The Workout Of The Day for Saturday, 12.15.12. ” ’cause you can”
Howdy folks,
I’ve been getting enquiries from people who are trying to figure out what the heck they can do to keep fit in the time between their last races & the big races (Nationals & Worlds) looming a few weeks away down calendar.
You over there in Europe reading this likely don’t have that problem.
Nice.
In the US, we haven’t really come to terms with the “Winter Sport” nature of cyclocross, and we front load the calendar in almost all of our local series. Here in Washington State, while we’ve got almost more racing than is good for us in Oct – November, the 2 big series’ are all done, and the couple of little stand-alone races that are left are all done come the end of the year.
Let’s be honest with ourselves… this ain’t ideal.
Blech.
Here’s the thing, though.
This is an opportunity to improve if you have the discipline to do take advantage of it.
You don’t have to worry about racing for a while, and that means you can train your ass off for a couple of weeks, and still roll a short taper into Nationals.
There’s an old saw of a saying that goes something like “You should always train harder than you have to race, that way nothing in a race will come as a surprise.”
I don’t know that I completely agree with this, but I like the idea of it at least.
So, no racing this weekend?
Guess what? You’re going to ride really G-damned hard instead… ’cause you can.
You’re doing..
The Doppelganger –
– Warm up well. If you have time, warm up as you would for a race. It’s good practice, if nothing else.
– After you have warmed up, do five full-gas starts. Focus on the second effort in your start, working on getting back on the gas right after you max-out on your initial effort and begin to sit down.
– 20 minutes at your 2×20 pace.
– 2 minute rest.
– 10 minutes of Over/Under intervals
The baseline for this interval is the level of effort/output you just did in the 20 minute effort.
However hard you went in that interval, you are going to try and hold that for the 10 minutes.
Easy, right?
Here’s the rub.
You’re going to sprint for 10 seconds every minute of the interval.
How hard are you going to sprint?
Hard, but not so hard that after you sprint, you can’t sit back down and keep churning away at your 2×20 level.
This takes some practice to figure out.
Don’t get all freaked out if you blow it and can’t hold the effort until the end. You tried, right?
Having said that, don’t wuss out and quit. This is some difficult s***, man. You want to get faster, right?
OK.
Here’s how this works.
Use a stopwatch. Put it on your bars.
Start the stopwatch.
Start the interval with a sprint, out of the saddle pretty hard, but not full gas.
Sprint for 10 seconds.
Back in saddle, drop into your 2×20 zone. Hold this until the minute mark, then –
Sprint again. 10 seconds.
Back in saddle, 2×20 level until 2 minute mark…
Repeat.
Repeat…
Repeat, until you have hit the 10 minute mark.
– 5 minute recovery
– 10 minutes at 2×20 level
– 2 minute recovery
– 10 minute Over/Under Intervals
(same as above)
– SPRINT at the very end of the last interval. 30 seconds, all out.
Really all out, like “I’m sprinting for the Maillot Arc en ciel” all out. You should be at least half-blind at the end of the sprint.
Heck, you should be so gassed when you start the sprint that just upping the tempo a little bit puts you in a box.
Have fun!
M
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