The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Thursday, 10.27.16. “In which I kick the begging up a notch”
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Now on with the workout…
As you’ve probably guessed by now, it’s Thursday, and as per usual, Thursday is a bit of a challenge, due to the widely varying weekend schedules of all ya’all.
So, a couple of options today.
If you’re racing on Saturday, today you might think about taking it easy today, or even taking the day off. If you’re doing a double this weekend, rest is almost certainly recommended today.
Unless you’re not really concerned about results this weekend, and are “training through” the weekend in hopes of stimulating a peak period later on down the road.
Huh? What?
Yeah. This stuff gets complicated.
For most people, though, the races right in front of us are the ones that are important, so the focus is – and should be – on them.
So take today slow if you’re racing on Saturday. At most, go for a…
One to Two Hour Moderate Ride –
Get on your bike.
Go ride for an hour or two.
No hard efforts, but do throw in a couple of moderate ones. By moderate, I mean just that. You can sprint for the town line, but you should be laughing while you do it.
You’re not doing a recovery spin, so you need to put a little bit of gas into the pedals… just don’t go out and kill yourself.
Check out the view, smell the flowers, just do it while you’re putting a little bit of effort into the pedals.
1 notch above a recovery ride.
Make sense?
Racing on Sunday this weekend?
Cool. You get to punish yourself a wee bit today. You get to do…
The Slow Roast –
No real warm up effort required. You pretty much hop on the bike and go. This can also be done on the trainer. Ouch.
So, hop on the bike.
Ramp up to a level of output that’s approximately 2/3 of your FTP.
Hold this level for the duration of the ride.
Yup. You’re looking to average that power level for the whole damn thing, and as much as possible, you want to keep the output pretty darn consistent.
Just keep rolling along piling on the miles at a steady output level.
If you can, you do the whole damn ride one damn gear bigger than you feel comfortable.
Ouch.
When you start out, it’s probably going to feel like you’re pushing too easy on the hills, and too hard on the flats. Don’t let this get you twisted. You’re doing it right, and it’ll all even out eventually.
How long are you going to ride?
Well, as long as you have.
Got an hour?
Great.
Two?
Great.
By the end, it’s just going to feel like your legs are made of lead. Or tapioca. One or the other, depending.
When you’re finished, go home, eat, relax, recover.
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…
(and, in case you’re wondering…. nope, S.E. doesn’t pay for the plug. I am one of their coaches, though, so if you’d like to work with me as a coach, click on the logo.)
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