Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy ya’all,

How did the skills work go yesterday? Any questions?

A small group of folks came out to Woodland Park yesterday, and much fun was had.

We spent our time rounding some of the rough edges off the basic skills, and man, people improved fast.

Super fun!

Come on out next week, beginners especially welcome.

So, on with today’s workout.

It being Thursday, we’re going to do some running.

Hmm… what to do today…

Well, to be honest, last Thursday’s workout would be just about perfect today…

Easy enough, then. Your workout today is:

Do It Again –

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/the-cyclocross-workout-of-the-day-for-thursday-8-10-less-voluminous/

A couple of notes –

– A client asked me about doing run training with the bike; should you do running efforts with the bike on your shoulder?

Answer? No. Not on days you are doing run-focused training.

It’s a bad idea. Running with a bike on your shoulder is awkward, uncomfortable, and forces you to run with less than ideal form. With an extra 15-20 pounds on your shoulder.

Blecch.

You do not want to reinforce poor form for running. This is one of the best ways I know of to get injured.

Add 20 pounds to an exercise in bad form, and repeat ad nauseum? (shakes head.)

Train your running without the bike, and the time you spend in practice and racing with the bike will give you plenty of specificity to adapt your running form to the presence of the bike when you need to. Without F***ing your S**t up.

– Feeling ambitious?

You can do this running workout in 1/2 hour – 45 minutes.

I’m doing it (or something close to it…) but I double up, and do a bike workout before I run.

This is really damn hard.

It makes Thursday probably the hardest day of my week, and I take Friday pretty damn easy. Ish.

I also don’t need to be at my day job until 1pm. Believe me, this helps! When I was working a 9-5, I would do a 2×20 before work, and run at lunch on my run day.

YMMV

Here’s how today pans out for me:

Depending on how fresh I am when I wake up, I will do either a 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/

or a 2×10 set of Over/Under Intervals –

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2009/09/18/todays-workout-for-917/

Or, most likely, a 1×20, followed by a 1×10 over/under.

Then, I take a cold shower.

Then I run.

Then I take another shower and eat breakfast.

Then I go to work.

Very, very caffeinated.

Enjoy!

M

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…I will be out at Upper Woodland Park in Seattle doing a Cyclocross Skills workout at around 6pm tomorrow/tonight…

Damnit, I just don’t know when ya’all are going to read this….

OK.

On Wednesday the 25th.

Feel free to come out and join me if you like.

We will get things started in the upper South West corner of the park, at the grassy field behind the dirt parking lot.

M

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Howdy folks!

Today, we’re doing 30 minutes of plyometric intervals…

…Kidding!

🙂

Seriously, though… check out the post below this, and read John’s article on Jump training. There’s a whole lot of idiocy masquerading as training floating out there, and every once in a while we need a reality check.

Okay, end of sermon.

Today is Wednesday, and that means Cyclocross Skills Work is on the agenda for today.

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 5-10-15 minutes (depends how rusty you are. Do more of these, less of everything else if you need to.)

– Start at literally a walking pace, and slowly increase speed until you can mount and dismount the bike smoothly and perfectly at full speed. Do not jump on and off the bike, you are looking to smoothly slide yourself on and off.

We worked on the super basics a couple of weeks ago. Need a refresher? Check out –

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

Do just the most  basic dismount/remount as per above until you have it wired, smooth at all speeds. When you are feeling confident, add some barriers to the session…

– Again, start at a super, super slow speed.

– Approach the barrier, dismount smooth as silk.

– Step over the barrier, paying attention to how you lift the bike, and how you place your feet.

– Remount. Again, think smoooooth….

– Start with a single barrier, move to a double, and keep going slow until you have things wired. Then, speed things up until you aren’t smooth, back it down 1 notch, and make it smooth.

(If you don’t have barriers, anything will do. Use a log, put a stick on the ground – whatever.)

4- Shouldering the bike. 5 minutes.

We covered this at length last week. Check it out at –

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/the-cyclocross-workout-of-the-day-for-wednesday-8-10-yeah-skills-again/

Last week, I said we were going add the down-tube grab in this week. Sorry, I lied. We’re going to do that next week. Tonight we’re adding…

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….

See what I mean?

-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.

– short effort, just go long enough that you are up to full speed, then back down, turn around, go again.

6 – Recover for a few minutes, then Finish the night with two interval 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.

– 6-8 minutes full gas, rest for 2 minutes, then go again for 5.

– Start each effort with, well… with a start. Like you were working on a couple of minutes ago…

Warm down, go home, relax.

G’night,

M

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I seem to be getting a ton of hits from search terms like “Plyo Cross Workouts” and “Plyometric Cyclocross.”

OK.

Clearly, this is something people are interested in.

