It’s a race day up here in Seattle, and if you’re one of the folks out there doing that… well, you’re probably already out there doing that.
Have fun, do well. All that jazz.
Not racing today, but racing tomorrow?
Today you’re doing…
Can Openers –
Here’s the drill:
– Warm up for 1/2 hour or so, spinning easy with a couple of short bursts thrown in.
– Follow with several short attacking efforts, IE 30 seconds at 80% of your max, or pretty damn hard. 2 – 3 of ’em.
– Back off and spin for 5 minutes.
– Follow with 10-15 minute effort at right about your 2×20 output level, 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 hard 10 second efforts, ideally on CX type variable terrain, level or slightly uphill.
– Finish with 5-6 start efforts on a straight section of paved road, level or slightly uphill. You want to begin these from a dead stop, with one foot unclipped. Do not stop until you get at least 3 perfect starts in a row, and I mean perfect. This is the cross equivalent of practicing free throws. Make ‘em count!
– spin out the legs, go home, and get ready for the race.
Enjoy!
M
Thanks for following my blog!
I’m not trying to get rich off this thing… or really even make any money from it at all.
It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this.
Heck, allow me to rephrase that; I can’t keep doing this if I lose money on it.
So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, and you’d like to see it continue, please do me a favor – and yes, it’s a favor, and I will be truly thankful for it – and send a buck or two (or five, or whatever…) my way.
How do you do that?
Simply click on the graphic below, and PayPal will be glad to make it happen.
Up here in Seattle, the big series race is on Saturday this week. If you’re doing that, or if you’re in another part of the country but still racing tomorrow, your workout today is…
Ignition –
You’re going to do a series of short, hard sprints midway through a 1 – 1 1/2 hour ride. Before you head out the door, give some thought to where you can do that effectively.
A flat, straight, low-traffic section of road is what you’re looking for.
It would be great if it’s about a :45 minute ride away; that would make things nice and simple.
Hop on your bike and roll out the door.
Ride steady, at a moderate pace for 1/2 hour – 45 minutes, eventually winding up at the aforementioned stretch of road.
You’re now going to do a series of Hard out of the saddle sprints.
How hard?
Well, hard to say. You’ll start to get the hang of it pretty quickly, but figure that you’re shooting for an output level that will allow you to crank out all the sprints in the set at about the same level, but not easily.
You aren’t sprinting to failure here, and you aren’t doing a max power test.
Don’t overdo it, you’re trying to open your legs, not destroy them.
Make sense?
10 sprints, 10 seconds each.
1 minute between each sprint.
After the last sprint, roll back home spinning easily to recover.
Budget at least 15 – 20 minutes for the spin/ride back home.
when you get home, put your feet up and relax.
For some folks, this isn’t quite enough to get their legs open and ready the day before the race – or at least it doesn’t feel like it’s enough – and the importance of “feeling” ready can’t really be overestimated.
If you’re part of this club (I am) add a 10-minute effort at right about your 2×20 output level before you start the sprint sets.
Take it easy today. Go for a short easy spin, or take the day entirely off.
You’ll be doing your openers tomorrow, stay tuned!
Enjoy!
M
Thanks for following my blog!
I’m not trying to get rich off this thing… or really even make any money from it at all.
It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this.
Heck, allow me to rephrase that; I can’t keep doing this if I lose money on it.
So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, and you’d like to see it continue, please do me a favor – and yes, it’s a favor, and I will be truly thankful for it – and send a buck or two (or five, or whatever…) my way.
How do you do that?
Simply click on the graphic below, and PayPal will be glad to make it happen.
I hope you enjoyed your skills work yesterday! We had a pretty sizable turnout at the velodrome yesterday, and I saw some people making significant progress in the drills we did. More of that – and those – to come next week! Please join us if you’re in the Seattle area.
Today, we’re doing something that’s a little bit skills, and a little bit fitness. Today we’re doing…
Sventervals –
Sometimes a picture (or a video) is worth a thousand words.
Just like in the video.
Really darn short – 10 seconds max – full gas hill sprints, ideally on pretty technical terrain.
5 reps per set, and notice how hard Sven is breathing after these?
That’s the idea.
Hit it hard. Really hard. These are super short, and super intense.
Ideally, you’re doing these on a short climb that you can barely get up, one that is at the bleeding edge of your technical ability and strength.
You can surmount the obstacle, but it forces you to give it everything you’ve got to make it happen.
