descent, until your speed is great enough that coasting is faster than pedaling.
Coast/spin to bottom of climb.
Go again.
Repeat 3-5 times. That’s a set.
Recover by spinning between sets, time of recovery equal to the time of the set.
Ideally, you do this on both sides of a climb, or you can loop back around and repeat on the same climb.
Better to go shorter and harder than to extend the ride and slow things down.
Spin out your legs, go home, relax.
If you want to go long, do yesterday’s workout.
Have fun!
M
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