Crosssports's Weblog

Yikes… sorry this went up so late!

It’s Sunday – so go race. Race ‘yer ass off. Have fun.

Not too much more to say about the racing – just go for it, pick your spots to attack, make sure you get a good start – yaddah, yaddah…

Here’s something, though – My Rock-Stupid Warmup & Opener: Great for pre race, or day before warm-ups when you’re stuck on the trainer…

– 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.

– Repeat The entire sequence.

If you’re doing this as a day before opener, throw in a 5-10 minute effort at your 2×20 output level between the 2 sets.

Notes:

– Stay seated as long as you can.

– Maintain a steady, high cadence as you switch gears; when your cadence begins to drop, stand up out of the saddle.

G’night,

M

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Well, it’s Saturday, and that means tomorrow is a race day – so today’s workout is Can Openers.

Here’s the drill:

– 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.

Sound familiar?

Yup – this is a pretty standard, week-in and week-out day before race routine.

How is it working for you?

This is an important question, and one you need to answer.

Try varying the routine and see what happens; throw in a few more short efforts. Go a bit longer or a bit shorter on the longer interval. Try just spinning the day before instead.

Do you find that you really kick  A** on the second day of a 2 race weekend? Try really amping it up on the preceding day – up as in “Damn… that felt like a race…”

Experiment.

Figure out what works.

Have fun…

M

pS – crappy weather means more trainer time, and limited opportunities for sheltered warm up pre-race. Tomorrow I’ll post a quick and dirty trainer warm-up that makes a great pre-race or even day before opener… and it’s easy to remember!

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This is going to be pretty quick… take it easy today.

Get out on your bike.

Ride for an hour at a relatively easy, moderate tempo –  just one notch above a recovery ride.

Go home, relax, stretch, get a massage if you can.

Work on your bike(s) so you don’t need to do so tomorrow.

Get locked and loaded for the weekend.

G’night!

M

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Lots of options for you today, folks… it’s kind of like a Greatest Hits day!

– If you’re tired from the last couple of days of intensity, take it easy today. Go for an easy 1 hour spin.

– Not tired, but feeling like you’re intensity-ed out? Go super traditional, and do a Slow Roast today:

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/workout-of-the-day-for-thursday-108/

– Feeling super motivated? Classic 2×20 time…

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

… or even Mixed Messages…

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/workout-of-the-day-for-tuesday-106/

Damn… why all the options today?

It’s getting to be the time of the season where the fitness level at the races is all over the map; some people are on the way up, some folks are hitting their peak, and we’re starting to see some of the early season front runners begin to come crashing back down to earth.

Figure out where you are in your fitness progression, and train accordingly.

Starting to feel burned out? Back way the hell off. Take a couple of days easy.

Feelin’ like you aren’t  quite there yet? Hit it hard, and see if you can’t jump start things a bit.

Somewhere in the middle? Cool… go with the safe maintenance program, and keep doin’ what you’re doin’.

Here’s the basic outline of a super traditional cross season weekly schedule:

Monday: Recovery

Tuesday: Long Intervals

Wednesday: Skills work and short intervals

Thursday: Slow Roast Day

Friday: Easy

Saturday: Can Openers

Sunday: Race yer arse off…

Using that as a basic template, start to think about how you can structure your week to fit your current fitness (and motivation!) level. Don’t be afraid to back off on the daily workout if you’re getting burned, or ratchet things up a notch if you just aren’t there yet.

This is “The” Workout Of The Day, but really, it’s The Workout*s* Of The Day; lots of options. Take advantage of them, and vary the workouts to maximize their effectiveness for You.

Phew.

M

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It’s Wednesday night, and that means it’s time for Cyclocross Skills Practice.

That’s right… strap on the rain gear, go outside, and ride around at your local neighborhood cyclocross practice.

If you don’t have one, start your own. Grab some of your buddies, and go out and work on your skills together.

😮

So… what are we working on today?

– As per last Wednesday’s workout, spend a bit of time working on your dismount, remount, and barrier skills. It’s easy to let these slide as the season rolls on, and suddenly you’re flat on your butt in a race ’cause you screwed up the basics. Don’t let this happen to you, ‘kay?

– Off camber skills.

We’re working on this at the Seattle practice this week because it’s important – and because someone requested that we do so. Here are some things to think about:

– work on pedaling through the off-cambers.

How do you orient the bike and your body to allow for a constant pedaling action? Work on different techniques.

– try keeping the bike more vertical and leaning your body into the slope/turn.

– work on aggressive counter steering techniques. Learn to push through turns.

– Use your brakes to steer as well as to modulate speed. Learn to “heel/toe” your brakes, or apply the rear brake while continuing to pedal. This will allow you to modulate your speed without the loss of traction typically associated with “hitting the brakes.” Try it!

