Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Well, it’s Friday. Nice.

You made it through the week… which is awesome. But that means we’re one week closer to the start of the Cross season.

Yikes.

It’s sneaking up on us quickly!

So, what to do today…

Well, you know what? Lot’s of ya’all are still racing – finishing up the summer road or Mtb. season – and we need to factor that in to our workouts.

If you’re racing tomorrow, it makes today’s workout pretty obvious. You’re doing…

Can Openers – 

Here’s the drill:

– Warm up for 1/2 hour or so.

– Follow with several short attacking efforts, IE 30 seconds at 80% of your max, or pretty damn hard.

– Back off and spin for 5 minutes.

– Follow with 10-15 minute effort at AT level, or CP30, or “I could talk to you if I had to, but I don’t want to” level.

– Spin for several minutes.

– Follow with 5-6 full gas sprint efforts on a straight section of paved road, level or slightly uphill.

Do half of these from a near standstill, and for 1/2 of them, get going at a pretty good clip before you start the sprint.

… spin out the legs, go home, and get ready for the race.

What’s that you say?  You aren’t racing tomorrow?

Give these a shot today anyways.

It’s important to get your day-before-race openers routine dialed in well before you use ’em in earnest.

When race season rolls around – and it ain’t that far away – you want to have a pretty damn good idea of just how much work you need to do the day before a race in order to prime your pump for a peak performance on race day itself.

The goal with your openers is to do just enough work to prepare your body for the next day’s efforts, while being absolutely certain that you don’t leave any of your performance out on the road the day before.

How do you figure out how much to do?

Practice, trial & error, and note-taking.

Do your openers, keep track of exactly what you do, and then keep track of the results the next day.

Start doing that today.

Trust me, the effort will be worth it.

Have fun,

M

~ by crosssports on August 8, 2014.

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