The #Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Wednesday, 8.7.13. “Smoov1”
Howdy folks,
Sorry for the delay in getting this post up. I was out racing the local circuit race series last night, and after the near-death driving experience on the way home, and the tequila, and the stack of emails waiting when I *finally* got back to the apartment… well, somehow I fell asleep on the couch about 30 seconds after I started writing.
Whoops.
Sorry about that.
It’s Wednesday, and you’ll discover that as the season gets rolling along, we generally use this day to work on our cyclocross technique.
Yup, that’s right; the fun stuff.
Unfortunately, if you skipped yesterday’s intervals because you were still gassed from Sunday, you don’t get to do the fun stuff today. You get a free trip to the past, where you can have a go at what the rest of us did yesterday! Yay!
If you did those intervals yesterday, and you’re still super tired?
Feel free to do just the skills part of the workout today. Skip the little interval section at the end.
But hey… enough chat, on with the…
Skills, Damnit!
1 – warm up well, 10 minutes minimum.
2 – Stretch out after you’re warm.
Pay special attention to all the muscles used in those movements you make hopping on and off the bike that are different from what you usually do. (Do we need a post on here about stretching for Cyclocross? What do you think? Leave a comment…)
3 – Dismount/remount skills for 15 minutes.
– Start at literally a walking pace, and slowly increase speed until you can mount and dismount the bike smoothly and perfectly at full speed. Do not jump on and off the bike, you are looking to smoothly slide yourself on and off.
Yeah, I know… what the hell? How do I do this?
We’ve worked on the basics of this skill before, check out the conversation Here and Here.
Do just the most super basic slow-speed dismount/remount until you have it wired at a walking pace, then gradually start to up the speed.
When you have it smooth(ish) at all speeds, and when you are feeling confident, you can start to add some barriers to the session…
– Again, start at a super, super slow speed.
– Approach the barrier, dismount smooth as silk.
– Step over the barrier, paying attention to how you lift the bike, and how you place your feet.
– Remount. Again, think smooooove….
– Start with a single barrier, move to a double, and keep going slow until you have things wired.
Feeling like you’ve got it nailed? speed things up until you aren’t smoove, then back it down 1 notch, and make it smoove.
(If you don’t have barriers, anything will do. Use a log, put a stick on the ground – whatever.)
4 – turning and handling skills for 15-20 minutes.
– work on tight, high speed turns as well as super tight low speed turns. Roll some off camber slopes, and learn to turn on them as well.
– Put two traffic cones about 10 feet apart from each other, and ride a figure eight around them, pedalling the entire time.
Make the turns tighter and tighter until you can’t hold the line and you fall down. Learn where the break point is between riding a tight line and falling on your ass, and push that line until you are definitively over it.
– Finish the night with two 5-minute efforts on relatively easy terrain.
“Easy” as in a loop on grass with some tight-ish turns on it, or some pretty buffed double-track.
Go hard, and work on accelerations out of the turns.
Every time you slow down entering a turn, get on the gas on the way out of it, ass out of the saddle, working hard.
5 minutes full gas, rest for 5 minutes, then go for 5 again.
Repeat until you can’t maintain the output level you had on the first interval.
Warm down by spinning easily on the bike until your legs start to feel loose.
go home, relax.
More hard work tomorrow!
M
Crosssports's Weblog 
CX specific stretching info would be great. can it be done daily? anything that can be done during the day at or around the office? thanks
+1 on the CX specific stretching advice.
Thanks Matt.