Today’s workout(s!) aren’t going to come as much of a surprise to anyone who has been following the blog for a while…
If you’re racing… Go Race.
Go fast. Have fun. Take a shot at integrating the skills and tactics we have been talking about lately into your game, and make sure you also have a plan for that game – take a gander back at last weekend’s posts for more on that…
Not racing Saturday?
Racing Sunday?
You guessed it – you get to do Can Openers or maybe The RSWO if the weather is terrible.
I’ve been ducking what I sincerely hope isn’t the flu for the last day or so, and I think I’ve managed to avoid getting it full-force.
I think.
Anyways…
This looks to be a pretty crazy weekend almost everywhere, and folks are going to be racing on Saturday, Sunday, both days, neither day… who the heck knows. I sure don’t so I’m going to hit you with a couple of options…
If you’re Only racing tomorrow (Saturday,) your workout for today is – you guessed it – Can Openers.
You might also think about doing one of these if you are racing both Saturday and Sunday if…
– You are in really good form – kickin’ ass and takin’ names,
– or –
– You care more about the race on Saturday than the one on Sunday.
If you aren’t in storming good form…
…care more about Sunday than Saturday,
…just want to have a good race one of the two days…
…or don’t really care, just want to have fun…
Take it easy today.
Go out and cruise around on your bike for an hour or two. Nohard efforts. See the sights, smell the flowers. One tiny little notch above a Recovery Spin.
If you are racing Only on Sunday, this might also be a good workout for you, or take it up just one more of those tiny little notches and go for a 1-2 hour moderate ride.
No hard efforts, no blasting for the town lines, just roll, baby.
You’re not doing a recovery ride, so you’re going to want to put some pressure on the pedals, but you’re never going balls-out either.
When you get home from this ride, you should feel like you could-have and maybe should-have gone harder. In fact, that’s pretty much what you want to feel the whole ride – “Gee… I should be going just a little bit harder than this…”
Go as long as two hours if you’re in great form, shorter if you aren’t. 1 Hour is probably right on target for most folks.
Well, we’re about to hit another one of those crazy weekends, with races both days all over the country and the pace of the races heating up as we creep ever closer to nationals.
All of this craziness weighs heavy on us as we plan out our training and roll on into the weekend, and that means we’re going to hit you with a couple of options for today’s workout.
So, first question:
When are you racing this weekend?
Saturday?
Sunday?
Both days?
Second question:
How are you feeling?
Tired?
Fresh?
Stale?
Freakin’ amped and ready to rip people’s legs off?
Go ahead and enjoy this video while you think about it…
(and yes, these guys were customers of mine back in the guitar shop days. Sweeet.)
So, uhm ok…. back to the workout…
Racing only on Sunday? Feeling Sprightly? You’re doing Form Sprints.
Here’s what this looks like:
Warm up well.
Find a long, flat section of road with little to no traffic.
Get a rolling start; you aren’t going fast, just gently spinning.
Stand up and sprint.
You’re going to sprint hard, but in a slightly smaller than comfortable gear.
Go until you are spun out, then…
sit down.
Accelerate again, seated, spinning the same gear selection even faster.
Go until you are totally spun out.
Sit up, and spin back down to a conversational pace.
That’s one rep.
You’re doing sets of 5.
3 sets is probably enough for most all ya’all.
2-5 minutes rest between sets.
Note: These are called Form Sprints for a reason; you’re doing them in a smaller gear than you would normally sprint in, and you are concentrating on your form. Pay attention to all the little things your body does in a sprint, and work to maximize your efficiency and control. Keep it smooth. Think fast, fluid, and supple with the pedal stroke.
Racing both days this weekend? Racing on Sunday only, but feeling a bit tuckered-out?
Cool.
No, really. That’s what you’re doing today. Chill out a little bit – go for a 1-2 hour moderate ride.
No hard efforts, no blasting for the town lines, just roll, baby.
You’re not doing a recovery ride, so you’re going to want to put some pressure on the pedals, but you’re never going balls-out either.
When you get home from this ride, you should feel like you could-have and maybe should-have gone harder. In fact, that’s pretty much what you want to feel the whole ride – “Gee… I should be going just a little bit harder than this…”
If you’re racing on Saturday only, you’re doing the same ride…
…but if – and only if – you’re feeling good, on the upswing of your fitness, and still building form… skew things more towards the 2 hour side of affairs.
It’s 11/11… which was an important day when I was in college. Lots of crazy behavior, and a great backstory that…
I’m not going to tell you.
😮
So, without further ado, today’s workout:
As promised it’s Cyclocross Skills day.
Today we’re going to focus on gear selection, and it goes a little something…
like…
this…
– warm up, 10-15 minutes.
– Brief run. 5 minutes.
– Stretch.
– Barrier skills, 10 minutes.
Pay special attention to your gear selection coming in and out of the barriers. Play around with this. Try gearing way too low. Try gearing way to high. Figure out what just right is, for you, for different situations.
