I’ve got to admit, about an hour after I wrote yesterday’s post, I started having some second thoughts.
“Waay too blunt,” “Too harsh, I’m a d**k,” etc.
Imagine my relief at the good feedback I’ve gotten from ya’all. Pretty clearly (most) of you took that in the spirit in which it was intended – constructive criticism 🙂 – and are using the commentary as fuel for your respective fires.
Nice.
I will do a follow up for Wednesday’s post with some concrete ideas and drills designed to address the technical shortcomings I saw the most of at Sunday’s race.
If you had anything in particular that was giving you a headache on Sunday, let me know about it and I will work it in to the mix.
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, and need a break.
OK.
How about something different today?
You’re going to do 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.
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?
I went to the Seattle Series races on Sunday, and it was definitely interesting to be out there as a spectator!
Want to know what stood out?
By and large, folks have terrible technical skills.
Even some pretty fast folks looked terrible getting on and off the bike.
I was watching at the double barrier, and as one of the riders almost cased it – surmounting the obstacle with all the style of a pregnant marsupial – a nearby spectator was overheard saying “…doesn’t he teach out at the Marymoor clinics?”
Ouch.
If I had one thing to commend to you all – generally speaking – after watching this week, it would be Slow the f**k down in practice and actually learn what you’re doing!
Look, I get it.
You want to go fast.
You show up at the Marymoor (or wherever) sessions, and you go full-gas all night, and go home at the end of the night totally psyched that you were able to keep up (for a while, at least…) with the fast folks.
There’s nothing wrong with this, if the goal of your “skills” sessions is to have fun.
If the goal, however, is to get better?
It ain’t working, and it ain’t gonna work.
How do I know this?
I watched a whole bunch of you wallow in the sand today, and run over an off-camber double like it was your first time in a cross race.
Again, Ouch.
Today, when you are going back over the race in your memory and in your journal/log/whatever, think about your technical shortcomings.
We’ve all got them.
Identify them, and think about how they surfaced in Sunday’s race.
Write down what you are going to do to improve.
Not to be totally negative, I also saw some pretty great riding today.
That was a damn hard course. Not much recovery to be had anywhere on it.
That’s OK.
That’s what today is for…
R3 –
Recover –
– 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.
Relax.
– As soon as that happens, turn around, go home, eat, stretch, and put your legs up.
Remember –
– this is a good day to get some core work in if you aren’t totally spent. Lots of info up on the topic in previous posts.
I tried riding for an hour and a half yesterday, and I’m totally f***ed up today. My left knee is about 5/4 it’s normal size.
Blech.
I make this pledge to you today; I will never ever scoff at whiplash claims from low-speed auto accidents again. I get rear ended, and a month later I still can’t ride because my neck is tweaked, my back is tweaked, and my alignment is so off that riding for any extended period of time or at any intensity at all blows up my knee.
So, I repeat.
Blech.
Enough venting…
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…
There’s racing on tap for just about everyone, so that makes the WOTD pretty obvious, right?
If you’re racing today, Go Race! Have fun, kick some butt… and don’t forget to write down how the racing went in your race journal/diary/log, whatever.
Racing on Sunday? You guessed it, today you’re doing…
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.
Time to get ready for the weekend… How are you feeling?
We’re getting to the point in the season where you need to constantly reevaluate the state of your fitness.
– How tired are you?
– How well are you riding?
– Where are your strengths showing up in the races, and where are your weaknesses rearing their ugly little heads?
In short, how is everything working for you, training-wise.
When you’re setting up your training program, you need to be ever mindful of the changing nature of your fitness, and how your training shapes that.
Let’s look back at the last couple of days…
If you raced in Seattle this weekend, you did a mud-slog.
Tuesday, we did 2x20s
Thursday we did another big-gear exercise.
I’m going to guess that some of you have legs that are feeling a little bit like logs right now…
So, guess what?
We’re going to work on our leg speed today, and do some…
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…
After yesterday’s ridiculous entry, I’m going to keep it short(er) today.
