Crosssports's Weblog

Yep.

It’s Two by Twenty Tuesday!

Most of you probably know the usual drill by now, but if you’re new here or need a refresher? Check out the Classic 2×20 .

If you didn’t click that link, it probably means you’ve been with us for a while, and you’ve grown to hate love the 2×20 just as much as the rest of us.

At this point in the season, you might just be sick to death of the damn things.

OK.

How about something a wee bit different today?

How about doing some…

 3×10 Over-Unders.

Right up front, a word to the wise; If you do these right, they’re going to be painful…

– 3×10 means you are going to do 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 Classic 2×20 workout we all know so well. Whatever wattage, heart rate, or gear ratio you did that workout at is going to serve as your threshold today.

Haven’t done that workout?

OK.

Stop reading this, go back to the top of the page, and click the link to the description of that workout.

We’ll wait.

*************

OK?

Onward…

Start by warming up well.

Now that you have read that 2×20 post, an 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 firmly 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 those 10 seconds are up…

…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. Think masochistic thoughts.

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!
M

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Howdy folks,

Well… ouch.

That was a hard weekend of racing, eh?

Take it easy today. You deserve it.

Go for a…

1 Hour Recovery Spin –

– Get on your bike. Roll out into the street, and just spin around for an hour.

– Really small gear, no hard efforts – heck, no medium effort.

– Spin. You’re looking to move your legs around in circles, almost like there is no chain on the bike.

– The idea is to get your body moving, flush the systems out, and speed your recovery.

– Just get out on the road and spin aimlessly. At a certain point, your legs suddenly feel better.

– As soon as that happens, turn around, go home, eat, stretch, and put your legs up.

Relax.

Try to get to bed early tonight. Maybe get a massage.

Whatever you do, all day long, whenever you can… get off your feet.

Never run when you can walk.

Never walk when you can stand still.

Never stand when you can sit.

Never sit when you can lie down.

G’night,

M

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Howdy folks,

Well, the weekend is here! (finally, eh?)

Many of you are racing today, and if you are, have fun. Kick some a**.

That’s your workout, of course. Go race. Kick some a**.

If you’re racing tomorrow – Sunday? Well, today you need to get ready.

Yes, that’s right, today you’re doing…

Can Openers – 

– Warm up for 1/2 hour or so.

– Follow with several short attacking efforts, IE 30 seconds at 80% of your max, or pretty damn hard.

– Back off and spin for 5 minutes.

– Follow with 10-15 minute effort at AT level, or CP30, or “I could talk to you if I had to, but I don’t want to” level.

– Spin for several minutes.

– Follow with 5-6 full gas start efforts on a straight section of paved road, level or slightly uphill.

You want to begin these from a dead stop, with one foot unclipped.

Do not stop until you get at least 3 perfect starts in a row, and I mean perfect; this is the cross equivalent of practicing free throws. make ‘em count.

… spin out the legs, go home, and get ready for the race.

If you’re in Seattle (like I am…) you might just be looking at the wrath-of-god type stuff on the weather forecast and be thinking to yourself “I’m not going outside this weekend unless I absolutely have to…”

Got ‘ya covered…

You can do…

The R.S.W.O. –

– Get on trainer. Spin for about 5 minutes.

– Shift into big ring/largest cog combination.

– Ride 30 seconds in this gear, then shift up one cog.

– Ride 30 seconds in this gear, then shift up one cog.

– Repeat until you hit the hardest gear you’ve got, or can handle.

– Ride 30 seconds in that gear, and then shift all the way back down to the Big/big combo.

– Ride 30 seconds in that gear, then immediately shift to hardest gear you can handle.

– Full gas sprint, out of the saddle,  for 30 seconds.

Back to big/big combo.

– Spin for two minutes.

– 5-10 minute effort at your 2×20 output level.

Repeat The entire sequence (Usually minus the 2nd 5-10 minute effort.)

Have fun!

M

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Howdy folks,

Before we get started, a word about yesterday’s workout…

Jason wrote in and asked:

Any tips on how one might adapt this to a trainer workout? 
Sadly, that equipment is now front and center for me for weeknight 
workouts.

Here’s the thing…

Yesterday’s workout was all about trying to simulate a specific riding condition, in order to elicit an adaptation response to that particular stimulus.

What we were working on was speed, teaching your body to ride well when it’s riding  fast.

The reason we were doing these efforts on a downhill is that we were trying to simulate the inertia & associated muscle response that only happens when you’re riding really damn fast, faster than you can ride when you’re just out riding by yourself.

This was a poor-mans motorpace session.

You just can’t do that on a trainer. The inertial loading of even the best indoor trainers only gets you in the ballpark of what you experience when you’re riding on a flat road, and very few trainers even do that  (only one that I’m aware of, actually.)

What do you do with this info?

Heck, I don’t know…

To be brutally frank, at a certain point to be fast you need to train fast, and truly fast is always just one notch higher than you can actually ride by yourself, on the flat, without a draft. You need a group to draft off of, or a motor, or a long damn hill to get the appropriate stimulus needed to develop this part of your arsenal.

That’s just kind of a bummer if you’re trapped inside.

But, hey… don’t give up hope. We’ll check out  some other, slightly different, speed-enhancing workouts next week.

Stay tuned…

…anyways, on with the workout for today.

This is another weekend where the racing schedule seems to be pretty darn compressed, and there  are lots of folks racing both days this weekend.

If you're one of them or even if you're just racing on Saturday this weekend, today you’re doing…

Can Openers –

Warm up for 1/2 hour or so.

Follow with several short attacking efforts, IE 30 seconds at 80% of your max, or pretty damn hard.

Back off and spin for 5 minutes.

Follow with 10-15 minute effort at AT level, or CP30, or “I could talk to you if I had to, but I don’t want to” level.

Spin for several minutes.

Follow with 5-6 full gas start efforts on a straight section of paved road, level or slightly uphill.  You want to begin these from a dead stop, with one foot unclipped. Do not stop until you get at least 3 perfect starts in a row, and I mean perfect; this is the cross equivalent of practicing free throws. make ‘em count.

… spin out legs, go home and rest. Get ready to race tomorrow.

Not racing tomorrow, but racing on Sunday?

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!

M

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