– Technical skills, 15-20 minutes.
Again, pay special attention to your gear selection.
Find a hilly section, and take a run into it in a giant gear and with a little tiny gear.
Feel the difference.
Work on carrying momentum into small uphills using a big gear. See how far you can push this without bogging down.
Gear down, and spin your way up the same hill.
Pick a particularly bumpy/rough section of course, and experiment riding it in different gears. Do you feel a difference? Most folks find that riding a larger gear through the rough stuff will serve to soften the ride – see if this works for you.
Ride into a tricky off-camber section in a big gear…
…a small gear
…and at varying speeds.
Make note of what works, and when.
When should you gun into an off camber with a big gear, and when should you ease back and spin?
Figure it out!
– Starts, until you get 5 perfect starts in a row.
Start in a different gear each time.
Vary the terrain slightly for each start, and figure out how this changes your optimal gear selection.
Try starting on and into an uphill…
…and a downhill.
How does this change your gear choice?
– Race simulation. 3 x 10 minutes, 2 minute rest between efforts.
You guessed it; work on your gear selection in the race simulation.
Mix it up; legs getting tired from pushing the big gear? See what happens when you drop it down and spin.
Heart racing from all the leg speed? Shift over into the big ring, lug over the gear for a while, and see what happens.
Most important of all, try to figure out what’s fast.
Fast isn’t always what you find to be the most comfortable or natural. Heck, pretty often it’s not.
Remember, we’re talking about racing here; step outside your comfort zone, try some different approaches, and see what happens.
When you are done, spin out and go home (or get off the trainer.)
Notes:
– These probably work best on the trainer; good news or bad, depending on your perspective 😮
– The bigger the gear you can push and the smaller the gear you can spin, the better. The goal here is to develop your ability to produce the same wattage at different pedal velocities…
– Why the hell are we doing this?
OK.
Here’s why.
I saw a whole bunch of folks this weekend twiddling tiny little gears as they bounced around through sections of the course that would have been much better ridden in a larger gear. Ironically, I saw many of the very same people also struggling to lug over gears that were waaaay too big for them in other sections of the course.
We’re going to work on proper gear selection this Wednesday when we discuss this week’s skills workout, but we’re going to start today, by working on your ability to use those gears when you do select them.
Well, you can probably guess what’s on tap for today…
That’s right, it’s a Recovery Ride day!
Get on your bike.
Spin around for an hour or so. No pressure on the pedals, just make ’em go around in circles.
No efforts, no intervals, just pedal around until your legs loosen up. When that happens, go home. Get some rest.
Easy, right?
OK – now for some follow up on the weekend’s racing, and your Game Planning.
How did that go this weekend?
I had a long post-race debrief with an athlete today, and an awful lot of what we wound up talking about was the Game Plan.
Here’s some of the stuff that came up – maybe it’ll help you too, eh?
Pre race –
You need to game-plan your pre-race routine, too. Have a plan in mind for when you show up at the race.
– Know how long it takes you to get warmed up, and how long it takes you to get ready to warm up!
– Drive time?
– Parking?
– Filling the tank & emptying the bowels?
– Unpacking & kitting up?
Time ’em all up, do the math, and plan for the reality – not the optimistic “guess!”
– Know the times that the course will be available for preview, and when it’s off limits.
– Got an extra bike? Wheels?
First thing you should do when you show up at the race venue is figure out where the pits are, and find out how long it’s going to take to get there and back. Sometimes it takes forever to get to and from the pits, and you can pretty easily blow your course preview opportunity by wandering around the course trying to find the pit. Don’t turn your warm-up time into a pit safari!
Here’s a tip; don’t ask the officials where the pit is.
Trust me on this; they might know where it is, they might not, and even if they do, they probably won’t know the fastest way to get there.
Look for team tents, and ask the mechanics at the biggest tent where the pits are and *how to get there.* These guys won’t steer you wrong – they will be spending the entire day running back and forth to the pit, and not only will they know where it is, if there’s a shortcut to get there, they will know it too.
Course preview, redux –
– I talked a fair bit in earlier posts about what to look for when you preview the course and Game Plan for the race, but here’s something that came up today:
Figure out when you’re going to need a “Plan B,” and well… plan one…
Here’s what I’m talking about:
In the Seattle Cyclox series, we had a little bitty sand pit in today’s race. If you were going well today, odds were you were going to wind up encountering traffic in the pit.
If you were smart, you planned for that in your pre-race course preview.
There were multiple lines through the sand pit, and to be prepared, you needed to ride them and figure out which one you liked most.
…and what your 2nd choice was…
…and where you needed to be to set up for each option…
…and what the last point on the course was where you could decide “A” or “B.”
OK. This is confusing.
Here’s how it goes come race time:
You round a corner and enter the sand pit section of the course.
You know what your favored line is, ’cause you pre-rode and surveyed the course.
