Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Yay! It’s the weekend!

If you’re still following/playing along with this stuff at this point, odds are you’re racing Nationals or Worlds.

That means you need to get some quality work in this weekend. If you can, go race this weekend.

If you can’t?

At least one day this weekend you’re doing some hard riding, and today I recommend…

The Doppelganger – 

– Warm up well. If you have time, warm up as you would for a race. It’s good practice, if nothing else.

– After you have warmed up, do five full-gas starts. As always, focus on the second effort in your start, working on getting back on the gas right after you max-out on your initial effort and begin to sit down.

– 20 minutes at your 2×20 pace.

– 2 minute rest.

– 10 minutes of Over/Under intervals

The baseline for this interval is the level of effort/output you just did in the 20 minute effort.

However hard you went in that interval, you are going to try and hold that for the 10 minutes.

Easy, right?

Here’s the rub.

You’re going to sprint for 10 seconds every minute of the interval.

How hard are you going to sprint?

Hard, but not so hard that after you sprint, you can’t sit back down and keep churning away at your 2×20 level.

This takes some practice to figure out.

Don’t get all freaked out if you blow it and can’t hold the effort until the end. You tried, right?

Having said that, don’t wuss out and quit. This is some difficult s***, man. You want to get faster, right?

OK.

Here’s how this works.

Use a stopwatch. Put it on your bars.

Start the stopwatch.

Start the interval with a sprint, out of the saddle pretty hard, but not full gas.

Sprint for 10 seconds.

Back in saddle, drop into your 2×20 zone. Hold this until the minute mark, then –

Sprint again. 10 seconds.

Back in saddle, 2×20 level until 2 minute mark…

Repeat.

Repeat…

Repeat, until you have hit the 10 minute mark.

– 5 minute recovery

– 10 minutes at 2×20 level

– 2 minute recovery

– 10 minute Over/Under Intervals

– SPRINT at the very end of the last interval. 30 seconds, all out.

Really all out, like “I’m sprinting for the Maillot Arc en ciel” all out. You should be at least half-blind at the end of the sprint.

Heck, you should be so gassed when you start the sprint that just upping the tempo a little bit puts you in a box.

You asked for a race simulation, right?

Ouch…

Notes –

Yes, this is f-ing hard. Race-like, right?

You can always just sub in a 2×20 (or better yet a 3×20…) when you can’t race. That’s a hard damn workout if you do it right, but certainly nothing like the nightmare I just handed to you…

Have fun!

M

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Howdy folks,

Ouch…

Sorry this is going up so darn late… my internet service went out last night, and I’m just catching up.

I will keep this brief to get it up as quickly as possible…

Very few people are racing this weekend. If you are, schedule things out like a normal race weekend, IE moderate ride two days before the race, Can Openers the day before, then race yer A** off day of.

You know the drill by now.

No racing this weekend?

If you’re doing Master’s Worlds, you’re still in the fitness building game, because it’s too far out to just be coasting on what you’ve done already this season.

That being the case, you’re going to ride pretty hard this weekend, so guess what…

Today you’re doing a…

2 Hour Moderate Ride –

Get on your bike.

Go ride for 2 hours.

No hard efforts, but do throw in a couple of moderate ones. By moderate, I mean just that. You can sprint for the town line, but you should be laughing while you do it.

You’re not doing a recovery spin, so you need to put a little bit of gas into the pedals… just don’t go out and kill yourself.

Check out the view, smell the flowers, just do it while you’re putting a little bit of effort into the pedals.

1 notch above a recovery ride.

Have Fun!

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Howdy folks,

Cutting straight to the chase tonight (this morning? Ouch…)

The workout for today is…

Spin Ups –

– Get on your bike and warm up with a leisurely spin, 10-20 minutes.

– After you’re warm, find a nice, long, flat or slightly downhill section of road with little or no traffic.

– Begin interval by rolling into it at a moderate speed, in a gear that’s smaller than you would typically use to sprint.

– Get out of the saddle and sprint.

– Spin the gear up out of the saddle. When your leg speed gets to the point where it’s hard to maintain, sit down and keep going until you are totally spun-out. We’re talking  fast, can’t turn ‘em over any faster…

Think Road-Runner fast…

– Repeat x3-5

Recover for 5 minutes, rolling around at a leisurely pace.

– Go again, same thing.

Recover, then repeat as time and fitness allow. Shoot for 3-5 sets of  3-5.

Spin out your legs, go home.

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Howdy folks,

It’s Wednesday, and usually this means it’s Skills Day… Not today , though. Today, we’re going to go back to a classic and do…

the Slow Roast –

– first of all, this one is a little bit longer than most of the workouts we do – you’re looking to budget 2-2 1/2 hours.

