The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Tuesday, 10.21.14. “Both Barrels”
Howdy folks,
Yikes! Sorry about getting this up late today, have had a crazy couple of days.
Lots of life off the bike, some good, some bad, all time consuming.
Just totally slammed.
I bet you know what that’s like.
If you race both days on a weekend – and you have to deal with all the other “little” things that life throws your way – when Monday rolls around and hits you with both barrels?
You’re probably in for a Looooong day.
The kind of day that all the caffeine in the world can’t fix.
I had that kind of a day yesterday, and I’m guessing a lot of you did as well.
Know what?
You can’t recover from a full weekend of racing with a Monday spent dealing with all of life’s other stresses.
If you’re a pro, maybe you can do it right.
You can go for a recovery spin, get a massage, then put your legs up for the rest of the day.
Does that sound even remotely close to what you did yesterday?
Yeah, me neither.
What you need is more damn time to give your body – and probably your brain – the recovery it needs.
So, if this sounds like you, and the batteries didn’t come back to a full charge after yesterday’s Recovery Spin?
Take today completely off the bike.
You earned it.
****
What’s that you say?
You’re ready and rarin’ to go, none of this day off nonsense for you?
Okay, you asked for it.
You get to do…
The MB15 –
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 -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 harder than that.
A fair bit harder would be good.
Ideally, you’ll hit these on periods at right about 150% of your FTP, if that’s a number that means anything to you. If it doesn’t, it’s probably pretty darn close to what you’re dong your 2×20 effort at.
Like I said, “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, or however many it takes to equal the duration of your races.
Seriously, Ouch.
Maybe not today though, eh?
Last week we were shooting for three 10 minute sets. Think you can do four today?
I dare ‘ya…
Enjoy!
M
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