Your line is open, so…
you hit it perfectly, clean the section, and rock on.
Your line has a lapped rider on it, so…
You hit it perfectly, clean the section, and rock on.
or…
You hit it perfectly, see that the lapped rider has bobbled, and…
Run into him. Fall flat on your ass.
or…
Get off the bike, run around lapped rider. Rock on (albeit slowly…)
…or…
You choose option “B.”
Ride alternate line. Clean it. Rock on.
Make sense? Good.
Here’s one additional little detail:
When you pick out that “Plan B” line, you also need to figure out where on the course you need to be to decide which line you’re taking.
Generally speaking, once you’re on a line you can’t change your mind – this just gets you planted flat on your a**.
Figure out where your go/no go point is, and stick with it.
Choose which line you’re taking early enough to nail it, and if you get deep into your line and it isn’t working… get off the bike.
Before your race today, try to take note of the places on the course where the decisive moments of the race are likely to take place.
The last few courses in the Seattle series have all had pretty important landmarks, for EG: Single track through a corn maze? Get stuck behind traffic and you’re walking. End of race.
Giant uphill followed by twisty technical descent? What’s your flavor; Kill it on the climb, or catch back on the descent? Do you really want to sprint all-out at the start when you need to start climbing almost immediately thereafter?
During your course preview take note of features like this, and while you are muttering to yourself “Geeezuz…. are they really going to start us downhill on pavement directly into a sandpit?!?” pause for a second to reflect upon the comedy of the situation, and follow up with the appropriate gameplan, to whit: “I damn well better have a good start, ’cause I don’t want to get caught in the carnage when we hit the sand pit at 30 mph!”
Geez, Man – that’s pretty simplistic; don’t you always want to kill it on the start?
Maybe.
Take that Uphill scenario I mentioned (The Steilacoom course, sans long run-up.) Sure you can peg it on the start, and have great position entering the climb… but so what? Half that climb is on fire roads. Lots of room to pass the folks that blew their wad on the start.
make sense?
So, game plan in hand, go forth and race.
Afterwards, take some notes:
How did the game plan go?
What did you get right?
What did you miss?
What did you learn today that would change your game plan next time?
Here in Seattle, the weather is just awful. Seriously, we’re talking wrath of god type stuff; rain flying at you sideways, hail, Lightning? Blecchh…
I’m riding on the trainer for a while if it stays like this, and I’m going to post trainer-friendly versions of the workouts for the next block of training.
Yeah, I know. I hate the trainer too.
But I hate it a lot less than riding in this Sh…
Stuff.
In this Stuff.
So, on with the workout:
Basing things (as usual!) on the assumption that you’re racing on Sunday, Today’s workout is…
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 the legs, go home, and get ready for the race.
If you’re stuck on the trainer (like I think I will be…) You can substitute:
TheRSWO – TheRock Stupid Warmup & Opener:
No, no… Rock… Like this…
– 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.)
It’s Friday, and that means that it’s time to get set for the racing this weekend.
For most folks this is a single race weekend, and that’s probably good; judging by the way people were riding at practice on Wednesday, ya’all are tired! Lots of drag-ass’n going on out there!
So, today’s workout is Pretty Damn Easy.
Go for a 1-2 hour easy ride.
No hard efforts.
Not quite a recovery spin.
Just pedal pretty easy for a while.
You should be able to hold a conversation for the entirety of the ride, maintain a HR well behold threshold, or ride a wattage that you could almost literally hold all day – we’re talkin’ CP 6hrs+ here. Make sense?
If it’s Ultra crappy out, like it is in Seattle right now, you can sub in an easy hour on the trainer. That’s probably what I will be doing – heck, I already have the DVD cued up…
Have fun, move your legs a bit, and get mentally prepared for the upcoming weekend.
Once again, if you’re tired after the hard work the last couple of days, don’t be afraid to take it easy today.
More than one of the folks I’m coaching are taking – almost – a day on/day off approach to their training right now. If you’re still gaining fitness – awesome. If you’re on the down slope of things, though… be careful. Don’t overdo it.
So, for those of you who are lookin’ for some hard work today, here’s the drill…
Today you’re doing Ramp Sprints.
– Warm up well
– Find a long, straight section of flat, traffic free road.
– You’re going to do a series of sprint efforts that look like this:
1 – Start from a dead standstill, one foot on the ground. Full gas start, like a race.
2 – Once you’re up to speed, sit down. Pause for two breaths. Go again. Full gas. Short sprint, ’till you’re spun out or 5 seconds.
3 – After you max out the 2nd sprint, slow down quickly. Make a 180 degree turn. Full gas sprint back towards where you started. Go ’till you’re spun out or 5 seconds.
That’s one rep.
Do three, then 5 minute break.
Repeat until you are obviously slowing down, max wattage has dropped appreciably, or you just can’t stand it anymore.
Have fun!
M
PS – I’m working on that follow up post to Tuesday’s workout, I promise! Coming soon…
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
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