The Workout Of The Day for Thursday, 11.18.10 – “Mello… or not…”

•November 17, 2010 • 2 Comments

Howdy folks,

I’m going to jump right into the workout today, starting with this…

Before we figure out what you’re doing today, we need to talk about where you are in your season.

Things are winding down, right?

How quickly are they winding down for you?

Are you playing out the string all the way to Nationals?

Are you finishing up your season this weekend or the next?

Something in the middle?

The answer is important.

If you’re done in the next week or so, let’s face it; what you’ve got is what you’ve got, fitness-wise. You aren’t going to get any better.

All you should be doing now is working to make sure you don’t leave any of your potential out on the practice field, and – maybe – be working a little bit on your leg speed and your snap.

Going all the way to the end?

Sweet. You’ve still got some time, you need to keep on keepin’ on.

So, here’s what we’re going to do: split workouts for most of the days for the next week or so, based on a schedule that finishes up a week from Sunday, and a schedule that sees you going through until ‘Nats.

Going to ‘Nats?

Today you’re doing  –

The Hills Have (small) “I”s

(“I” is for “intensity.”)

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

Find a hill –  or a series of hills – that will take you 5 minutes to climb at pretty darn close to race pace.

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 until you are breathing a little easier, 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.

Pedal at moderate intensity (IE – 2/3 of your 2×20 minute level,) for roughly equal to the amount of time it took to complete the entire climb.

Repeat 3-5 times, or until you are spent.

If you do more than 3 repeats, spin easy for 5-10 minutes after 3rd repeat.

Total duration should be about 2 hours

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

Finishing things up soon?

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.


 

Have fun!

M

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The Workout Of The Day for Wednesday, 11.17.10 – “Skillet”

•November 16, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Before I get started with the workout, I would like to thank the folks who had kind words for me out at the Woodland Park race this past weekend. It’s really hard going out to the races when you’re too banged up to ride, and it’s even harder when it’s one of your favorite courses – ever – and an event you won the previous year.

It’s nice to know that even when I can’t race, I can be part of the scene, and that the time spent writing these things and going out to the Marymoor clinics is appreciated.

Seriously, thanks.

🙂

Enough of that, on with the Workout Of The Day.

It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s –

Cyclocross Skills Day –

We’re getting to the point in the season where what you’ve got – skills-wise – is what you’re going to have for the duration of the season.

If you have any big season-end goals – like Nationals, or a state championship – you should be working on refinement right now; Buffing of the rough edges, honing of the already sharp skills.

You need to put the raw goods into a pan, and boil ’em down into the really good stuff. That’s why today’s workout is –

Skillet  –


I want you to go out today, and work on something you’re already good at.

Take it from good to as close to perfect as you can.

If you’ve got killer handling skills, go out and shred some turns.

Push it.

Go harder and faster, to the point where you’re hitting the deck.

Get back up, do it again.

Have a great start?

Yup.

Do a bunch of ’em. Get even faster off the line.

Strong like bull?

Do extended efforts on semi-technical terrain. Develop your ability to grind the opposition into paste even further.

Making sense?

Whatever you’re already good at, tonight you’re going to work to turn it into your weapon, that one thing that you know you can pull out of the bag at crunch time to win your race (or at least beat out that other fella for 85th place…)

Not quite at the stage in the Cyclocross game where you’re really concerned about all this honing and buffing business? More interested in simply going out and getting better at the basics? Looking for a little bit more structure tonight?

Cool.

Gotcha covered.

Check out –

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/the-workout-of-the-day-for-wednesday-10-20-10-slow-the-fk-down/

…and –

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/the-workout-of-the-day-for-wednesday-10-13-10-a-little-dabll-do-ya/

 

Have fun!

M

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The Workout Of The Day for Tuesday, 11.16.10 – “HTFU Tuesday”

•November 15, 2010 • 2 Comments

Howdy folks,

Well, it’s Tuesday.

You know what that means, right?

