The Workout Of The Day for Sunday, 9.25.11. – Race.like.

•September 24, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

You’re racing today, so the workout is pretty self explanatory, right?

Go Race.

If you haven’t read it yet, you may want to check out the post on warming up I wrote a while back… people seem to like the suggested routines. Give ‘em a try, and let me know if they work for you…

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2010/09/11/the-workout-of-the-day-for-sunday-9-12-too-damn-warm/

If you aren’t racing tomorrow… well, heck… why not?

Kidding.

No race, you should get some hard riding in today. Do something as much like a race as you can.

Maybe try out…

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. You asked for it…

DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU ARE SKIPPING A RACE TO RECOVER! DUH!

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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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Saturday, 11.24.11. “Layup.”

•September 23, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

It’s the weekend again, and – of course – that means most of you are off to the races.

So, if you’re racing today, you know what you’re doing.

Go Race!

Racing on Sunday?

Yup. 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.

Have Fun!

M

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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Friday, 11.23.11. – “TGIF. Like, Srsly.”

•September 23, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Thank god it’s Friday…

No, really. I want this week to be over!

Blech.

So, let’s just get through today, and get on to the weekend, shall we?

If you’ve been playing along, and read yesterday’s post, you probably have a pretty good idea of what’s on tap today.

If you’re racing tomorrow (Saturday,) you guessed it – you’re doing…

Can Openers –

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/the-workout-of-the-day-for-saturday-9-11-10-yup-can-openers/

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.

Not racing at all this weekend?

That’s OK.

Do the moderate ride. We’ll have you going hard tomorrow…

Have fun!

M

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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Thursday, 9.22.11. – “Unbalanced”

•September 21, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks!

Cross practice last night, following following shortly after the hard workout on Tuesday should have your legs a little bit dead.

What does this mean?

It means today we mix things up a bit and do some speed work!

Get ready to spin fast!

Today’s workout is…

Downhill Sprints.

Start by warming up well, a bit longer than usual – 30 minutes or so.

Find a gradual downhill that lets out on a flat section of road or trail. The ideal setup for this workout is a downhill that’s about a block long that turns into  a flat section of road another block or so in length.

Extra bonus points if you can loop back to the start without having to turn around – that would be perfect.

You’re going to do 3-5 sets of 5 sprints, full gas. Here’s how the sprints go:

Roll down the gradual descent in a comfortable gear. You want to hit the bottom of the hill going fast, but not yet in a sprint.

As soon as you hit the flat section at the bottom of the hill, get out of the saddle and give it full gas.

Sit back down as you get up to full speed, and try to go even faster.

Go until you are spun out.

Spun out means that your legs can’t go any faster, your form goes completely to hell, or you start bobbing up and down on the saddle a lot.

Ideally, a little bit of all of those things.

That’s one rep. You’re doing sets of 5. Ouch.

Each sprint should take just a few seconds. Recover for 30 seconds to a minute between them, and 5 minutes between sets.

Stop when you hit 5 sets or just aren’t getting the same leg speed you were on the first couple of reps.

When you’re done, spin out your legs and go home!

Tips –

– You should start the sprint in a pretty big gear, and spin it out. How big? It depends on how fast you’re going and how strong you are. You’re working on speed here, so don’t try to lug a giant gear, but the gear needs to be big enough that you accelerate when you hit it at the end of the downhill.

– Important, let me reiterate: stand up out of the saddle when you start to sprint, and gradually sit down as you begin to spin up into your sprint.

– Don’t forget to breathe. Seriously – too many people hold their breath when they sprint. Don’t be one of them.

 Have fun!
M

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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Wednesday, 10.21.11. – “Re-dux-u-lous.”

•September 20, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Wednesday is skills day, and that means that today we’re going to, well… work on, ehr… our skills.

How about that, eh?

I received a few requests for stuff to work on this week, so I’m going to try and cover 2 of them today…

“My starts suck. Help!”

and…

“When I get tired my barrier skills turn to s**t. What do I do?”

That should give us plenty to work on, so without further ado, tonight’s…

Cyclocross Skills Work –

1 – warm up for 10 minutes.

