Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

No frills posting today, as I’m sitting in a hotel room on the road doing bike fits.

As I wrote yesterday, if you can double up on that workout today, awesome.

If you can’t, maybe because you need something that’s less time consuming? Maybe try…

The Hills Have (small) i’s

Warm up, ideally in the course of a ride out to some hilly terrain.

Find a hill that will take you three to five minutes or so to climb. You should be able to do the climb in the big gear, but barely. It should be right at that level of steepness where you have a hard time deciding.

Hit the base of the climb hard, out of the saddle, and accelerate into it.

Sit down when you feel you’re starting to lag, and drop a couple of gears. Spin (but still fast, IE about the same as your 2×20 minute level.)

Stay seated for 5-10 pedal strokes, then…

Out of the saddle, Attack! Hard like you did at the base of the climb.

Same as before, when you start to lag, sit down, spin.

Repeat to top of climb.

At the top of the climb, get out of the saddle, and accelerate as the grade eases.

Power over the top and well into the descent, until your speed is great enough that coasting is faster than pedaling.

Coast/spin to bottom of climb.

Go again.

Repeat 3-5 times. That’s a set.

Recover by spinning between sets, time of recovery equal to the time of the set.

Ideally, you do this on both sides of a climb, or you can loop back around and repeat on the same climb.

Better to go shorter and harder than to extend the ride and slow things down.

Spin out your legs, go home, relax.

Remember folks, it’s not worth it to push through the smoke screen if you’re having problems with it! Stay inside if at all in doubt.

Have fun!

M

~ by crosssports on August 6, 2017.

Posted in climbing, Cyclocross, The Workout Of The Day