I could write something on the topic (and I will…) but as a preface, if you’re at all thinking about doing some training of this type, you should read an article that my friend and BJJ training buddy John wrote on the subject –

http://jbzero.blogspot.com/2010/08/coming-in-for-landing.html

I see a lot of people doing “Plyometric” workouts. I see people doing them correctly almost as often as I see a 3 legged dog.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t be doing plyometric workouts for cyclocross, but if you’re doing them, you need to understand what they are, how they work, and – above all – that they aren’t a cardio workout.

More on the topic later. Check out the link – it’s good stuff.

M

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Hi there, folks!

Thanks once again for all the interest, and especially for the questions. It appears that very few people have questions,  but the ones I do get are really darn good.

Thank you.

Yesterday, someone asked how to find old workouts.

The easiest way is to use the “search” function on the bottom right  hand of the page.

If you log in suitably generic terms like “wednesday” or “2×20,” you will get lots of results. Gradually refine the search terms, and you can usually find what you’re looking for pretty quickly.

If you can’t find the article you’re looking for, or you have questions about anything, please ask! Answering questions is much easier than figuring out what the heck to write about, believe me! I lazily crave the feedback and article-fodder…

Aaaaaanyways, on with our usual business.

No Surprises, today is 2×20 Tuesday.

Hopefully you’re feeling energized and ready to go hard after yesterday’s recovery workout.

We’re doing 2×20’s, but how about a couple of options for you?

You can do the Classic 2×20 –

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/workout-of-the-day-for-914-2/

Or 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/

If you’ve been following along with these workouts, you have done one (or both!) of these exercises already.

Here’s the thing, though…

Keep track of what you do/did today!

I don’t much care how you do it, but but if you haven’t already, your main goal should be to establish a metric for today’s workout. Heck, for all of your workouts!

Wattage numbers are great, but many of you don’t have the spendy gear necessary to generate them.

There are other indicators you can use –

– What gear did you do the workout in, and  at what cadence?

– What was your Heart rate during the intervals? Before? After?

– How far do (did) you go in 5 minutes? Ten? The full Twenty?

– What was your Perceived level of Exertion (PE)?

Allow me to reiterate: I don’t care how you do it, but  figure out a way of capturing and cataloging  just how hard you worked today.

You’re doing some pretty serious efforts on the bike today…

…but the real work you’re going to put in…

…is figuring out just how hard you had to work to do so.

Make sense?

If it doesn’t, it will.

M

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Howdy folks,

Monday is the day for rest and recovery, at least around these parts. That means – for most of you – today’s workout should look something like this:

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2010/08/08/the-cyclocross-workout-of-the-day-for-monday-8-8-and-on-the-8th-day-we-rest/

What about those of you who took yesterday off?

It’s still not a bad idea to take it pretty easy today.

Do the Recovery Spin, as described in the link. Double down on the core work.

Feeling like you want to put some hard efforts in?

OK.

Run some stairs (or hills) today, after your core work and spin.

Give this a shot – –

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/the-cyclocross-workout-of-the-day-for-thursday-8-11-get-high-knees-that-is/

Yes, today is a mish-mash of stuff you’ve done before.

There’s a reason for that.

You’ve done these workouts before, so you should be able to pace things out well enough that you don’t dig yourself a big hole you can’t dig out of the rest of the week.

Remember, tomorrow is a pretty hard interval day.

Don’t go so hard today that you can’t drill it tomorrow…

M

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Howdy folks,

I hope ya’all are having a great weekend! If you did yesterday’s workout, I imagine you’re feeling a little bit tired tonight?

That’s good.

As I was saying yesterday, for some of us, this is the last weekend we’re going to see for a while that isn’t going to have a Cyclocross race in it.

That’s pretty damn cool.

It also means that if you’re feeling a little bit tired today, you might want to take today completely off the bike.

Yup.

You heard me right.

Think about taking today off.

Go see a movie. Spend some time with your family.

Whatever. Do something other than ride.

Have some fun.

If you’re totally obsessed, today might be a really good day to work on your bike(s.)

Check your chain.

Glue some tires.

Double check that if you have more than one bike, they’re set up the same way. Have you double-checked your seat heights lately?

If you’re not racing anytime soon, and you need to get a ride in today, check out yesterday’s workout.

Did that yesterday?

Cool.

How about some climbing work today?

Your workout today is The Hills Have (small) i’s

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

Find a hill that will take you three to five minutes or so to climb. You should be able to do the climb in the big gear, but barely. It should be right at that level of steepness where you have a hard time deciding.

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 for 5-10 pedal strokes, 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.

Go again.

Repeat 3-5 times. That’s a set.

Recover by spinning between sets, time of recovery equal to the time of the set.

Ideally, you do this on both sides of a climb, or you can loop back around and repeat on the same climb.

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

Spin out your legs, go home, relax.

If you want to go long, do yesterday’s workout.

Have fun!