2 – Stretch out after you’re warm.

Pay special attention to all the muscles used in those movements you make hopping on and off the bike that are different from what you usually do.

3 – Dismount/remount  skills.

– Start with the super basics…

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/cyclocross-workout-of-the-day-for-7-27-10-where-the-have-my-skills-gone/

Then…

Put up (or simulate!) a set of doubles on flat, fast terrain.

– Work on your entrance to the barriers. How fast can you come in to the barriers? Push it in practice so that you can find your limit – wind up smeared all over the barriers in practice – not in the race!

– Work on coming out of the barriers fast. Faster than you go into them. Accelerate out of the barrier section!

– Work on barriers with curved entrances and exits; don’t just set up barriers and come straight into them. Practice with odd angles on the in and the out – the tighter and crazier the better. Make it difficult, harder than you ever see in a race!

– Practice different ways of carrying the bike over the barriers.

Do you flip the bike? Do you post it? How far apart do the barriers need to be to warrant putting the bike back on the ground?

4 – Technical skills work.

– Off camber, turns, etc. Work on your accelerations coming out of the technical stuff.

5 – Starts.

Practice your starts, just like the beginning of a race. One foot on the ground, dead standstill, get-up-and-go.

Begin with a few medium effort starts, just to work on the mechanics. Round off your rough edges, and make sure you remember where the heck your pedals are.

When you start to get the feel for things, hit it hard a couple of times, then back off.

Here are some tips –

– Start with your pedals at 3&9 o’clock, not 12 and six. It takes practice, but it really is better and faster. Every gate start event does it this way, and they aren’t crazy.

-Try starting with your butt on the saddle, and your butt off the saddle. See what works best for you.

– Ditto, try starting with hands in the drops vs. hands on the hoods.

After you have tried a couple of variations at a medium/slow pace, get yourself set to go hard.

– Do 2 sets of six full-gas starts.

– For the first set, do a short effort. Just go long enough that you are up to full speed, then back down, turn around, go again.

– For the second set, things get complicated. We’re going to throw those barrier skills back into the mix, and work on that whole “my barrier skills go to s**t under pressure” thing…

-You are going to do a full gas start effort.

– right after you get up to full speed, you are going to turn sharply 180 degrees and head back towards where you started.

– Right as you get back up to speed, you are going to enter a double set of barriers, dismount, run the barriers, and remount.

– Get up to speed again.

Ouch.

(Obviously, you’re going to want to scope things out so that you have a course laid out that will work for this. This is obvious, right?)

6 – Practice race.

– As always, finish up the night with a race simulation.

– We’re working on our starts tonight, so follow the theme of low-speed accelerations through to the race simulation.

– Tonight, work on explosive efforts out of all the technical and twisty sections.

– Exits, exits, exits. Think fast exits.

– If you’re riding in a group, try to beat everyone out of everything.

– Find the line that will allow you to be fast coming out of a section.

– Really work on looking through a turn or technical section to the exit of the section and beyond…

That’s plenty for one day, I think.


G’night,

M

 (OK, an admission… if you’re really into this blog for some reason, you may have noticed that today’s workout is a reprint of the one I put up almost exactly a year ago. Here’s the thing; it’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I got exactly the same questions this week as I did a year ago! Go figure…)

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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Tuesday, 9.20.11. – “Stand.”

•September 19, 2011 • 4 Comments

Howdy folks,

I hope you’re feeling rested after the weekend, and you’re ready to get ome work in today!

It’s Tuesday, and if you’ve been following for a while, you know what that means, right? It’s…

Two By Twenty Tuesday!

I know these might be getting just a wee bit old by now, but bear with me. They really are the foundation of your fitness, and they seriously pay off over time. I would go as far as to say that if you can only do one workout, this is the one you should do, and that you could build yourself a pretty good training program composed entirely of 2×20’s and casual spin days (combined with a wee bit of racing, of course!)

So, hey… here’s the workout… it’s an old favorite, the…

2×20 Get-Up Style 

Here’s how it goes…

– 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. This is the get-up version, though, so…

Start the first interval out of the saddle, and stand for the first 30 seconds.