The blog entry, that is… not the workout. We’re actually going to go a little bit longer today – duration-wise – on the workout.
We’re going to go back to a classic, and do the Slow Roast today –
– 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
Here’s the general outline for your skills session tonight…
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 for…. well, for a long damn time. Read on…
4 – turning and handling skills for 1o minutes.
– work on tight, high speed turns as well as super tight low speed turns. Roll some off camber slopes, and learn to turn on them as well.
– Put two traffic cones about 10 feet apart from each other, and ride a figure eight around them, pedaling the entire time.
Make the turns tighter and tighter until you can’t hold the line and you fall down. Learn where the break point is between riding a tight line and falling on your ass, and push that line until you are definitively over it.
– Finish the night with two 15 minute efforts on relatively easy terrain.
– “Easy” as in a loop on grass with some tight-ish turns on it, or some pretty buffed double-track.
– Go hard, and work on accelerations out of the turns.
– Every time you slow down entering a turn, get on the gas on the way out of it, ass out of the saddle, working hard.
– 10 minutes full gas, rest for 5 minutes, then go for 10 again.
Warm down, go home, relax.
That’s the outline, here now the news; Today’s post is going to focus pretty much entirely on attempting to answer a question posed by @Cbarnes01 on Twitter. He wrote:
I need advice. Developed a BAD habit in the off season of dabbing lft foot on remounts. HELP!!
This is one of those questions that is as simple as can be in the asking, and as deep as we care to make it in the answering.
We’re going to go fairly deep here, because perfecting the remount is one of those little things that can gain you a lot of time. Today’s workout, then, is –
A Little Dab’ll Do ‘Ya –
We’re going to start with the basics.
First of all, Don’t jump on your bike!
Let me repeat that. It’s important. Don’t jump on your bike!
Why?
Makes sense, right?
If you jump onto your bike, you are out of balance, out of control, and you’re losing speed (even if you don’t nut-shot yourself.)
Don’t do it.
Well, OK. What should you do?
When you execute a proper cyclocross remount, you should look like you are simply stepping over and on to the saddle of your bike.
Like this –
Not this. (sorry!)
Click on that picture of Niels Albert, and keep it open in another screen. We’re going to come back to it.
Let’s break this whole “stepping on to the bike” thing down a bit, shall we?
Here’s the basic cyclocross remount, step by step. You’re going to practice it exactly like this, one step at a time, at a walking pace, until you’ve got it wired.
– Hands on hoods, you should be looking forward, not down.
– you’re on the hoods so you can get out of the saddle & on the gas as soon as you remount.
– you’re looking forward so you can see where you’re going.
– Take one large step forward with your right foot.
– Begin to take a second step, with your left foot, and as you do –
– Bend your elbows, lowering your upper body and closing your hip angle.
Why are you doing this?
– Check out this picture –
– and now this one –
When you bend you elbows and lean forward during the remount, it allows you to raise your leg higher in the rear. If you’re having trouble clearing the saddle with your leg when you remount, this will cure ‘ya.
– As your left foot hits the ground, you are going to slightly externally rotate your right hip.
– go look at that picture of Niels. He’s doing this beautifully. Notice how he is flaring his right hip towards the bike? That’s external rotation.
– Your left foot hits the ground, and you are going to drive off of it as you swing your right leg over and on to the saddle.
– OK. A couple of important things here.
1 – You’re driving off your left leg, not jumping. Think forward momentum into the handlebars, not vertical motion into the sky.
2 – Swing your leg over the saddle…
– as you do it, you will make contact with your inner thigh, and then slide into a seated position. Don’t try to jump and land your butt on the saddle. That’s nut-shot territory, remember?
– The combination of the leaning forward and the external rotation will make it so much easier to clear the saddle with your right leg that you will wonder why you never thought of doing it this way before.
– As your right leg swings over and onto the saddle, don’t focus on the saddle, concentrate on hitting the pedal with your right foot.
