The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Tuesday, 7.31.12. “Yup.That.”
Howdy folks,
Yikes! Sorry this is getting up so late!
I had technical difficulties last night, and by that I mean that I fell asleep on the couch – with the computer on my lap – while I was working on this. I guess that’s what happens when you get 6 hours of sleep total over the weekend ’cause you’re live-blogging the Olympic Road Races… blech…
ANYways, onwards…
It’s Tuesday, and if you’ve been around this blog for a while, you can probably guess what that means…
It’s Two by Twenty Tuesday!
– Warm up.
– Go as hard as you can for 20 minutes.
– Recover for 2 minutes.
– Go again for another 20 minutes.
That’s the basic version. Success on this is, however, all in the details.
The idea here is to go as hard as you can for the duration of both intervals without being forced to go easier at the end of the second interval. If you run out of gas before you finish the second interval, you went to hard. If your vision isn’t blurry at the end of the second interval, you went too easy.
If you’re doing this with a powermeter, you want your wattage output to be as close to constant as possible. We’re talking 10 watt variance at the most. Keep it steady.
These take practice to do well, and the better you get, the harder they get. This is another workout that works great on the trainer, and that’s how I do ‘em, which is a good thing… because I always wind up flat on my back on the floor trying not to puke after the 2nd interval.
I’m really not kidding about the seeing spots thing. If you can learn to push through your limits when you do these, you will get better and you will get better fast.
Have fun!
M
PS – if you’re in the Seattle area, come on out to the cross clinic I’m leading tonight… Info Here.
Crosssports's Weblog 
[…] did the 2×20′s go yesterday? Legs feeling a wee bit heavy […]
The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Wednesday, 8.1.12. – “Heavy Duty” « Crosssports's Weblog said this on July 31, 2012 at 10:59 pm |
Tried the 2 x 20 on the track last night. I think I need a computer to make it work right because it is too easy to slack when you are on your own. Any tips on keeping the pace up for this workout for thoes of us without powertaps?
Howdy!
Yup, pretty common issue… thanks for asking!
The easiest way to deal with the natural inclination to self preservation via slacking off as the interval drags on is to maintain a gear ratio and a cadence.
Here’s what I mean by this…
Figure out what gear you’re doing the interval in – and what cadence you’re rolling at – when you’re really cranking and doing well.
I do 2x20s on a trainer (which I recommend, if you can stand it…) and I’m (currently…) doing them on a 53×12 gear, at a cadence of right around 80. I have a power meter on my bike, but even if I didn’t, because I know the gear ratio and the pedal velocity, if I wanted to I could back calculate the load. You don’t need to go that far, all you need to do is note the cadence/gear you’re rolling when things are going well, and then make darn sure you stay there when the interval starts to go sideways on you… make sense?
Thanks for the great question!
M