The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Sunday, 10.30.16. “Strategery”
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Now on with the workout…
Howdy folks,
Well, this is a Sunday workout, and Sunday is a race day for most people, so hey… go race.
If you’re not racing today? Check out Yesterday’s post.
If you are, well… have you thought about your warm up?
This is particularly on my mind today, as I chose to race Saturday this week, and due to some unfortunate life stuff, I basically had no warmup at all. I got to ride about 1/2 the course about 5 minutes before the previous race, and then dealt with s**t on the phone for a while until I ran to the line about 5 minutes before the gun went off.
Not ideal, not even a little.
But you do the best you can with what you’ve got.
I chose to ride as much of the course as I can rather than get a better warmup in on the trainer, because –
- I didn’t bring a trainer to the race (dumb, and even dumber because I don’t actually have one that would work on my CX bike right now.)
- I’m of the opinion that it’s better to get at least some course preview in and be under warmed-up than to have a great warm-up and not know anything about the course.
So, how did that work out?
Mixed bag.
When in doubt, lead it out, so I holeshot the race and made sure that people who actually knew what the hell the good lines were had to go around me in order to use them. No one went around for a full lap, mission accomplished on that front.
1 full lap in on the front, and then the wheels came off. I know I actually tend to ride pretty well with minimal warmup, because I’ve kept track of things like that over the years, and noted warmup correlation to race results, but < ten minutes of just rolling around part of a course checking out lines ain’t enough, even for someone who does fine with the barest minimum.
Especially when this also means that there wasn’t any time to stretch and do all the other nonsense that I’ve been doing to fake my bad back having self through an hour of CX.
So, holeshot, full lap at the front, wheels come off, back seizes up, three guys go past, then damage control for the rest of the race.
What does damage control mean?
Well, in this case it meant “do as little as possible on the long uphill road sections of the course, then go full-gas on the technical mud and the descents.”
This got to be pretty nip-and-tuck, with two riders behind me getting really damn close on the fireroad, then losing just enough time on the technical sections for me to stay clear all the way to the finish.
Yay! Ish.
Not a great ride, on a not-so-great day, but the best I could pull out of the situation, and a testament to the power of experience and trickery.
Moral of the story?
Riding strong is good. Sometimes you can’t, and when you can’t, try to ride smart.
Smart and strong?
That’s ideal, of course.
But make what you’ve got work as best you can.
And get that damn warmup in!
Perhaps a warmup like…
The RSWO –
– Get on trainer. Spin for about 5 minutes.
– 2-3 minutes at your 20 minute output level
– Shift into big ring/largest cog combination.
– Ride 30 seconds in this gear, then shift up one cog.
– Ride 30 seconds in this gear, then shift up one cog.
– Repeat until you hit the hardest gear you’ve got, or can handle.
– Ride 30 seconds in that gear, and then shift all the way back down to the Big/big combo.
– Ride 30 seconds in that gear, then immediately shift to hardest gear you can handle.
– Full gas sprint, out of the saddle, for 30 seconds.
Back to big/big combo.
– Spin for two minutes.
Repeat The entire sequence, minus the 2nd “20 minute level” effort.
Go forth and conquer your race.
Enjoy!
M
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