But you can make it happen, despite the pain. For a couple of reps, at least.
Can’t get up the hill anymore?
Take a short rest, go again.
When you can’t get up the hill at all even when you take a short break to recover?
You’re done.
Hey, before you run out and do that workout… if you’re up in the Seattle area, the big series race is on Saturday this week.
If you’re planning on doing that, you probably shouldn’t do this workout today. For most folks, it’s just too hard two days before a race, especially if you’re going to be doubling up this weekend, and racing Sunday as well.
Go for a really easy spin, or – better yet – take the day off the bike entirely.
It’s Wednesday, and as always (almost always? mostly always? most of the time?) it’s…
Skills Day!
If you’d like to work on your skills in a group setting, and you live in the Seattle area, we’re starting up the Wednesday Night CX Practices out at the JBM Velodrome tonight! We go wheels up at about 6:30, so come on out!
If you come out tonight you’ll likely hear me talk a fair bit about Moto GP racing as a source of inspiration and knowledge in RE: bike handling on the Cross bike.
Stuff like this –
…can offer a lot of insight into what is possible when driving a bike, even if it’s a puny 1-human power CX rig.
No, you can’t ever do everything these guys do.
64 degree lean angles? Yikes!
On a bike, you simply don’t have the horsepower and the down force that these bikes have, but the basic physics of the bike remain more or less the same –
…so steal liberally.
There’s more to it than just bike handling, though.
Want to work on your starts?
Check this out –
Overtaking?
Bam!
If you watch a whole race, I defy you to not come away with little bits and pieces that will help your racing!
So, homework.
Watch these guys – the best bike handlers in the world – and learn from them.
You won’t regret it.
***********
Today’s workout?
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 (We’ve talked about stretching on here in the past, check out the search function if you want/need some more info.)
3 – Dismount/remount skills for 5-10-15 minutes
– 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.
Do just the most basic dismount/remount as per above until you have it down cold, smooth as silk.
When you’re perfect (hah!) throw some barriers into the mix.
4 – Figure eight drill.
Set up 2 cones or 2 rocks or two… somethings. Doesn’t much matter what it is.
Ride in a figure eight pattern around the cones…
– first pedaling the entire time.
No coasting.
Pedal all the way around the figure 8, including the turns.
Practice using the brakes while still pedaling. This is one of those secret techniques that – once you figure it out – makes a huge difference. When you stop pedaling you lose traction, so don’t stop pedaling!
Experiment with this, it’s a game-changer.
– Same drill, not pedaling through the turns.
– Same drill, alternate styles.
Now move the figure 8 to the side of a slight hill.
One cone up hill, one down, about 5-8 meters apart and staggered, IE: not directly below each other on the slope.
– Same drill(s) as before. Go.
Good?
Next, pilot around those corners – uphill and downhill – with the inside foot out.
Having trouble making the turn at the top of the figure 8? Put your foot down and push off with it to make the turn.
Don’t be afraid to use the foot that’s unclipped to push off or “paddle” around a turn, or to keep yourself driving forward on an off-camber section.
This can be another game changer, so work on it, eh?
– Alternate both of these styles around the figure-eight.
Experiment.
Try different speeds, different lines, different angles.
See when/how/why each style works, and figure out how they can work for you.
5 – Recover for a few minutes, then Finish the night with two interval efforts on relatively easy terrain, but make sure to include the figure – 8 in it.
– “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, and your exits from turns & technical features.
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.
Spin down for a few minutes, then head home and finish up your day.
Have fun!
M
Thanks for following my blog!
I’m not trying to get rich off this thing… or really even make any money from it at all.
It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this.
Heck, allow me to rephrase that; I can’t keep doing this if I lose money on it.
So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, and you’d like to see it continue, please do me a favor – and yes, it’s a favor, and I will be truly thankful for it – and send a buck or two (or five, or whatever…) my way.
How do you do that?
Simply click on the graphic below, and PayPal will be glad to make it happen.
Thanks for the consideration!
What’s that you say? You’d kinda’ like to have a cycling coach of your very own? Check out…
Happy Tuesday! Without very much ado this morning, we’re going to jump right in to the workout. Today we’re doing…
The MB15 –
Warm up well. (Seriously. Warm up for this one, it’ll help.)
The basic idea here is to do a series of very short efforts with very little rest between them, for a pretty long period of time.
Sound confusing?
Here’s how it breaks down…
Warm up.
