Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

It’s Thursday, and if you’ve been playing along, you can probably guess that that means I’m going to throw a couple of workout options at you today.

First of all, are you racing this weekend?

What day?

In Seattle, this is the big StarCross/ Rad Cup UCI weekend. That means that a bunch of the local folks are doin’ the double this weekend.

Ouch.

If you’re racing Saturday, and especially if you’re racing both days this weekend, your workout today is…

One to Two Hour Moderate Ride –

Get on your bike.

Go ride for an hour.

No hard efforts, but do throw in a couple of moderate ones. By moderate, I mean just that. You can sprint for the town line, but you should be laughing while you do it.

You’re not doing a recovery spin, so you need to put a little bit of gas into the pedals… just don’t go out and kill yourself.

Check out the view, smell the flowers, just do it while you’re putting a little bit of effort into the pedals.

1 notch above a recovery ride.

Make sense?

If you’re not racing this weekend, or if you’re just racing on Sunday, well… you have some options today.

You could do some Stair Running today, but before you do, read this –

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/the-workout-of-the-day-for-thursday-9-9-running-or-well-not/

If it still makes sense for you to get yourself goin’ off the bike?

Follow the link in the post, and there’s your workout!

Racing this weekend? Feeling like you’ve got plenty of running miles in the legs already?

Cool.

I got a question from Herb T. after this last weekend’s racing, and he about things he could do to improve his starts.

I’m going to write a post dedicated to the topic soon, but for now, here’s something to get you (ahem…) started…

Today you’re doing Form Sprints.

These not only work wonders for your overall speed, but the repeated, seated accelerations make them just the ticket to kick-start your… uhm, well…. your (ahem…) starts…

Here’s what this looks like:

Warm up well.

Find a long, flat section of road with little to no traffic.

Get a rolling start; you aren’t going fast, just gently spinning.

Stand up and sprint.

You’re going to sprint hard, but in a slightly smaller than comfortable gear.

Go until you are spun out, then…

sit down.

Accelerate again, seated, spinning the same gear selection even faster.

Go until you are totally spun out.

Sit up, and spin back down to a conversational pace.

That’s one rep.

You’re doing sets of 5.

3 sets is probably enough for most all ya’all.

2-5 minutes rest between sets.

Note: These are called Form Sprints for a reason; you’re doing them in a smaller gear than you would normally sprint in, and you are concentrating on your form.Pay attention to all the little things your body does in a sprint, and work to maximize your efficiency and control. Keep it smooth. Think fast, fluid, and supple with the pedal stroke.

Have fun!

G’night,

M

~ by crosssports on September 15, 2010.

Posted in Uncategorized