Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Well, still sad.

I expect that feeling to stick around for a while. The fact that it’s the 11th of September isn’t helping things; this is just a rough day for a boy from NY.

I will be thinking of Jerry at the race on Sunday for sure, and I know I won’t be the only one.

Speaking of “race on Sunday,” if you, too, are racing on Sunday, today you should take it easy.

Like, really easy.

Personally, all I have planned is an easy shake out ride on my CX bike, fully built up and configured as I plan to race it on Sunday. Same tires, same shoes, socks, skinsuit, the works.

When it’s the first race of the season, there simply hasn’t been any opportunity to shake out the bugs in the system, so today I’m going to get a little bit of time in on the race rig, just to make sure that nothing glaringly obvious needs to be fixed before Sunday.

What do I mean by “Glaringly Obvious?”

Well, great example: a few years back, when I was racing for a manufacturer that is no longer in the Cyclocross market (RIP, Redline!) I got my kit for the season from the team manager in the parking lot of the venue, about an hour before the first race of the year.

No big deal, right?

I wish.

There was this one seam in the chamois pad of the skinsuit that wasn’t quite right, and it somehow interacted with the saddle on the “B” bike – the “B” bike only – in such a way that…

I’ll spare you the details.

Suffice to say, it was really damn unpleasant.

Nominally the same saddle, and exactly the same position on both bikes, but somehow there was an evil synergy at work that just tore s**t up.

Switched bikes 1/2 way through a muddy race and… OUCH!!

Ugh.

So, last time I made that mistake.

New kit?

I check it out on both the “A” and the “B” bike before I race in it.

Suggest you do the same.

So, bearing that in mind?

Today go for a…

1.5 – 2 Hour Moderate Ride –

Get on your bike.

Go ride for 2 hours.

No hard efforts, but do throw in a couple of moderate ones. By moderate, I mean just that. You can sprint for the town line, but you should be laughing while you do it.

You’re not doing a recovery spin, so you need to put a little bit of gas into the pedals… just don’t go out and kill yourself.

Check out the view, smell the flowers…

…just do it while you’re putting a little bit of effort into the pedals.

If you’re doing this as dry run of new gear, as suggested above, you need to put the gear through it’s paces a bit, so do so.

Throw in a few mounts/dismounts, and ride some corners aggressively. Make sure those tires are glued on tight, better to roll one now than in a race!

This is 1 notch above a recovery ride, but just one notch.

Don’t overdo it. You should finish up the ride feeling refreshed, not fatigued.

Got your gear all sorted? Feeling a bit tired today? Racing on Sunday?

You might even think about taking the day entirely off the bike today. Day off two days before a race can be a really good plan for a fair number of folks, maybe you’re one of them.

If you take today off, though, you’ll probably find that you need to hit it a bit harder in your openers tomorrow.

Which we’ll talk about, well… tomorrow.

Until then, enjoy!

M

PS – Forgot to add this! If you’re racing tomorrow, scroll down a wee bit and look on the right side of the page for the “Search” box. It’s just below the Facebook link.
Type in “Openers” and then click away. Lots of day-before-race workouts for you to enjoy!

Hey, check out…

Yup. I work for them.

~ by crosssports on September 11, 2015.

Posted in Cyclocross, The Workout Of The Day