The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Tuesday, 10.1.13. “Sunday’s Hamburgers today”
Howdy folks,
Good grief, it’s Tuesday already!
Before we get started with today’s workout, just a brief word about rest…
Did you get enough rest yesterday?
Are you fully recovered after the race efforts you made this weekend?
Are you sure?
For lots of people Tuesday is just too darn soon to hit it hard after a race on Sunday.
One day isn’t enough time to recover, and driving the body through fatigue will eventually lead to a breakdown, or at minimum a lower level of performance.
This is one of the big reasons we keep track of our performance metrics, and stay pretty consistent with the type of workouts we do early in the week.
We can tell when something is starting to go wrong ’cause we have something to compare it to.
In other words, if your Tuesday workouts are getting harder and harder, and/or your performance in these workouts is getting weaker and weaker, something needs to change.
Most of the time what needs to change is more rest.
Starting to sound familiar?
Great.
Take today off.
Seriously.
Sometimes you need to do less now in order to do more later.
You pay for Sunday’s hamburgers today.
(Ok, seriously, I apologize for that…. somehow I found it amusing so I’m leaving it in…)
******
So, having read that, you’re still rarin’ to go?
Rad.
You’re a beast.
Since we’re disregarding the bit about rest, why don’t we disregard the piece about consistent workouts as well, eh?
Today we’re doing…
The Mi15
Warm up well. (Seriously. Warm up for this one, it’ll help.)
The basic idea here is to do a series of very short efforts with very little rest between them, for a pretty long period of time.
Sound confusing?
Here’s how it breaks down…
Warm up.
Get set…
Go!
15 seconds on
15 seconds off
15 seconds on
15 seconds off
…and so on and so on for the duration of the interval.
How long are you going to do this for?
– Ten minutes would be great.
Three sets, 5 minutes between sets.
How hard do you go during the “on” segments?
– Pretty darn hard.
You’re familiar with the level of effort you put out in your 2×20’s by now, right?
You need to go at least that hard.
Harder would be good.
Ideally, you’ll hit these on periods at right about 150% of your FTP, if you’re down with FTP…
That’s about 1/2 again as hard as your 2×20 level.
Ouch.
How easy do you go during the “off” segments?
– A lot easier, but you aren’t quite soft pedaling.
Right about 50% of your FTP, or half as hard as your 2×20 level.
Again, ouch.
Want to know the real “Ouch”?
Ultimately, you want to be able to do 6 sets of these, or 3 sets twenty minutes each.
Seriously, Ouch.
Maybe not today though, eh?
Spin your legs out/warm down when finished.
Enjoy!
M
Crosssports's Weblog 