Get set…
Go!
15 seconds on
15 seconds off
15 seconds on
15 seconds off
…and so on and so on for the duration of the interval.
How long are you going to do this for?
– Ten minutes
How many sets?
– Three -four sets, 5 minutes between sets. Ideally, you aspire to pile enough ten-minute segments on top of one another to equal the duration of your races.
How hard do you go during the “on” segments?
– Pretty darn hard.
You’re familiar with the level of effort you put out in your 2×20’s by now, right?
You need to go harder than that.
More than a little bit harder.
Ideally, you’ll hit these on periods at right about 150% of your FTP, if that’s a number that means anything to you. If it doesn’t, it’s harder than what you’re dong your 2×20 effort at. A lot harder. For most folks it’s going to be about 50% harder.
Like I said, “ouch.”
How easy do you go during the “off” segments?
– A lot easier, but you aren’t soft pedaling.
Right about 50% of your FTP, or in the neighborhood of half as hard as your 2×20 level.
This is going to seem way too easy when you’re starting out, but by the end – if you’re doing these right – it’s probably going to be really damn hard to keep the “off” that high.
Ouch.
It gets worse.
Ultimately, you want to be able to do however many of these it takes to equal the duration of your typical CX race.
Seriously, Ouch.
Do what you can.
That’s the basics of this workout, but let’s talk about how folks tend to screw this up, shall we?
First of all, you really can’t do this workout correctly with a power meter that’s set to anything other than instantaneous power display. Even a 3-second display rate can screw things up; that’s 20% of the interval duration!
So, go check your PM settings and adjust accordingly.
Next big screw up? These aren’t sprints.
You’re looking to nail these output levels for the duration of the intervals, not way overshoot them and then coast back down to them.
If you’re doing a 300 watt “on” segment, that means 300 watts for 15 seconds, not 400 watts for 5 seconds and then 250 watts for 10 seconds.
That’s fine and all, but it’a different exercise.
A corollary to this is, on the “off” segment, you aren’t coasting. Ever. You’re doing 50% of your ftp. It’s not uncommon at all for people to experience the “off” portion as just as hard – or harder! – as the “on” section as the overall duration of the interval set reaches the duration of your race day.
In graphic form, your workout should look more like a square wave –
Than like this…
(yup, snipped from a real-life attempt at this workout)
Make sense?
Have fun,
M
What’s that you say? You’d kinda’ like to have a cycling coach help figure this stuff out for you? Check out…
It’s Monday. I’m guessing you know what that means in terms of a workout today, eh?
Yup.
It’s time for a…
Recovery Spin –
– Get on your bike. Roll out into the street – or into your living room if you’re on the turbo watching the vid – and just spin around for an hour. Or more. Or less. Whatever it takes.
– 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 easily and aimlessly. At a certain point, your legs will start to loosen up.
– When that happens, turn around and go home.
– If you’re doing these on the trainer, same deal. Just spin. No hard efforts, just make the legs go around in circles in a small gear.
– Follow up with as much relaxation as you can. Eat, stretch, and put your legs up. Get a massage if possible.
Let’s face it, you just stopped by for the race vid link, hoping I’d have this weekend’s racing up.
Blecch. No such luck.
I looked, but no links to the (pretty terrible) coverage of the Waterloo races up yet.
Frankly, the downside of having actual domestic coverage of CX races is that the US broadcast rights to the races are now held by people who might actually care enough to get stuff pulled from Youtube. Not sure if that’s what’s happening here, but it would be ironic if after decades of wishing for US TV coverage of World Cup Cyclocross, we finally get it, only to realize that makes it much more difficult to actually watch the racing.
It might just be that the Euro folks who post up these vids are running behind, though, so stay tuned. I’ll post up this past weekend’s vids when I find ’em.
In the meantime, here’s some great action from a few years back, enjoy!
M
Thanks for following my blog!
I’m not trying to get rich off this thing… or really even make any money from it at all.
It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this.
Heck, allow me to rephrase that; I can’t keep doing this if I lose money on it.
So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, and you’d like to see it continue, please do me a favor – and yes, it’s a favor, and I will be truly thankful for it – and send a buck or two (or five, or whatever…) my way.
How do you do that?
Simply click on the graphic below, and PayPal will be glad to make it happen.
I’m trying to be more inventive with the lead in to these posts, but… ugh. Not today. Just too damn tired. So…
It’s Saturday. That means most of you are racing tomorrow, some of you are racing today.