Ryan does –

Ryan Kephart 

@TheEpicRideRyan Kephart
@crosssports 2 X 20 Tuesdays, they just make you feel like a beast. A beast with rubbery noodle like legs… #fuckyea!
Lozy does –
Lozy 

@lozyLozy
@TheEpicRide @crosssports HTFU TUESDAY!
Now you do, too.
It’s 2×20 Tuesday!
Today we’re doing them Get-up style –

– 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 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 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.

– Have fun!

M


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The Workout Of The Day for Monday, 11.15.10 – “Get Bent.”

•November 14, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

I hope you had a wonderful time out at the races yesterday.

If you didn’t – or couldn’t – go and race, and you wound up doing the workout I posted up yesterday?

Sorry, man. Seriously.

That was some sadistic stuff, that was.

Guaranteed you aren’t going to be worth a damn on the bike tomorrow. Don’t even try.

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.

Get (recum)bent.

 

G’night,

M

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The Workout Of The Day for Sunday, 11.14.10 – “Racing, or something like it.”

•November 13, 2010 • 2 Comments

Howdy folks,

Yeah, yeah… you know what’s coming…

Go Race!

Yup.

That’s the Workout Of The Day. No big surprise.

Go out there & have some fun & kick some A**.

‘Nuff said, right?

Maybe not.

You see, I got this really good question from Lozy …

I have a question on how to do some race simulation. I have a weekend or two where I wont be able to get to the races due to other commitments. What would be a good option for simulating a race for those weekends I can’t line up.

You know, I’m always telling ya’all to “simulate a race” if you can’t get to the races, and getting this note made me realize that I hadn’t actually posted any good workouts for this purpose.

Whoops.

Let’s rectify that, shall we?

Today’s Workout – if you’re not racing – is…

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…

Good Luck! You’ll need it!

M

 

 



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The Workout Of The Day for Saturday, 11.13.10 – Winter Opening

•November 12, 2010 • 1 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.

If you hadn’t happened to notice, the weather has finally changed just about everywhere, and we’re suddenly in winter.

For me – when I’m not hurt, and actually riding the damn bike – that generally signals a dramatic decrease in my desire to ride outside. If it’s dumping out, or crazy freakin’ cold, I’m opening my can inside, and replacing the usual Openers workout with –

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.)

Give it a try!

G’night,

M

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The Workout Of The Day for 11.12.10 – “Chill, man…”

•November 11, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Tired yet?

If you did yesterday’s workout you should be.

Don’t exacerbate things by going hard today. Take it easy.

Do a 2 Hour Moderate Ride today –

This isn’t a recovery ride, you’re going to go just a bit harder than that.

Put a little bit of gas into the ride, but not so much that you ever feel like you’re going hard.

Moderate means just that.

Not hard, not easy… right in the middle.

Easy enough that you could hold a conversation with the guy on the bike next to you, but hard enough that you probably wouldn’t.

Have some fun with this. This is a great ride to do on a scenic loop you don’t usually get to enjoy ’cause you’re busy hammering away.

If you’re stuck doing this on the trainer, it’s OK to cut the time down. You can do as little as an hour.

It’s starting to get cold out there, and while we’re takin’ it chill today, that’s supposed to be a metaphor. Don’t be afraid of the trainer. It’s better than riding outside and getting sick…

 

If you happen to be racing on Saturday, don’t do that. You should do Can Openers –


https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/the-workout-of-the-day-for-saturday-10-30-10-can-can/

Have fun!

M

 

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The Workout Of The Day for Thursday, 11.11.10 – “Almost a palindrome!”

•November 11, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Pretty almost cool, right? It’s 11.11 today, all day. 365 days until it’s 11.11.11.

OK,

Nobody actually cares.

It’s just that back in college, there was this weird fixation with 11.11, and…

I

will

shut

up

about this

now…

On with the workout, OK?

Today’s workout is –

Palindromical –

Warm up well.

10 minutes at your typical 2×20 pace

– at the 10 minute mark, out of the saddle. Sprint. Hard.

