The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Thursday, 9.3.15. “Up In Smoke”

Howdy folks,

Thanks to all ya’all that came out to the…

…practice last night. Much fun was had by all. We worked on our downhill cornering skills last night, and the improvements in confidence and skill that people made were pretty inspiring. Hope to see even more of you out there next week, which will be the last night of the series.

Today, though?

Today,

Get High!

(knees. get your knees high. What did you think I was talking about?)

We’re going to be doing some more running today, and we’re going to be running on stairs, so… well… start by find yourself some stairs.

These are going to be short intervals, so you don’t need stadium stairs or anything like that. Something in the neighborhood of one single flight of standard office building stairs is perfect.

In a pinch, you can use a grassy knoll or hillside, but stairs are really the ticket for what we’re dong today.

– get on your bike and warm up for 15 minutes or so.

– Mosey on over to your stairs and get set. Stretch, have a sip of water, turn up the volume on your Ipod.

– Jog up the stairs. Walk down.

– Repeat x3

– Sprint! up stairs, fast, using whatever stride is most comfortable. Walk down.

– Repeat x3

Rest for 1 minute, walking slowly up and down stairs.

– Sprint up stairs, this time using quick, tiny strides, 1 stair step at a time. Jog down.

– Repeat x3

Rest again, same as before.

– Sprint up stairs, this time using long strides, several stair steps at a time. Walk down.

– Repeat x 3

Rest again.

– Sprint up stairs, combining the previous two exercises; long step, followed by 2 short steps. Do 1x.

Walk down.

– Run up stairs, high knees, exaggeratedly so…

Repeat x3

Rest again, 2-5 minutes.

Sprint up stairs, free form, just go as fast as you can. Go until spent.

– Repeat entire damn thing if you’re a freaking animal.

Get back on bike, spin out your legs, go home.

Notes –

– If you can, go really damn hard. If you do this right, it’s a brutal workout.

– If you haven’t been doing much running this season, be careful. Don’t overdo this, and don’t risk screwing everything up for the rest of the season by blowing up a knee or something. Better yet, try this.

Have fun!

Yup. Still suggesting you check out…