-The idea here is to step completely over the bike and onto the pedal on the far side.
– As your right foot hits the pedal, start pedaling.
– Note that I didn’t say “clip in.” Don’t wait to clip in. Start pedaling. You will clip in after a couple of pedal strokes if you have pedals that are worth using.
– Get out of the saddle immediately and punch it.
– Seriously, practice this. Every time you remount, as soon as you are on the pedals, you should be standing up and hitting the gas. it should become so automatic that you need to force yourself to remain seated after a remount. This is where those little race-winning gaps after the barriers come from…
– A couple of little tiny points…
– You shouldn’t need to look down at any point during this whole process. Your pedals are attached to a set of cranks that define a very finite range of positional variance, all points of which lie in circle whose midpoint is defined by the bottom bracket.
In english?
If you miss the pedal on your remount, start moving your legs in a pedaling motion, and your foot will run into a pedal pretty damn soon. Step on it and go.
– If you are consistently having trouble finding the pedal as you remount…
– take some time to work on your dismount. It’s pretty likely you’re doing something wrong here, and leaving the pedal in a weird position when you get off the bike.
– Sneak a peak at your pedals just before you remount. Real quick-like, just look down, note where the damn things are, look back up and forward, and keep on going.
Phew.
That’s the basic remount. Practice it. Tonight.
Want some more?
OK.
Here are some drills to really make sure you’ve got this nailed…
– The One-Step ReMount –
– From a total stand still, hands on bars, no forward momentum at all, take one step with your left foot, and remount your bike.
Not hard enough?
– The Quicksand One-Step –
– Same thing, but no pedaling at all. Concentrate on driving so hard off the left foot that you can coast on the bike after the remount, from a standstill, with no pedaling.
This whole monstrosity of a post started with a question about dabbing the left foot on the remount, and this is killer for getting rid of a stutter-step.
Why?
Dabbing/stutter-stepping is all due to a lack of commitment.
If you’re doing this, it’s because you aren’t committed enough to driving off your left foot/leg as you remount. The simple key to resolving this problem is to focus on the drive off of your left foot.
This simple drill will force you to do that, and – bonus – it’s essentially impossible to do with a stutter.
—- even more?——
OK.
– Uphill Quicksand –
Same drill, up hill.
– Find a shallow, grassy hill and do the one-step remount on it. Talk about commitment…
—- still not enough?—-
– The On/Off –
– Begin from a standing start, exactly as above.
Take one step, then mount the bike.
Take one pedal stroke, then dismount.
One step, then remount.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Start this at a walking pace, and go really, really damn slowly until you have it wired. Gradually increase speed until you start to mess up, then back it on down and do it perfectly again.
—-Not hard enough?—-
– The No-Pedal, Non-Stop On/Off –
Yeah, you’re going to start this the same as all the others, we’re working on a theme, here, OK? Give me a break…
– Remount the bike just like you’ve been doing in all of these drills.
– As soon as your ass hits the saddle, dismount.
– As soon as your feet hit the ground, remount.
No pedaling, you don’t even touch the pedal with your right leg (literally.) You’re essentially gliding on and off the seat. This is easier to show than to describe, but it goes something like…
– Big step with left leg, drive off left leg as right swings over saddle.
– Left foot hits pedal, and…
– Right leg immediately swings back over saddle, left unclips…
– drop to the ground, big step with left leg…
Repeat. Repeat. Etc.
Enough already, right?!?
I hope you’ve found this helpful. Please drop me a line with the inevitable questions…
M
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Here’s a bonus.
When I first started teaching Cross skills, years and years ago, there were two races I watched over and over again to glean technique from.
This one –
And this one –
Even better, someone’s done what I did with the VCR all those years ago, and slo-moed all the dismounts/remounts from the ’96 race –
Just. Freaking. Awesome. Stuff.
Watch how these guys get it done, and then go and nail it yourself.
