The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Tuesday, 11.15.16. “This one goes to 11”
Howdy folks,
Thanks for following along.
As you’ve probably noticed, there’s been a “begging for money” bit attached to the beginning of this page for a couple of weeks now.
I’d like to thank everyone who has chipped in this season – and the past couple of seasons – when I’ve asked you to. It’s made a difference.
How much of a difference?
Well, let’s put it this way; the small donations from you folks have kept the lights on on this page.
There’s a certain (small) amount of money that has to come out of my pocket to pay for this page, and there’s a certain (larger) amount of money that, as a self-employed person, I need to write off based on the time spent on writing, posting, and – yes – giving training advice away that other people charge for.
So, once again, thanks to those who have contributed.
As much as I hate to say it, though, the contributions this season are way down compared to the last two years, and I don’t know if I can keep this going unless more people contribute.
Yeah. That sucks. I hate to have to write it, but I just looked at my bank balance, and the bills sitting on my desk, and the paying work that I’m putting off while I sit here writing this, and… well… crap.
So, that’s where we’re at.
I don’t know what the future of the CXWOTD looks like. Maybe there’s a paywall, maybe I try to pursue some corporate sponsorship, maybe I just bag the whole thing, maybe I scale things down and post less often… heck, maybe I just decide that I don’t care what the numbers say, and keep going anyways.
I dunno.
Nothing is going to happen in the short term. At minimum, I’m going to play things out through the end of this season before making any decisions.
Just wanted to let ya’all know what was what.
Thanks!
Now how about a workout?
Today we’re doing the same thing we did last Tuesday.
Why?
Well, to be honest, because it takes practice to actually do this workout correctly. This is a freaking hard workout to nail down the output levels for, especially if you don’t have both a power meter and a really good handle on your output levels even if you do.
It’s worth working on this, though. The hard work will definitely pay off, and as most folks are starting to drag their asses through the waning days of the season, some really damn hard efforts like this can be just the thing to push you past the fitness barrier that’s been keeping you off the podium, off the back, or away from those upgrade points.
This one definitely goes to 11…
The MB15 –
Warm up well. (Seriously. Warm up for this one, it’ll help.)
The basic idea here is to do a series of very short efforts with very little rest between them, for a pretty long period of time.
Sound confusing?
Here’s how it breaks down…
Warm up.
Get set…
Go!
15 seconds on
15 seconds off
15 seconds off
…and so on and so on for the duration of the interval.
How long are you going to do this for?
– Ten minutes
How many sets?
– Three -four sets, 5 minutes between sets. Ideally, you aspire to pile enough ten-minute segments on top of one another to equal the duration of your races.
How hard do you go during the “on” segments?
– Pretty darn hard.
You’re familiar with the level of effort you put out in your 2×20’s by now, right?
You need to go harder than that.
More than a little bit harder.
Ideally, you’ll hit these on periods at right about 150% of your FTP, if that’s a number that means anything to you. If it doesn’t, it’s harder than what you’re dong your 2×20 effort at. A lot harder. For most folks it’s going to be about 50% harder.
Like I said, “ouch.”
How easy do you go during the “off” segments?
– A lot easier, but you aren’t soft pedaling.
Right about 50% of your FTP, or in the neighborhood of half as hard as your 2×20 level.
This is going to seem way too easy when you’re starting out, but by the end – if you’re doing these right – it’s probably going to be really damn hard to keep the “off” that high.
Ouch.
It gets worse.
Ultimately, you want to be able to do however many of these it takes to equal the duration of your typical CX race.
Seriously, Ouch.
Do what you can.
That’s the basics of this workout, but let’s talk about how folks tend to screw this up, shall we?
First of all, you really can’t do this workout correctly with a power meter that’s set to anything other than instantaneous power display. Even a 3-second display rate can screw things up; that’s 20% of the interval duration!
So, go check your PM settings and adjust accordingly.
Next big screw up? These aren’t sprints.
You’re looking to nail these output levels for the duration of the intervals, not way overshoot them and then coast back down to them.
If you’re doing a 300 watt “on” segment, that means 300 watts for 15 seconds, not 400 watts for 5 seconds and then 250 watts for 10 seconds.
That’s fine and all, but it’a different exercise.
A corollary to this is, on the “off” segment, you aren’t coasting. Ever. You’re doing 50% of your ftp. It’s not uncommon at all for people to experience the “off” portion as just as hard – or harder! – as the “on” section as the overall duration of the interval set reaches the duration of your race day.
In graphic form, your workout should look more like a square wave –
Than like this…
(yup, snipped from a real-life attempt at this workout)
Make sense? Have at it!
“Enjoy” it!
M
Thanks for following my blog!
I’m not trying to get rich off this thing… or really even make any money from it at all.
It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this.
Heck, allow me to rephrase that; I can’t keep doing this if I lose money on it.
So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, and you’d like to see it continue, please do me a favor – and yes, it’s a favor, and I will be truly thankful for it – and send a buck or two (or five, or whatever…) my way.
How do you do that?
Simply click on the graphic below, and PayPal will be glad to make it happen.
Thanks for the consideration!
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(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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