After those 30 seconds are up, sit down. Keep the effort going, and consistent. Don’t surge, don’t go harder when you get out of the saddle.

Stay seated for the next 1:30, then stand for 30 seconds.

Repeat to the end of the interval, and follow this format for the successive interval.

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 too 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 power meter, 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 another workout that works 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 well… you will get better.

Tips:

– I do these on the trainer, with a stopwatch on the bars and an Ipod blaring in my ears. Start the stopwatch at the beginning of the interval, and the format is really easy to follow; you stand up for :30 at the 2:oo, 4:00, 6:00, etc. mark(s). Get it? It’s easy!

– A power meter will help you to keep the level of intensity constant. You want the power output to be as steady as possible with these. If you don’t have a PM, do these on the trainer,  choose a gear ratio and a cadence, and stick to that for the duration of the excercise – instant home made ergometer.

S00000…. cool. You’re ready to do the Get-Ups.

OK, but hey; I got this great question from a reader at a Skills clinic  I did a while back.

“Why – really – are we doing the Get-up style 2×20’s? What’s the difference between these and the normal ones from a training perspective? Why do we need to stand up”

(Yes, I’m paraphrasing. That was the gist of it, though! 🙂 )

Man, what a great question.

Here’s the answer.

Cyclocross is a unique discipline of cycling, in that – even more than in mountain biking – you really need to learn how to keep the power driving down through the wheels, into the ground.

What do I mean by that?

To be good – really good – at cross, you need to learn to push the power through the pedals smoothly as you transition from seated to standing.

Far to many riders – even pretty darn good ones – get out of the saddle with a big giant hitch in their pedal stroke.

Do this in a sketchy section of a cross course –  in the sand, in the mud – Bang! You’re off of the bike & running while that smooth cat in front of you rides away.

Check out another series of photos I took of Mr. Bart Wellens in the sand at one of the races this past weekend –

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Pay attention to the little bit of sunshine that comes and goes as he moves in and out of the saddle in this sequence.

Smmoooooth.

No hitches, no hops, just steady (ridiculously powerful) pedaling, even as his upper body floats all over the place, in & out of the saddle, side to side, back and forth, maintaining balance and putting the power down at the same time.

Sick.

How do you get yourself just a tiny little baby step more towards this level of skill?

You practice. You train your body to produce power through the whole range of postures it will assume in the races.

Then you practice a whole lot more.

And train even more than that.

Baby steps.

Start by integrating just a little bit of the skill into your motor workouts.

Start by doing the 2×20 Get-Up Style.

Pay just a little bit of extra attention to the transition in and out of the saddle. Keep it smooth. Keep it steady.

You’re already pretty darn close to your max on this workout… try to keep the power output at the same level in & out of the saddle.

Yup.

Ain’t easy.

Have fun!

M

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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Monday 9.19.11- “Ouch.”

•September 18, 2011 • 3 Comments

Howdy folks,

I hope you had a better weekend than Joey did…

…ouch.

Lots of racing this weekend, and I’m guessing most of you managed to get out on the bike and race a wee bit. How did it go for you?

I watched a bunch of racing this weekend, and I saw some great riding…

…and some, well…

…some not-so-good (hey, even the best totally botch it once in a while!)

So, here’s some homework…

Pick one thing you did really poorly in the races this weekend…

.

.

.

…and one thing you did really well…

.

.

.

…and write them down.

Next, think of one thing you can do to improve both that thing you did poorly, and that thing you did especially well.

Write ’em down.

You’re going to work on those things. Drop me a line telling me what they are, and I will help you.

OK, homework is over, now on with today’s workout…

It’s Monday, you raced your Ass off this weekend, it’s time for a…

One 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.

When you do your recovery ride -if you have the time- just get out 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.

…or, you know, go to work.

You might also get a little bit of core work in today. There’s a fair bit of content on that topic on here if you search for it :)

Have fun… and here’s a little bonus for ‘ya…

That? That’s how you ride the sand…

M

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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Sunday, 9.19.11. – “Rock. That is all.”