– No real warm up effort required for this one, either. You can pretty much hop on the bike and go…

So, hop on the bike.

– Ramp up to a level that’s roughly 20 beats below your zone 5 heart rate level or a wattage that’s 25% below your “Classic 2×20″ average, or just at the limit of comfortable conversation. You can talk comfortably, but any harder and you couldn’t.

– Hold at this level for the duration of the ride – ideally for 2-2 1/2 hours.

– Go home, eat, relax, recover.

Notes:

– Yeah, this exercise is just as simple as it sounds. Nice not to have to use the stopwatch, eh?

– Yeah, this is a “Dead Zone” exercise. Don’t worry about it – there’s method to the madness, I promise…

– If you’re hammered from yesterday, take it easy today instead, and do an hour long recovery ride

If you really feel like you need some skills work today, head on down to the right side of this page, and type “Wednesday” into the search box. A whole bunch of stuff will pop up, and hopefully som of it will stand you in good stead 🙂

G’night,

M

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Howdy folks,

It’s Tuesday again… you love Tuesdays, right? You love…

2×20 Tuesday!

Wait a second, though…

Did you do the double race thing this weekend?

Are you still feeling gassed?

If you are, no hard riding for you today!

Take it easy, go spin for an hour or  two.

Nothing hard, just a leisurely ride.

If you’re feeling good, though, and if you’re still racing, today you’re doing the old standby –

Classic 2×20 –

– Warm up.

– Go as hard as you can for 20 minutes.

– Recover for 2 minutes.

– Go again for another 20 minutes.

That’s the basic version. Success on this is,  however,  all in the details.

The idea here is to go as hard as you can for the duration of both intervals without being forced to go easier at the end of the second interval.  If you run out of gas before you finish the second interval, you went to hard. If your vision isn’t blurry at the end of the second interval, you went too easy.

If you’re doing this with a powermeter, you want your wattage output to be as close to constant as possible. We’re talking 10 watt variance at the most. Keep it steady.

These take practice to do well, and the better you get, the harder they get. This is a workout that goes great on the trainer, and that’s how I do ‘em, which is a good thing… because I always wind up flat on my back on the floor trying not to puke after the 2nd interval.

I’m really not kidding about the seeing spots thing. If you can learn to push through your limits when you do these, you will get better and you will get better fast.

(…but, yeah, it will hurt.)

(…a lot.)

(…but, you know, the good kind of hurt…)

You can also do the 2×20 Get-Up Style –

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/the-cyclocross-workout-of-the-day-for-tuesday-8-9-2x20s-get-up-style/

Honestly, pretty much anytime I suggest the Classic version of the 2×20, you can sub in the Get-Up Style… they’re pretty much interchangeable.

So, hey – why are we doing the old-school versions today?

If you’re still racing, if you’re playing out the string to Nationals or Worlds, you still need to be building your fitness… or, at least not letting it go.

So,  we’re programming in the basic building block interval, the 2×20.

You know it, you love hate it – so go out and nail it.

Remember, if you aren’t racing anymore this year, you’re done. Take it easy, stay away from the bike for a while… please?

Have fun!

M

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Howdy folks,

Well, ouch…

I’m down in Bend, OR for the USGP Cyclocross races this weekend, and my access to the internet is way more limited than I thought it would be. Yuck.

As a result, I’m not going to be adding much content here through Monday (I think….)

Sorry about that!

So, hey…

Go Race this weekend!

Or, y’know… don’t…

More when I can get it up…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

G’night,

M

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Howdy folks,

Well, most of you who are still racing are probably doing two races this weekend, so we’re going to assume that’s what’s on the agenda this week.

If you’re just racing on Sunday, you will probably be just fine doing what we’ve got scheduled here, but if you aren’t racing this weekend, and you’re planning on racing Nationals or something crazy like that, you might just need to hit it a little bit harder than we’ve got scheduled.

Maybe try a Roast today.

If you’re racing Saturday, and especially if you’re racing both days this weekend, your workout today is…

One to Two Hour Moderate Ride –

Get on your bike.

Go ride for an hour.

No hard efforts, but do throw in a couple of moderate ones. By moderate, I mean just that. You can sprint for the town line, but you should be laughing while you do it.

You’re not doing a recovery spin, so you need to put a little bit of gas into the pedals… just don’t go out and kill yourself.

Check out the view, smell the flowers, just do it while you’re putting a little bit of effort into the pedals.

1 notch above a recovery ride.