If you’re racing today, have fun! Racing tomorrow?
Today you’re doing…
Can Openers –
Here’s the drill:
– Warm up for 1/2 hour or so, spinning easy with a couple of short bursts thrown in.
– Follow with several short attacking efforts, IE 30 seconds at 80% of your max, or pretty damn hard. 2 – 3 of ’em.
– Back off and spin for 5 minutes.
– Follow with 10-15 minute effort at right about your 2×20 output level, 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 hard 10 second efforts, ideally on CX type variable terrain, level or slightly uphill.
– Finish with 5-6 start efforts on a straight section of paved road, level or slightly uphill. You want to begin these from a dead stop, with one foot unclipped. Do not stop until you get at least 3 perfect starts in a row, and I mean perfect. This is the cross equivalent of practicing free throws. Make ‘em count!
– spin out the legs, go home, and get ready for the race.
Enjoy!
M
Thanks for following my blog!
I’m not trying to get rich off this thing… or really even make any money from it at all.
It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this.
Heck, allow me to rephrase that; I can’t keep doing this if I lose money on it.
So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, and you’d like to see it continue, please do me a favor – and yes, it’s a favor, and I will be truly thankful for it – and send a buck or two (or five, or whatever…) my way.
How do you do that?
Simply click on the graphic below, and PayPal will be glad to make it happen.
Sorry about the lack of a posting yesterday. Interbike… happened. Vegas is just freaking exhausting, even – maybe especially – when you’re trying to avoid most of the lunacy that brings people there in the first place.
Leaving Las Vegas. With The Dude.
I’m back in town now, so how about a Friday workout?
Working on the assumption that you’ll be racing on Sunday, today we’re doing…
The L.B.
You’re going to do a series of short, hard sprints midway through a 1 – 1 1/2 hour ride. Before you head out the door, give some thought to where you can do that effectively.
A flat, straight, low-traffic section of road is what you’re looking for.
It would be great if it’s about a :45 minute ride away; that would make things nice and simple.
Hop on your bike and roll out the door.
Ride steady, at a moderate pace for 1/2 hour – 45 minutes, eventually winding up at the aforementioned stretch of road.
You’re now going to do a series of Hard out of the saddle sprints.
How hard?
Well, it’s difficult to say without having your data in front of me. You’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly, but you’re shooting for an output level that will allow you to crank out all the sprints in the set at about the same level, but not easily. Also not so hard that you’re going to feel this in your legs tomorrow.
Clear as mud?
You aren’t sprinting to failure here, and you aren’t doing a max power test.
Don’t overdo it, you’re trying to open your legs, not destroy them.
10 sprints, 10 seconds each.
1 minute between each sprint.
After the last sprint, roll back home spinning easily to recover.
Budget at least 15 – 20 minutes for the spin/ride back home.
when you get home, put your feet up and relax.
Have fun!
M
Thanks for following my blog!
I’m not trying to get rich off this thing… or really even make any money from it at all.
It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this.
Heck, allow me to rephrase that; I can’t keep doing this if I lose money on it.
So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, and you’d like to see it continue, please do me a favor – and yes, it’s a favor, and I will be truly thankful for it – and send a buck or two (or five, or whatever…) my way.
How do you do that?
Simply click on the graphic below, and PayPal will be glad to make it happen.
…which means that while I will do my damndest to get posts up, there may be… issues.
Seems like something always pops up that screws up my plans and intentions when I’m down here, so I’ll do my best.
No promises though!
Today we’re good, though.
And even though it’s going to look like I’m cheating and linking to a post from a couple of weeks back, it ain’t the case. Would have done this anyways.
People have been telling me they’re having problems with their starts.
I’m not trying to get rich off this thing… or really even make any money from it at all.
It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this.
Heck, allow me to rephrase that; I can’t keep doing this if I lose money on it.
So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, and you’d like to see it continue, please do me a favor – and yes, it’s a favor, and I will be truly thankful for it – and send a buck or two (or five, or whatever…) my way.
How do you do that?
Simply click on the graphic below, and PayPal will be glad to make it happen.
“Maybe” because if you don’t have some kind of power metering device you can use, well… this workout just ain’t going to happen for you.
Well, ok… more than that, you have to also have a pretty solid idea of what your FTP level is.
Not in that club? no sweat. Hang tough for a couple/few paragraphs.
