Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Welcome to another Wednesday, and as per usual, we’re going to talk a bit about skills today.

Before we get to that, though, tonight is the last night of the Wednesday Night World’s Cyclocross Training Series out at North SeaTac Park.

Come on out and join us if you’re in the area!

After tonight, there will be a short break in the training sessions up here while all the bike industry folks get their Interbike (and CX Vegas) on, but things will start up again on the 28th, as we get rolling out at the Jerry Baker Memorial Velodrome.

Info on that series can/will be found here. 

Now, on with the post!

Last week we talked a bit about our Starts. If you didn’t happen to read that, maybe give it a once over today. We’re going to be doing a few start efforts in this workout, so brushing up on the basics ain’t a bad idea.

That’ll come in a bit, though. Let’s start at the beginning of today’s workout…

1 – warm up for 10 minutes.

2 – Stretch out after you’re warm.

Pay special attention to all the muscles used in those movements you make hopping on and off the bike that are different from what you usually do (We’ve talked about stretching on here in the past, check out the search function if you want/need some more info.)

3 – Dismount/remount  skills for 5-10-15 minutes

– Start at literally a walking pace, and slowly increase speed until you can mount and dismount the bike smoothly and perfectly at full speed. Do not jump on and off the bike, you are looking to smoothly slide yourself on and off.

Need a refresher on the basics? Check out this old post…

Do just the most  basic dismount/remount as per above until you have it down cold, smooth as silk.

When you’re perfect (hah!) throw some barriers into the mix.

4 – Figure eight drill.

Set up 2 cones or 2 rocks or two… somethings. Doesn’t much matter what it is.

Ride in a figure eight pattern around the cones…

– first pedaling the entire time.

No coasting.

Pedal all the way around the figure 8, including the turns.

Practice using the brakes while still pedaling. This is one of those secret techniques that – once you figure it out – makes a huge difference. When you stop pedaling you lose traction, so don’t stop pedaling!

Experiment with this, it’s a game-changer.

5 – Starts.

Just like the beginning of a race. One foot on the ground, dead standstill, get-up-and-go.

Begin with a few medium effort starts, working on all the things we talked about above.

Remember…

– Start with your pedals at 3&9 o’clock, not 12 and six.

– Alternate butt-on-saddle and off

– Alternate hands in drops with hands on hoods.

When you start to get the feel for things, hit it hard a couple of times, then back off.

2 sets of all the variations above at a medium to slow pace.

Feeling solid, skills-wise?

Nice.

Get  yourself ready to go hard.

– Bang! Six full-gas starts.

– short effort, just go long enough that you are up to full speed, then back down, turn around, go again.

Spin easy for a couple of minutes, then…

– Bang! ~pause~ Bang!

– Six full-gas starts, but each start effort will look like this…

– Full effort start from a dead-stop, foot on ground.

– As soon as you get up to full speed, sit back in saddle, take one deep breath, go again, HARD!

– Ouch.

6 – Recover for a few minutes, then Finish the night with two interval efforts on relatively easy terrain.

– “Easy” as in a loop on grass with some tight-ish turns on it, or some pretty buffed double-track.

– Go hard, and work on accelerations out of the turns.

– Every time you slow down entering a turn, get on the gas on the way out of it, ass out of the saddle, working hard.

– 6 minutes full gas, rest for 2 minutes, then go again for 5.

– Start each effort with, well… with a start. Like you were working on a couple of minutes ago…

Warm down, go home, relax.

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 14, 2016.

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