Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Happy Labor Day!

Isn’t it great to see that in 2016 we can still honor the organized labor movement on the first Monday of September by siccing the attack dogs of private security agents on non-violent protesters?

Yay!

OK, sorry. Political hat off, on with the cyclocross.

It being Labor Day, It’s a fair bet that some of you are off racing today. If you are, have fun! Ride smooth, go fast. We’ll talk about post-race recovery and things of that sort the next couple/few weekends, stay tuned.

If you aren’t racing today, you (hopefully) have the day off, and might be able to get out and get some kind of a group ride in. Road, mtb… maybe on the CX bike? Doesn’t much matter. Get out there and enjoy the day off, and get some riding in. Have some fun. It’s a holiday!

Personally, I don’t actually have the day off, but I’ve got a light schedule, so today I’m going to punch out an extra-credit…

2×20 Classic (yikes…)

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.

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.

It’ll be painful, though.

I promise.

If you don’t have the day off, and you (hopefully!) rode pretty hard this weekend, and you aren’t feeling as masochistic as I am… well, it’s Monday as usual! Time for a nice…

Recovery Spin – 

– Get on your bike. Roll out into the street – or into your living room if you’re on the turbo watching the vid – and just spin around for an hour. Or more. Or less. Whatever it takes.

– Really small gear, no hard efforts – heck, no medium effort.

– Spin. You’re looking to move your legs around in circles, almost like there is no chain on the bike.

– The idea is to get your body moving, flush the systems out, and speed your recovery.

– Just get out on the road and spin easily and aimlessly. At a certain point, your legs will start to loosen up.

– When that happens, turn around and go home.

–  If you’re doing these on the trainer, same deal. Just spin. No hard efforts, just make the legs go around in circles in a small gear.

– Follow up with as much relaxation as you can. Eat, stretch, and put your legs up. Get a massage if possible.

Enjoy!

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 September 5, 2016.

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, recovery, The Workout Of The Day