Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Hopefully you’re all well recovered from your workouts over the weekend, and ready to do some work today, because – you guessed it – it’s…

2×20 Tuesday!

…but, hey.

Before we get started, let’s talk a little bit about the whole “hopefully you’re well recovered” thing.

If you raced two days this weekend, odds are you aren’t well recovered at this point in the week.

If that sounds like you, you might not want to do this workout today.

Take another day of recovery if you need to, and do this when you’re recovered and can do it well.

By “do it well” I mean that – by whatever metrics you use to measure your performance – you’re able to meet or exceed the baseline values you have put down so far this season.

If those metrics are dropping, you need a rest.

Take it.

That’s one of the big reasons we do this workout so regularly. At this point in the season, you should have a pretty good idea what you can do on these when you’re rolling well, and when you’re not?

Take not of it, and pull the plug on the workout.

Rest, recover, and come back fresh enough to give ‘er a real go.

Make sense?

On with the workout!

 – Warm up.

– Go as hard as you can for 20 minutes.

– Recover for 2 minutes.

– Go again for another 20 minutes.

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 too 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 workout is great on the trainer, and that’s how I usually do ‘em… in fact, I think this workout is probably best when you do it on the trainer, unless you have a really peaceful stretch of rad you can use.

However you wind up doing these, have fun!

M

PS – GO ZACH!!!!!

~ by crosssports on October 8, 2012.

Posted in The Workout Of The Day
Tags: Accessories Aerobic exercise Auto Racing Bart Wellens Bicycle pedal Bicycle racing bike racing Can opener Cycling Cyclo-cross Cyclocross Fitness Gear Health Heart rate High-intensity interval training