Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Ugh, sorry this is going up so late! Holiday time, amirite?

Anyways, it’s Friday. You’ve probably read my sermon on Fridays before, but as a brief refresher, if you’re racing on Sunday try to avoid the temptation to ride too hard today. You need to have legs for the race in two days, and if you go hard today… you won’t have em.

This can be super hard to keep in check when you’ve got the day off (believe me, I know…) but… well… try.

If ya aren’t racing tomorrow, but you are racing on Sunday do just the bare minimum today, or take the day off. “Bare minimum” means just enough to force the turkey blockade through the system, not 3-4 hours on the bike, ok?

Racing tomorrow? Today you’re doing…

Ignition – 

You’re going to do a series of short, hard sprints midway through a 1 – 1 1/2 hour ride. Before you head out the door, give some thought to where you can do that effectively.

A flat, straight, low-traffic section of road is what you’re looking for.

It would be great if it’s about a :45 minute ride away; that would make things nice and simple.

Hop on your bike and roll out the door.

Ride steady, at a moderate pace for 1/2 hour – 45 minutes, eventually winding up at the aforementioned stretch of road.

You’re now going to do a series of Hard out of the saddle sprints.

How hard?

Well, hard to say. You’ll start to get the hang of it pretty quickly, but figure that you’re shooting for an output level that will allow you to crank out all the sprints in the set at about the same level, but not easily.

You aren’t sprinting to failure here, and you aren’t doing a max power test.

Don’t overdo it, you’re trying to open your legs, not destroy them.

Make sense?

10 sprints, 10 seconds each.

1 minute between each sprint.

After the last sprint, roll back home spinning easily to recover.

Budget at least 15 – 20 minutes for the spin/ride back home.

when you get home, put your feet up and relax.

For some folks, this isn’t quite enough to get their legs open and ready the day before the race – or at least it doesn’t feel like it’s enough – and the importance of “feeling” ready can’t really be overestimated.

If you’re part of this club (I am) add a 10-minute effort at right about your 2×20 output level before you start the sprint sets.

Warm up, 10 minute effort, 5 minutes spinning, sprint efforts, spin down, go home.

M

~ by crosssports on November 23, 2018.

Posted in Cyclocross