•September 17, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Bart Wellens raced Cyclocross in Washington State today, with Danny De Bie right by his side.

Seriously, how cool is this?

I’ve got to admit, I never thought I would see all-time greats of the sport like this racing in the US, right alongside the cream of the US crop.

Pretty great stuff, and if watching these guys race doesn’t get you excited about Cyclocross, nothing will.

And with that, on with today’s workout…

It’s Sunday, and yup, that means it’s time to…

Go Race!

Seriously, that’s pretty much it today. Get in car. Go to race. Warm Up. Race.

Wait… warm up?

Hmmm…

We haven’t talked about that much this season, Have we?

I wrote a pretty long sermon on the topic of warming up a while back – and will revisit that later on in the season – but for today, here’s something you might find useful, it’s…

The RSWO -– The Rock Stupid Warmup & Opener

– 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.)

This is a great way to warm up on the trainer, especially when it’s super crappy out, and/or there is just too darn much action going on around you to concentrate on anything complicated, or get out on the road for warm-ups. You simply get the old headphones on, hop on the bike, and crank through this little, easy to remember workout about an hour and a half  before your race, and you’re ready to rock…

Have fun!

M

(and, uhhh… yeah. Ouch. That’s a terrible video. Sorry…)

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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Friday, 11.16.11. – “Vi-vuh Crass Ve-gus”

•September 15, 2011 • 1 Comment

Howdy folks,

Well, I’m still in Vegas…

…but tomorrow’s the last day of the show. Thankfully. I’m ready to get home.

There were some cool cyclocross goodies on display down here, and the racing at CrossVegas was fast & furious. Congratulations go out to Zach McD for his fantastic 11th place in the Pro race – just behind reining national champ Todd Wells – and to any other folks who made the trip on out to sin city and threw it down.

Big thanks to the very nice individuals who were out there cheering for me in the Wheeler-Dealers race, as I tried to make chicken salad out of my 17th row (or something like that) start and miraculously managed to sneak my way up to 11th overall.

Anyways, let’s get on with the workout, shall we?

It’s Friday, and that means some of you are racing tomorrow. If you happen to fit in that category, well 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 sprint efforts on a straight section of paved road, level or slightly uphill.

Do half of these from a near standstill, and for 1/2 of them, get going at a pretty good clip before you start the sprint.

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

Not racing tomorrow? Racing on Sunday?

OK. Then you’re doing a…

1-2 Hour Moderate Ride –

Get on your bike.

Go ride for an hour or two

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.

Not racing at all this weekend? Well, if you did yesterday’s workout, then odds are you coud use the moderate ride today, do that. If you didn’t do that workout yesterday, well… take a gander at it. Maybe do that today…

Whichever you do, have fun!

M

 

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The Workout Of The Day for Thursday, 9.15.11. – Zach F-ing McD…

•September 15, 2011 • 1 Comment

Howdy folks,

Sorry I didn’t get anything up last night, I was out at CrossVegas doing a little bit of racing, a little bit of drinking, and a whole lot of cheering for Zach McDonald, who rode to a fantastic 11th place in the Pro race, racing against what was clearly the best field ever to assemble for a Cyclocross Race in North America.

Nice.

In honor of Zach, today we’re going to do a workout that’s straight out of his training log, and the he coined the name for.

That’s right, get ready for…

Zach’s Death Intervals

Warm up really well.

Find a fairly steep hill that you can do a 30 second hard effort on. Best bet is a climb that’s right on the big ring/small ring break point. You could do it in either one, depending…

Roll into the climb fast, and Sprint up it, 30 seconds hard effort.

Coast back down, turn around and go again immediately.

Repeat for a total of ten reps.

Yup. Ten.

Ouch.

Recover for 5-10 minutes, then go again. You’re trying to do 3-5 sets of ten.

Yes, this is really damn hard.

Don’t even try these if you’re feeling gassed. Don’t do these if you’re racing on Saturday.

If you’re not down with the sickness…

…you can do some Spin-Ups today.

Have fun!

M

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