It’s Tuesday, and unless you’re new to the blog (and if you are, welcome!) you probably know what’s coming.
That’s right, it’s Two By Twenty Tuesday!
We’ve done about 1/2 dozen variations on this theme by now, so many of you are probably pretty clear on how these go already. If that sounds like you, today you should do the 2×20 Get-Up Style –
…and make it a point to really push the pace on it.
You’ve been keeping track of how these have been going, right?
You’ve established some sort of metric to track your progress, right?
Good!
So, step it up a notch. Go just a tiny bit harder than you have before today, to the point where you really need to grit your teeth to get through the interval. If you need to, rest just a little bit longer between the intervals. Heck, if you do this right, you should need to rest at least 5 minutes between the intervals!
Really, really go for it today.
Make sense?
No?
OK. If it doesn’t, that probably means that you need to do the Classic Two by Twenty today…
Sorry again for the absence last week; I really never even thought about the possibility of winding up in a hotel room without the Internet! Somehow, I feel strange about thinking that it was strange…
…or something.
So, OK, It’s Monday, and that typically means today is a rest and recovery day.
Given what I heard about the races this weekend that seems like it’s still a good idea, so here you go.
Today’s workout is a 1-2 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. Sometimes this takes 1/2 an hour, sometimes it takes 2 hours. After a while, when you get used to having the recovery ride as part of your routine, you know it when you feel it.
As soon as that happens, turn around, go home, eat, stretch, and put your legs up.
As is also usual for a Monday, don’t forget to get in some core work today. Especially if you simply can’t make yourself do it on any other day.
I hope that you are still managing to keep up with your race journal!
Don’t forget to take note of this past weekend’s adventures, and today we’re adding a new category to your observations; Equipment.
Just like you’ve been doing with your racing and fitness, after your race, get in the habit of writing down what did – and more importantly – what didn’t work during the race, equipment-wise.
– how did your clothing work out?
gloves warm enough? Too warm?
Socks warm enough? Too warm?
Underwear?
Skinsuit get droopy in the wet, and start catching your saddle?
– Glasses
Pick the right lenses? What were they?
Fogging? Not keeping the mud out of your eyes?
– how did the basic essentials of your bike work? Shifting solid for the whole race? Brakes?
– How did your pedals work? At the start? In the mud/sand/whatever?
– How did your tires work? Did you pick the correct pattern? How was your tire pressure?
Got one of these?
click link to buy one if you don't...
Start writing down your tire pressure!!!!!!
These are just some basic ideas! Write down anything you think will be useful to remember!
Sorry this has taken me so long to get up, but well… here it is.
The Workout Of The Day has been absent this week because I’m in Kona for the Ironman race, and It turns out I’m staying in a cabin with no internet access.
Yes, these places do still exist.
I was as surprised as you are 🙂
I will be back in Seattle on Saturday, and will resume the regular posting schedule then. My apologies for the inconvenience.
While I’m gone, there’s a pretty significant back catalog of workouts on here to choose from, and if you’ve been playing along with us, you’ve probably noticed that there is a general chronological order to what we do. Sunday we race, Monday we rest, Wednesday is skills day, etc.
You can follow along with the general format/structure of the plan by looking back at the workouts I have posted on previous weeks, and subbing in the workout from that week’s Monday or Tuesday or etc.
Make sense?
To make this really easy, for today, enter the search term “Thursday” in the search box on the lower right hand side of the page. A whole bunch of Thursday workouts will pop up. Pick the one that makes the most sense for you today, and have at it.
You betcha. I do the personal coaching/trainer thing. Clients have included multiple National and even World Champions, and 2/3 of My Cyclocross athletes made the podium at Nationals in 2009, with one taking home the Stars and Stripes. Interested? Drop me a line at: crosssports@gmail.com
Yeah, that's right... if you have completely lost control of all sense of fiscal responsibility, you can now purchase silly articles of clothing with my blog address on them.
How cool is that?
Just go to - http://crosssports.spreadshirt.com/
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