Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Week two, day 5, which means it’s Friday. Which is always a tough day to prescribe a generic workout.

Frankly, I’ve got no idea at all what your weekend plans look like, and what you should do today is predicated almost entirely upon what you’re planning to do the next couple of days.

Going hard this weekend?

Should probably take it easy today.

Gotta’ work tomorrow, or got stuff other than cycling to do?

Maybe get some intervals in on the trainer today.

Racing tomorrow or Sunday?

Damn well better be thinking about that today!

If you’ve been following along here in previous years, you’ve heard this spiel before. Heck, if you read last Friday’s post you’ve already heard the “light” version of it.

But it bears repeating. Again.

If you want to get better, don’t just go out and ride, ride with intention.

Every time you swing a leg over the bike, have some idea of what you’re going to do that day. Even if what you’re doing is “just” having fun, or “just” riding with some friends, the group, etc.

Honestly, that’s an especially important thing to be clear on.

If you’re just going out to have some fun, just have some damn fun. That’s a more than OK goal for a ride, in a lot of ways it’s as good as it gets.

This is, ultimately, about having fun.

Just don’t get it twisted.

If you’re headed out on a group ride, don’t meet up with them thinking that you’re going to somehow subject the whole crew to your scheduled interval session, or your zone 3 limit.

It’ll suck for all of you.

Enjoy the ride for what it is, don’t make it something it isn’t.

‘Nuff said?

End sermon.

So, workout today?

Yeesh. After all that?

I dunno man, how about something to do it you don’t have any big plans tomorrow?

How about some…

Short Hill Repeats…

You want to do these on a climb that has you right on the edge of being over-geared.

There are a couple of ways to do this…

– big-ring-able, but just at the edge of being a small ring climb.

– small ring, but with steep or variable terrain or both.

Each effort should take 5 – 10 seconds or so, which tells you how long the climb needs to be.

Maybe a little bit larger than that.

Now we’re talking.

Warm up for approx. 1/2 hour, then roll on up to the base of the climb you have selected.

Begin your intervals with an out of the saddle, full race-pace ATTACK into the climb.

You’re looking to blast up the climb, full gas the whole way.

It’s perfectly OK to sit down 1/2 -3/4 of way through the effort – especially if you need to do so to maintain traction – but don’t let the intensity drop.

Try to maintain your intensity for the duration of interval.

You’re going to recover for 30 seconds between each rep, and then 2-5 minutes between sets.

5 reps. per set.

Minimum of 5 sets. Hopefully more.

If you can do more than 5, great… but try to maintain the level of output you had on your first set.

If you have a power meter, you’re done when the wattage you can maintain throughout the set drops off the edge of the table; that’ll be pretty obvious when it happens.

If the power comes back after you recover for a couple of minutes, then you’re not done. You’re done when it doesn’t come back, make sense?

Spin out & warm down after.

Have fun

M

~ by crosssports on July 28, 2017.

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, The Workout Of The Day