People with power meters? Today you’re doing…
VO(to the)max 12/50
Warm up
Warm Up: 20 min @ 40 % of FTP throw a couple of efforts at or > ftp in during warm up to make sure you’re ready
Repeat 12 times
Hard
Work: 50 sec @ 110 % of FTP
Easy
Recovery: 10 sec @ 75 % of FTP
Recovery
Recovery: 15 min @ 40 % of FTP
Repeat 12 times
Hard
Work: 50 sec @ 110 % of FTP
Easy
Recovery: 10 sec @ 75 % of FTP
Recovery
Recovery: 15 min @ 40 % of FTP
Repeat 12 times
Hard
Work: 50 sec @ 110 % of FTP
Easy
Recovery: 10 sec @ 75 % of FTP
Cool Down
Cool Down: 10 min @ 40 % of FTP
Ouch.
No power meter? No clue about this FTP stuff?
No sweat. Today is, afterall…
2×20 Tuesday!
The 2×20 is kind-of the Swiss Army knife of workouts, and some folks take it so far as to make it the primary building block of their fitness. As such, it’s a great default workout. Short on time? Not sure what to do? You could do a lot worse than to suffer your way through one of these.
The 2×20 isn’t just a staple workout, though. It can also double as a test session; a regular, oft-repeated gauge of your fitness.
That’s a big part of what we’re after today, as we embark upon our season-long CX journey. We’re setting a baseline for all the workouts you’ll do as the year rolls on.
Keep track of your performance in this, and in all of the 2×20′s you do!
(honestly, you should keep track of all the workouts you do, but… baby steps. We’ll start here.)
You might just find yourself doing these on a pretty regular basis, and if you keep track of ‘em, you’ll find that you’ve left a really good trail of bread crumbs behind you all season.
It doesn’t really matter how you do this keeping-track-of. Wattage, heart rate, what gear you’re pushing on the trainer, whatever. Just figure out some way of consistently measuring your performance during the workout, and write it down/download it/etch it in runes on a stone tablet…
Just try to track this stuff, ok?
Every time.
It’s great if you have a wattage measuring device, but it isn’t critical. If you do these intervals on a trainer, you can record your cadence and gear ratio, and you can track your progress that way.
Say today you ride these on your trainer, with a fixed resistance, in a 53×14 at 80 rpm.
Next time out? 53×14 at 85 rpm.
Time after that? Back to 80 rpm, but this time you were able to roll ’em on a 53×13.
Progress! And you can see it on paper (or your stone tablets)!
Yay!
It’s all about establishing some kind of metrics to keep track of.
Got it?
Cool.
We will be referring to these metrics throughout the season, and your level of output in the 2×20 will form the basis for determining your target output in most of the workouts we do from here on out.
So, hey… what the heck is this 2×20 thing?
Pretty simply, the 2×20 looks like this:
– Warm up.
– Go as hard as you can for 20 minutes.
– Recover for 5 minutes.
– Go again for another 20 minutes.
That’s the basic version. Success on this is, however, all in the details.
First of all, warm up.
No, seriously. Don’t just hop on the bike and blast one out.
Warming up makes a difference, especially if you’re doing this as a test session.
You don’t need to do anything super hard or super involved, just make sure the legs are up and running before you kick off the workout proper.
Spin for a bit, blast a couple of 30 second to 2 minute efforts off pretty hard, spin a bit more, then go for it.
When you do go for it, really go for it.
But in a controlled sort of way.
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. How constant?
Can you keep it in a 10 watt range?
Probably not.
15 watts?
More likely
20 watts?
Try.
Keep it steady.
These take practice to do well, and the better you get, the harder they get (you’re welcome.) This is a workout that’s a natural for the turbo trainer, and that’s how I do ‘em.
This 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 blurry vision thing. You should aspire to seeing-spots level of output on these.
If you can learn to push through your limits, really push, you will get better and you will get better fast.
It’ll be painful, though.
I promise.
Have fun!
M
Thanks for following my blog!
I’m not trying to get rich off this thing… or really even make any money from it at all.
It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this.
Heck, allow me to rephrase that; I can’t keep doing this if I lose money on it.
So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, and you’d like to see it continue, please do me a favor – and yes, it’s a favor, and I will be truly thankful for it – and send a buck or two (or five, or whatever…) my way.
How do you do that?
Simply click on the graphic below, and PayPal will be glad to make it happen.
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/
and think "conspicuous consumption... mmm... feels so good..."
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