Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Before we get started, feel free to insert my weekly appeal to rest up today if you need it.

For a large percentage of people, more than one recovery day is needed after a weekend of tough racing, especially when they’ve doubled up and raced Saturday and Sunday. Especially especially when the weather gets wet and muddy, and you’re battling the cold and the muck as well as the race.

Try to honestly assess just how tired you are today. Really, really tired? Maybe take the day off.

Feeling good, though?

Right on.

Today we’re doing…

Attack/respond intervals

These are done on a short, sharp climb, barely big-ringable.

You want a climb that you can hit hard out of the saddle for up to 30 seconds,  then ride hard down the back of or turn around and head back down at speed. The key is having a run-out at the bottom of the hill that will allow you to sprint without fearing for your life.

Warm up well, 30 minutes or so, with a couple of sharp efforts to open your legs.

Roll into the base of the hill at a pretty decent clip, but not so fast that you can’t increase your pace as you hit the hill.

As soon as you hit the hill, sprint. Hard.

Sprint up the hill, out of the saddle to start, sitting down as you get towards the top or as comfort dictates. This is more a style thing than anything else. It’s OK to stay out of saddle if that works better for you.

Minimum 1o seconds, maximum 30 seconds for this effort.

As soon as you hit the top, turn around and head back down, riding hard – as if you were reacting to an attack or trying to catch back on the race-winning move.

Full-gas fast sprint at bottom of hill until spun out. Really go for it, like you’re sprinting for a race win.

Remember when I said the run-out at the bottom of the hill was important? Yeaah…

Recover by spinning easily for 1 minute, go again.

5-10 sets of 5-10. Yeah, that’s a really broad range.

You’ll see why when you try these. Some folks can barely get through 5, some people are barely getting going at 5.

Honestly, if you aren’t gassed when you’ve done 5, you probably need to go harder… but there are exceptions. Some people can just Energizer Bunny the crap out of this type of thing…

Maybe you!

We’ll find out.

Recover on spin home, eat, collapse in a heap on couch.

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 October 18, 2016.

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, The Workout Of The Day