The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Wednesday, 10.21.15. “We were promised hoverboards!”
Howdy folks,
Did you wake up this morning and think to yourself “Where the hell is my hoverboard? We were promised hoverboards?”
I sure did.
Some days are just freaking disappointing.
Sunday was one of those days for me. Just had a bad damn day on the bike.
I’ve got a persistent recurring back issue, and some days it goes out on me and I just can’t make the pedals go round in anything remotely resembling race level intensity.
There’s not much I can do about it when it happens, but there’s often something I could have done to prevent it from happening in the first place.
So, while I was laying in bed all day on Monday, I made a list of the things I might have done to precipitate this particular occurrence.
Take something disappointing, try to learn from it.
That’s the idea at least.
Everybody has a bad day. Even these guys…
Enough mayhem and mishaps went down in that race to make anyone feel better about their luck.
At least our bad moments generally aren’t caught on live TV.
S**T not only happens, it happens to everyone.
Clay feet everywhere.
Remember that.
Step one to getting over a bad day?
It’s. O. K. Happens to everyone.
Step 2?
Turn your bad day into a learning experience.
What do I mean by that?
Identify what went wrong in your race.
Did you have a physical injury or problem?
Back problem? Knee pain? Nagging injury flare up?
Did you have a Physical Conditioning issue?
Couldn’t get going at the start of the race? Ran out of gas partway through?
Did you have a Skills-related issue?
Just couldn’t quite do something as well as you needed to?
Did you have an equipment problem?
Something just not working on/with your bike?
Did you have an equipment failure?
Roll a tire? Break a rim? Burp sealant all over the course?
Etc., etc.
Got it?
Write it down.
I’ve talked about this before, but if you aren’t keeping track of your races, taking notes on your performances and your training?
You should be.
Start doing so.
Next?
Figure out why what went wrong, went wrong.
For example:
physical injury or problem?
What – “My back hurt so badly I had to stop and walk part of the course”
Why – “I had a car accident a while back, and this just happens sometimes”
Physical Conditioning issue?
What – “Couldn’t get going at the start of the race”
Why – Poor warm up, ate too close to race time
Skills related issue?
What – tripped and fell over the barriers.
Why – Suck at barriers
Equipment problem?
What – “was sliding all over the place in the mud”
Why – “Wrong damn tires, too much pressure”
Equipment failure?
What – Burped sealant all over the course
Why – believed specious claims that tubeless cyclocross tires were a good idea
Etc.
So, now you know what went wrong, and you know why it went wrong.
Write it down.
Next?
Solutions.
Don’t just whine about this stuff, figure out how you’re going to prevent it from happening again.
Back problems?
– Schedule a massage. See a PT, get some acupuncture, actually do the damn core exercises you hate so much.
Poor warm up?
– Read this, then construct a game plan for your next race that includes a good warm up.
Suck at barriers or some other vital skill?
– Bang. Lots of reading to do. Pick your poison, and work on it today!
Wrong tires?
– Glue up some new ones.
Wrong tire pressure?
– Go out riding today, and experiment with your tire pressure.
Burped your tubeless tires?
Create a list of things you’re doing this week to fix the problems of last week.
Wednesday being Skills Day on this here page, for today’s workout you’re going to pick two specific skill-related problems you had at the races this past weekend and work on them tonight.
And let’s not kid ourselves; we’ve got the video documentation right up at the top of this page. Even the best in the world still have skills they need to work on.
Have fun!
M
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