Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Holy cow! There’s a cyclocross race in the Seattle area tomorrow!

Yup. You heard me right, tomorrow is the Washington Women of CX event at St. Edward Park.

Yup. There’s a men’s race, too.

I’ll admit it… I won’t be racing tomorrow. Just too damn early in the “season” for me, but I’ll be heading out there to support the event. If you see me out there, say “hi.”

If you’re going to race tomorrow, that means that today you’re doing…

Can Openers – 

Here’s the drill:

– Warm up for 1/2 hour or so, spinning easy with a couple of short bursts thrown in.

– Follow with several short attacking efforts, IE 30 seconds at 80% of your max, or pretty damn hard. 2 – 3 of ’em.

– Back off and spin for 5 minutes.

– Follow with 10-15 minute effort at right about your 2×20 output level, or “I could talk to you if I had to, but I don’t want to” level.

– Spin for several minutes.

– Follow with 5-6 hard 10 second efforts, ideally on CX type variable terrain, level or slightly uphill.

 – Finish  with 5-6 start efforts on a straight section of paved road, level or slightly uphill.  You want to begin these from a dead stop, with one foot unclipped. Do not stop until you get at least        3 perfect starts in a row, and I mean perfect. This is the cross equivalent of practicing free throws. Make ‘em count!

 – spin out the legs, go home, and get ready for the race.

Not racing tomorrow?

Well, if you’re planning on riding pretty hard tomorrow, that same openers workout isn’t a bad idea for you, either.

Like just about everything, it takes practice to get your day-before-racing openers routine dialed in. It’s a good idea to do that dialing before the season starts so that you’re not experimenting when it counts.

Stuff like “how long does it take me to get this routine cranked out” and “where the hell do I do this, and do I have to drive somewhere to get it done, and how long is that going to take” are things you want to have well sorted, well in advance. And that’s kinda’ the least of it.

How much volume/intensity do you need to put in the day before a race to be ready to race?

How much volume/intensity is too damn much, and will result in your leaving your legs out on the road the day before the race?

I dunno.

Do you?

If you don’t, maybe it’s a good time to figure that out.

Hit those Can Openers hard today, then see how you feel in your workout tomorrow.

Next week, do the openers session a wee bit differently.

See how you feel.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Take notes.

Experiment.

Figure this stuff out.

You’ll be glad you did!

Have fun!

M

What’s that you say? You’d kinda’ like to have a cycling coach help figure this stuff out for you? Check out…

~ by crosssports on August 26, 2016.

Posted in Cyclocross, openers, The Workout Of The Day