Make sense?

Remember, folks… if you’re done racing, you’re done. Period. GET OFF YOUR DAMN BIKE! TAKE THE DAY OFF! DO SOMETHING ELSE FOR A CHANGE!

G’night,

M

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Howdy folks,

Well, it’s Wednesday… but you already knew that.

Up till now, we’ve been doing skills work on Wednesday, but that’s not in the program for most of you today.

To be honest, the biggest reason for that is that the local group workouts in most of the country have pretty much dried up by this time of the season, and the skills workouts really work best when you’re doing them in some kind of a group.

So, we’re doing something else today. Having said that, you can certainly do some skills work today if it makes sense for you, or you feel like there is some specific skill that needs some refinement. Plug “Wednesday” into the search box on the bottom right side of the page, and a whole list of skills workouts will pop up.

Pick one that sounds good to you, and have at it.

For the rest of you, if you’re done racing for the season…

GO AWAY!

Seriously. Take some time off already…

If you’re still racing, today you’re doing…

Spin Ups –

– Get on your bike and warm up with a leisurely spin, 10-20 minutes.

– After you’re warm, find a nice, long, flat or slightly downhill section of road with little or no traffic.

– Begin interval by rolling into it at a moderate speed, in a gear that’s smaller than you would typically use to sprint.

– Get out of the saddle and sprint.

– Spin the gear up out of the saddle. When your leg speed gets to the point where it’s hard to maintain, sit down and keep going until you are totally spun-out. We’re talking  fast, can’t turn ‘em over any faster…

Think Road-Runner fast…

– Repeat x3-5

Recover for 5 minutes, rolling around at a leisurely pace.

– Go again, same thing.

Recover, then repeat as time and fitness allow. Shoot for 3-5 sets of  3-5.

Spin out your legs, go home.

G’night,

M

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Howdy folks,

It’s Tuesday, and you know what that means, right?

Wrong…

No 2×20’s today!

Today, we’re doing…

2×10 or 3×10 Over-Unders.

If you’re done racing for the year, go away. You aren’t doing either one of these workouts, you’re resting.

Seriously. Go away…

If your last race is this weekend, you’re doing the 2×10.

If you’re continuing on towards nationals, you’re doing the 3×10.

A word to the wise; If you do the 3×10, and if you do it right, it’s going to hurt.

Just so you know, ok?

Onwards with the workout…

– 2×10 or 3×10 means you are going to do either 2 or 3 of these, 10 minutes each.

– “Over-under” means that you are going to be working right around the level of your threshold, both above and below. What is your threshold? Well, for our purposes, we are going to reference the 2×20 workout we’ve been doing all season. Whatever wattage, heart rate, or gear ratio you did that workout at is going to serve as your threshold today.

Didn’t do that workout?

OK.

Your threshold will be whatever level you feel like you can hold for an effort of 20 minutes.

Don’t worry about it too much; you’re going to figure it out.

Start by warming up well.

Now that you have an idea of what level you’re going to use as a baseline, you’re going to ride at that level for 5 minutes. Get a solid idea of the wattage, heart rate, or tempo you are riding at, and get it solidly stuck in your mind. This is important; you are going to bounce above and below this level for the rest of the workout.

After the 5 minute baseline effort, spin easy for 2 minutes. Then begin the first interval…

Here’s how the first (and second, and third…) over-under interval will work:

Ride for one minute at your baseline level. At the end of that minute, ride 10 seconds at 25 watts, 10 beats, or 1 gear higher than the baseline level. After the 10 seconds, ride 20 seconds at 25 watts, 10 beats, or 1 gear lower than the baseline. After the 20 seconds, you go back to the ten (over,) followed again by the 20 (under,) etc., etc.

Got it? 1 minute baseline, 10 up, 20 down, 10 up, 20 down. Repeat the up/down efforts to the end of the interval.

Rest 5 minutes.

Repeat the first interval.

Rest 5 minutes.

Repeat again (or not…)

Spin around to recover, then go home and relax… masochist…

Notes:

– The  ”over” and “under” of the intervals I have given above is approximate. You are looking to go as hard as you can for the “over” while still recovering enough with the “under” to complete the interval. Keep the “under” barely under, though. Don’t go easier on the under to allow yourself a harder “over.” Do these a few times and you’ll get the hang of it – I promise…

– The idea here is to get you better at attacking and responding to attacks in a cross race. You’re motoring along at your limit, all of a sudden someone attacks; what do you do? You follow the damn attack, and look to recover a bit when the tempo drops just a little bit… get it?

Have fun!

G’night,

M

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