Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Yee-haw!

It’s Friday!

The weekend is almost here!

Sooooo…

Are you racing this weekend?

On Sunday?

If you are, give some thought to taking today off the bike, as we talked about yesterday.

Racing tomorrow?

Sweet.

Today, do some…

Can Openers – 

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 start efforts on a straight section of paved road, level or slightly uphill.

You want to begin these from a dead stop, with one foot unclipped.

Do not stop until you get at least 3 perfect starts in a row, and I mean perfect; this is the cross equivalent of practicing free throws.

We all know how important starts are in the race, so make ‘em count.

I don’t quit until I nail 5 in a row, but set your own threshold.

Got em’ dialed? Ripped ‘em?

Cool.

Spin out the legs, then go home and rest.

You’re ready for tomorrow’s race.

Not racing at all this weekend?

Cool.

Today, take a swing at some…

Short, sharp, stair repeats – 

First, warm up on your bike if you can.

Ideally, you will also warm down on the bike.

Don’t run with the bike on your shoulder or anything silly like that, just get the legs working on the bike before you run.

Maybe ride out to wherever you’re going to do these (you’ll need a short flight of stairs) with your running shoes in a back pack or something. 

When you do get to wherever that is…

You’re going to do sets of 5 repeats on a short flight or section of stairs.

*Short* section of stairs.

10 seconds at the most going hard. Even shorter is fine, heck 5 seconds is groovy.

Focus on moving your feet fast. Quick steps, high turnover, short strides.

Really short strides, really quick steps.

Concentrate on moving your feet quickly, not on getting up the stairs quickly. 

You’ll see pretty (ahem) quickly that these aren’t the same thing.

Run up, walk down.

2 minutes between sets.

Repeat sets until you see a drop off in performance, IE you just aren’t knocking down the reps as fast as you were.

That might take a while, or it might happen in just a couple of sets. Depends on what kind of running form you have. 

It is what it is.

Don’t keep going past the point that you’re really noticeably slowing down.

Unless you’ve got some pretty decent running form in the system already, and you’re looking to put in some serious work.

If that’s the case?
Have at it.

Go until you can’t anymore.

Ouch.

However many you do…

*STOP IF YOUR LEGS START TO HURT IN A BAD WAY, IE: NOT A FATIGUE TYPE PAIN*

Have fun!
M

~ by crosssports on September 4, 2014.

Posted in Cyclocross, 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, cyclocross workouts, 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