Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Hey, nice. It’s Monday.

That typically means that I suggest you go for a nice, relaxing…

Recovery Spin – 

– Get on your bike. Roll out into the street, and just spin around for an hour.

– Really small gear, no hard efforts – heck, no medium effort.

– Spin. You’re looking to move your legs around in circles, almost like there is no chain on the bike.

– The idea is to get your body moving, flush the systems out, and speed your recovery.

– Just get out on the road and spin aimlessly. At a certain point, your legs suddenly feel better.

– As soon as that happens, turn around, go home, eat, stretch, and put your legs up.

 Try to take it as easy as you can today, and get yourself set for the rest of the week.

You know what?

That’s still a great idea if you raced or rode hard yesterday…

…or if you’re feeling tired today.

With the Holiday this week, though, lots of folks are looking at a strange schedule, and might just be looking to put in some hard work today.

Got ya covered.

For your (ahem) pleasure, I present…

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.

Four 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? 3 or 4 sets is pretty darn good.

Spin your legs out/warm down when finished.

Enjoy!

M

~ by crosssports on November 25, 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