Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Tuesday is here, and you know what we haven’t done in a while?

Yup.

You got it right.

It’s 2×20 Tuesday!

You know you love ’em!

– Warm up.

– Go as hard as you can for 20 minutes.

– Recover for 2 – 5 minutes.

– Go again for another 20 minutes.

That’s the stripped down version of this nonsense, but success is 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 power meter, you want your wattage output to be as close to constant as possible. How constant?

Can you keep it in a 10 watt range?

Probably not.

15 watts?

More likely

20 watts?

Try.

Keep it steady.

These take practice to do well, and the better you get, the harder they get (you’re welcome.) This is a workout that’s a natural for the turbo trainer, and that’s how I do ‘em.

This 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 blurry vision thing. You should aspire to seeing-spots level of output on these.

 If you can learn to push through your limits, really push, you will get better and you will get better fast.

It’ll be painful, though.

Before you jump right into these, though…

… it might be worth your time to think about what we discussed yesterday.

Lots of folks are looking pretty burnt out already this season.

Don’t let that happen to you!

Better to take a day off today than be forced to take a week off a month or so down the line.

If you don’t get enough rest you never recover and if you never recover you never get as fast as you could if you did do the thing that you didn’t ’cause you wouldn’t and now you don’t have a choice and you can’t.

Ugh.

Maybe just go back to sleep, eh?

Train smart!

M

~ by crosssports on October 8, 2013.

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, The Workout Of The Day
Tags: Bicycle racing, bike racing, cx classes, cx handling drills, cx intervals, CX practice, cx skills, CXWOTD, Cycling, Cyclo-cross, Cyclocross, cyclocross classes, cyclocross handling drills, cyclocross instruction, cyclocross intervals, Cyclocross Practice, cyclocross skills, Fitness, Health, Heart rate, Howy folks, Intervals, Marymoor CX, Marymoor cyclocross, Marymoor practice, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, s: Aerobic exercise, Seattle, Sports, The Workout Of The Day Tags: Bicycle pedal, wootd, WOTD, XC Racing