M

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Howdy folks!

I don’t know if ya’all have noticed, but the cross season is almost upon us… as in, damn; there’s a race in Seattle next weekend!

That means that for many of us, this is pretty much the last free weekend of the season. Racing takes over, kiss bye-bye to your casual weekend ride.

So, if there’s a casual weekend ride that you like to do, get on it this weekend. Have some fun, and get some miles in with your road-riding buddies or MTB brethren, because you probably won’t be seeing them for a while.

This is also one of the last good opportunities for the folks with day jobs to get some real miles in the legs, and blow a whole day out on the road or the trails.

Look, I’m not one of those folks who thinks that distance, time, and hundreds of hours of junk miles in the legs is the key to cycling success, but there’s something immensely satisfying about going long, and many of us love the full-day ride.

If that’s you, get it out of your system now!

Your workout today is –

Ride All Freakin’ Day If You Feel Like It!

Pretty simple, right? Get on your bike. Ride. Ride some more. Stop when you feel like it.

If you’re the type looking for a bit more structure, or something that’s just a wee bit ambitious, give a try to the –

Jacky Day.

This is a good general climbing and endurance workout that will stretch you a little bit longer than anything you’re likely to see out on the cross courses.

Select a route that will enable you to hit at least 3 climbs of 10 minutes or so each, with flat to rolling terrain in between.

Warm up well, at least 20-30 minutes before you hit the first climb.

Climbs should be hard but steady.

Start medium hard (not full gas!) and try and hold it the whole climb.

Drive it over the top, and roll down the descent. Visualize a prime at the bottom of each descent, and a chase pack nipping at your heels. Don’t sit up at the top of the climbs, stay on the gas all the way down and through.

In between climbs, keep it steady.

You want to stay on top of a pretty big gear, at a level that is below threshold, but not that far below.

If you’re a power meter type, with an ftp of 265, you would want to try and average about 200 watts between the climbs and 300 on the climbs.

Not a PM type? Try and go about 80% on the climbs, and just over 50% between the climbs.

Remember, 3 climbs of 10 minutes, or as close as you can get. With a warm up of 30 minutes, and a cool down of about the same, this would be just about perfect for a 2.5 hour ride.

Got more time? Rest after the 3rd climbing effort, repeat the cycle.

It’s better to keep the intensity up than to go longer. Remember, we aren’t resting between climbs, we’re dieseling along in a big gear.

Visualize yourself driving an all-day breakaway, and you get the idea…

Have fun, and think to yourself, as you’re rolling along…

“What would Jacky do?”

M

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Well, we made it to another Friday.

Nice.

How are you feeling? Tired? If you did yesterday’s workout, you should be, and your legs should feel like hamburger today.

That’s OK, we’re going to  do something light and speedy today, to mix things up a bit and focus on getting your legs to turn over fast.

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, and get ready for the weekend.

Have fun!

MH

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Howdy folks,

I was pretty sure that last night’s minutiae fest…

…was going to send ya’all heading for the hills, but damn… judging by the stats, the opposite happened. My visitor count totally blew up yesterday.

Huh.

Go figure.

Thanks for being interested, and please… leave comments and questions! That whole blast of exposition was prompted by a couple of comments, and it makes my life easier if I know what folks want to read about 🙂

Well, with that out of the way, on with the workout of the day…

It’s Thursday, so – surprise!- we’re doing some running today.

Today’s workout is Lunge-ables –

NO,*LUNGE*ables!

– get on your bike and warm up for 15 minutes or so.

(we’re going to warm up for any running efforts we do, all season, with some time on the bike. )

– Mosey on over to your stairs/knoll/whatever, and get set. Stretch, have a sip of water, turn up the volume on your Ipod.

– Jog up the stairs. Walk down.

– Sprint! up stairs, fast, using whatever stride is most comfortable. Walk down.

– Repeat x3

Rest for 1 minute, walking slowly up and down stairs.

– Sprint up stairs, this time using quick, tiny strides, 1 stairstep at a time. Jog down.

– Repeat x3

Rest again, same as before.

– Sprint up stairs, this time using long strides, several stairsteps at a time. Walk down.

– Repeat x 2

Rest again.

– Sprint up stairs, combining the previous two exercises; long step, followed by 2 short steps. Do 1x.

Walk down.

– Run up stairs, high knees – (see last Thursday’s post if you are unsure of this…)

Repeat x2

Rest again, 2-5 minutes.

– Walking lunge up stairs –

Check out the video – http://vimeo.com/4272332

Do these up the stairs, pay attention to the notes on form. Speed on the vid is perfect…

repeat x2

– Sprint up stairs, free form, just go as fast as you can. Walk down. Go until spent, or speed drops appreciably.

– Repeat entire damn thing if you’re a freaking animal.

Get back on bike, spin out your legs, go home.

G’night!

M

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