The Workout Of The Day for Friday, 9.17.10 – “Balance.”
Howdy folks,
It’s the day before the big races in Seattle, and I hope ya’all have y our mud tires glued up and ready to go. It’s going to be messy!
I’m super bummed to be missing the show this weekend, but business calls, and I’m off to Vegas for Interbike starting tomorrow in the AM. Wish me luck with the whiplash on the long drive.
Ouch.
I stocked up on the vitamin “I”.
As I will be out of town for all of next week, I can’t promise that I will be able to keep the workouts up to date.
I’m going to do my best, but my time isn’t my own next week, sorry!
Keep checking in, and even if I can’t get workouts up, I will try to get some Interbike content up for you.
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If you’re going to be at Interbike, drop by the Lemond Fitness booth and say “Hi.” We will be at Dirt Demo and at the show, so come on out and talk ‘cross with me, and try out the New trainer… it’s pretty damn cool.
Phew.
On with The Workout Of The Day…
If you’re racing on Saturday, you probably already know what you’re doing today. That’s right, you’re doing…
Can Openers –
If you’re not racing on Saturday, but you are racing on Sunday? Today you’re doing a
1-2 Hour Moderate Ride.
Take a look at yesterday’s post for details. Ditto if you aren’t racing at all this weekend.
Well, that there is the workout section of the post, but I got a really interesting question from Pat yesterday –
I’m doing the double this weekend, and this is my first year of racing Cx each weekend. I’m racing afternoon at StarXd then morning at the Rad Racing GP. Any fast recovery or preparation tips so I can go hard both days?
It seemed like it made sense to try and respond to this today, so here goes…
Man, doubles are just plain hard.
That said, there are some things you can do to make things easier on yourself….
– Take it pretty damn easy two days before the first race. For a Saturday/Sunday double, you take it really easy on Thursday. Not quite recovery-day light, but not that far off.
– You need to do openers the day before the first race, but try and do the bare minimum necessary. It takes some practice and experience to figure out what this bare minimum is for you, and the first step towards that end is keeping track of what you do. Got a training log?
– Warm up before the race on day one, but don’t overdo it. I wrote a pretty lengthy piece on warming up last week…
– Make sure you eat well on race day. With an afternoon race on Saturday, get breakfast in, and lunch, but make sure to time it so you aren’t bloated at race time. Post race, get a recovery drink in pronto, and then…
– Warm down after your race. Have a trainer set up and ready to go, with a recovery drink pre-mixed and waiting.
– When you finish your race, get some warm clothing on, Get on the trainer, drink the drink, spin out your legs. When you’re done, get off the bike, get on your compression socks (if you wear them,) get some dinner, and…
GO HOME!!!!!!!
– Don’t stick around to watch the rest of the races.
Look, it’s all about priorities. If your priority is to race well on Sunday, you can’t be standing around in the rain until all hours watching the pros race.
Sorry.
Frankly, this is where I always blow it.
I always stick around and watch whatever races come after mine.
It’s not a good idea. If you do it, do it knowing that you’re making a conscious choice that will likely effect your performance the next day…
Saturday.
– Warm up as little as you need to for the race. On day two of a weekend like this, all I usually need to do the morning of the second day is ride a couple/few laps of the course, pop a couple of sprints, and then roll around on the road or trainer at low intensity for a while.
That’s me.
YMMV.
Again, the key is to do as little as you need to do to be ready to go full gas at the gun. Without doing so much that you blow up half way through the race.
Balance…
G’night,
M
Crosssports's Weblog 
Thanks for the recovery info. I had a great race on Sat – taking 5th in Cat4. I didn’t think the course suited me (I prefer hilly and technical) but I put my head down and got to work.
Interestingly on Sunday my legs felt good but my cornering sucked on the wet rooty off-cambers. Something to work on!! I was 16th I think?
Nice job, Pat! Congrats!
I will definitely get some skills workouts up that will help with those sketchy off-cambers. Look for something in the Wednesday skills workout next week or the week after…
M