The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Tuesday, 8.2.16. “Embrace your nemesis”
Howdy folks,
Well, here we are, It’s Tuesday again… and, yup; you’re getting another repeat of the old standard workout today.
But let’s chat just a bit first, ok?
This workout, the way I suggest that people do it, is hard. Especially for folks that haven’t done much of these in the past – or really need to do some work on the energy systems involved – it can be quite a shock just how hard this is.
Flat-out, no bullshit, this isn’t a workout that’s easy to do, or particularly fun (except for a very small subset of masochists. You know who you are.)
You should still do it even if you hate it.
Honestly, he more you hate something like this, the more likely it is that you stand to gain a lot from doing it. Cyclists typically dislike the workouts they’re the worst at the most, and that hate – more often than not – indicates areas where some of the greatest gains are to be made.
So, yes. This workout might really suck for you.
Good. Keep plugging away.
Embrace the suck.
It’s worth it.
Onward with The People’s (Nemesis) Workout,
The Classic 2×20 –
So, hey… what the heck is this 2×20 thing?
Pretty simply, the 2×20 looks like this:
– Warm up.
– Go as hard as you can for 20 minutes.
– Recover for 5 minutes.
– Go again for another 20 minutes.
– Spin out your legs
– Take a nap
That’s the basic version. Success on this is, however, all in the details.
First of all, warm up.
No, seriously. Don’t just hop on the bike and blast one out.
Warming up makes a difference, especially if you’re doing this as a test session.
You don’t need to do anything super hard or super involved, just make sure the legs are up and running before you kick off the workout proper.
Spin for a bit, blast a couple of 30 second to 2 minute efforts off pretty hard, spin a bit more, then go for it.
When you do go for it, really go for it.
But in a controlled sort of way.
The idea here is to go as hard as you can for the duration of both intervals without being forced to go easier at the end of the second interval. If you run out of gas before you finish the second interval, you went to hard. If your vision isn’t blurry at the end of the second interval, you went too easy.
If you’re doing this with a powermeter, you want your wattage output to be as close to constant as possible. How constant?
Can you keep it in a 10 watt range?
Probably not.
15 watts?
More likely
20 watts?
Try.
Keep it steady.
These take practice to do well, and the better you get, the harder they get (you’re welcome.) This is a workout that’s a natural for the turbo trainer, and that’s how I do ‘em.
This is a good thing, because I always wind up flat on my back on the floor trying not to puke after the 2nd interval.
I’m really not kidding about the blurry vision thing. You should aspire to seeing-spots level of output on these.
If you can learn to push through your limits, really push, you will get better and you will get better fast.
Remember, you might hate doing these… but it’s a good hate!
Have fun!
M
Hey! Check out…
For all your bike coaching and training needs.
Crosssports's Weblog 