30 seconds on.

30 second recovery.

– Out of the saddle. Sprint. Hard.

20 seconds on

20 second recovery.

– Out of the saddle. Sprint. Hard.

10 seconds on.

recover for 10 seconds

5 seconds on

recover for 5 minutes.

then,

Out of the saddle, sprint.

5 seconds on

10 second recovery

Then, out of the saddle, sprint.

10 seconds on

20 second recovery.

then, out of the saddle. Sprint.

20 seconds on.

30 second recovery,

then,

30 seconds on

then

10 minutes at 2×20 pace.

Spin out your legs, and you’re done.

 

Palindromical, get it? 🙂

Ouch.

Sorry…

– a wee bit of a note on this workout; It’s hard.

Don’t do this if you’re racing on Saturday, unless you’re in smokin’ form right now. Don’t do this if you’re feeling gassed today. You might be better off doing a Slow Roast today regardless of how you feel if you aren’t still building form…

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/the-workout-of-the-day-for-thursday-10-13-10-roasting/

M

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The Workout Of The Day for Wednesday, 11.10.10 – “Cross Is Like Oxygen”

•November 9, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Wednesday.

Cyclocross Skills Day!

Sweet.

We’ve been on this back-to-basics kick the last couple of weeks, and from the feedback I’ve been getting it seems to be working.

Good stuff, right?

Heading into tonight, if you still haven’t gotten the basics we’ve been working on flat straight wired, keep at it.

Work on your remounts, work on your dismounts. Start slow, then get fast.

Pay special attention to the high-speed remounts we discussed last Wednesday. You want to get to the point where you always come out of a barrier section faster than you went into it.

Work on accelerating through the barriers, and running into your remount.

Remember, smooth=fast.

Here’s how tonights going to go…

– Warm up on the bike.

As long as it takes to get loose, you should have a light sweat on when you…

– Stretch.

Active stretching, focus on all the muscles you use getting on & off the bike, but don’t when you’re riding. Go as long as it takes to work everything and get loose.

– Mount & Remount skills. 10-15 minutes.

You probably don’t need me to blather on any more about this. Check out the last couple of Wednesday’s posts if you’re new to the blog…

– Technical skills on the bike. 10-15 minutes

Tight turns and off-cambers. As always, work on your entrances and exits from all the technical sections. Pedal, pedal, pedal. Try to pedal through everything. Keep the gas on, power going through the rear wheel, and you maintain traction.

Work on it. Lots more on the bike handling topic in earlier posts, enter “Wednesday” in the search box, and you will likely get bored out of your skull with my verbosity…

– Starts. Go as long as it takes to get 5 perfect, full gas sprints.

Make it feel like a race start. Get off the mark fast, sit down, shift, go again. Remember, it’s the second effort that gets you the early gap most of the time…

– Race simulation. 3 ten minute efforts, 2 minutes recovery between them.

No big complications here. Go really f-ing fast. Try and make these efforts faster and harder than you go in the races. You want to get to the point where your efforts in practice and training are so d**n hard that racing seems like a treat.

Yeah, I know… good luck with that, right?

– Warm down.

Spin out your legs. Take enough time doing this that you feel them unspool and loosen up. Go home, eat, relax.

 

G’night,

M

 

 

 

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The Workout Of The Day for Tuesday, 11.9.10 – Tuesdays are FUN, right?”

•November 8, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Well, it’s Tuesday again… you love Tuesdays, right? Mmmmmmm 2x20s…. hurt sooo good…

If I haven’t tipped my hand sufficiently already, it is, in fact –

2×20 Tuesday!

I had a couple of ideas for exotic 2×20 variants to throw in here today, but then I looked back at the last couple of weeks and realized that ya’all would be better off 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?

Fundamentals, folks. it’s getting to the point in the season where some folks just need to double-down on the basics – like the barrier skills we were focusing on last week.

So, today we’re extending that to the basic building block interval, the 2×20.

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

Have fun!

M

 

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