Find the limits of your traction. Fall in practice so you don’t in the race. Really push your limits, especially on the off-camber and twisty-turny sections. Figure out what you can and can’t do.

Learn to be comfortable with a drifting rear wheel. It’s going to happen, and when it does, you need to be able to control the drift. Get really comfortable with drifting, and you can learn to use it to your advantage…

As always, finish off the night with a race simulation.

Last week we worked on our accelerations, and you can certainly do that again if you feel the need for speed. (see that post @ https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/workout-of-the-day-for-wednesday-1014/ )

To keep things varied a bit, what I’m recommending this week is 2-4 sets of ten minute intervals on the “simulated race course.”

This is a longer interval than we did last week, but still a fairly short duration effort – so amp up the pace. Really go for it.

Try to go faster than you would in a race. Push it, make mistakes, maybe even blow up.

Go hard. You can recover tomorrow…

M

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Howdy folks,

How about a little bit more speed and acceleration work?

Today we’re doing Get Up & Go. Big fun!

– Warm up well.

– Find a fairly long , straight section of road. It doesn’t matter if it’s paved or dirt, but you want something with low or no traffic, flat or trending slightly uphill.

– You’re going to do 2-3 sets of intervals, intensity is more important than volume.

– Each interval will look like this:

– Start from a dead stop, with one foot on the ground – like a race start.

– Clip in and gun it, get up to full speed. Yeah, just like a race start 😮

– Back off for 5 seconds and go again – full gas – for 5-10 seconds.

You’re hitting the second effort from a fairly high speed, but don’t roll into it, get out of the saddle and peg it. Full gas.

– That’s one rep.

Got it? OK.

Here’s the hard part…

These are difficult. You want to go really damn hard. This is more important than doing a bunch of reps.

So, how many do you do?

It depends.

The stronger you are, the more you do.

If you have a power meter, you do reps until your max power on the second interval drops appreciably.

Don’t have a power meter? Go by feel. Go until you feel like you are losing power – or just do sets of 3-5.

Rest 1-2 minutes between reps, and 5-10 minutes between sets.

Have fun!

M

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Yup.

It’s Monday, and you should be pretty beat after the weekend,  and due for a Recovery Day.

So – take one today.

Spin your legs out for about an hour. No pressure on the pedals, just make the cranks go around in circles. Ride until your legs feel better, then go home.

Get a massage if you can.

Even though you’re not working your body out hard today, don’t forget to take a little bit of time to review the weekend’s racing. Exercise your mind.

What went well this weekend?

What went poorly?

What do you need to work on?

How did your bike work?

How was your tire pressure?

How is your body holding up? Any chronic problems? Sore hands? Back? Butt?

Use your rest and recovery day as a day to analyze your performance, and develop solutions to the problems you encounter on the course.

This is another one of those little things that will make you faster…

M

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Go Race.

No race locally?

Go kill it for an hour, simulate a race, or do a Classic 2×20.

Raced yesterday? Gassed?

Go spin for an hour. Super light on the pedals, no hard efforts, just spin.

Some things to think about today:

– In your pre-race course preview, try to identify the places on the course where you are fast, and the places where you aren’t.

– Identified a part of the course you’re great on? Cool – attack the crap out of it in the race. Use this as the place you can create a gap, or widen an existing one… or just hurt the other folks you’re racing against.

– Figure out that there’s a part of the course you suck on? Great – make sure you’re first wheel in the group when you get there. Attack into it, and make everyone else follow your crappy line or sub-par speed. Make them suffer where you stink. Then gap them on that part of the course you’re great on :0

See ya’all tomorrow…

M

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Well, it’s Saturday, and that means tomorrow is a race day – so today’s workout is Can Openers.

Here’s the drill:

– 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.

M

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The workout for today is pretty simple – get locked and loaded for the weekend.

I’m basing this one on a couple of preconceptions:

– You’re racing on Sunday.

– You’re pretty immersed in your training.

– You care about the race this weekend.

– You aren’t training through it.

When I’m planning for a Cross race and It’s a race I (or the client) care about, I like to schedule an easy day 2 days before the event.

Two days out is easy, day before is Can Openers, then Rock&Roll.

So, today’s workout is Locked & Loaded (also – sometimes – called the S.M.R.)

Here you go:

– 1 to 2 hour Steady Moderate Ride. No hard efforts. Keep it above the level of a recovery ride, but not killin’ it, either.

– Steady, moderate effort (get it?)

– Power meter type person? You’re looking to do this ride at 15-20% below your CP level for a ride of this duration. You should feel like you are always going just a little bit slower than you want to…

When you get home from the ride, you should feel like you could have – and want to have – gone harder.

OK. Pretty easy, right?

What’s with all the excess verbiage?

Here’s the deal: not everybody responds well to the easy(ish) day two days before the race.

Some folks like to go really easy today, and basically do a Recovery Ride.

Others need to go pretty darn hard or their body starts to shut down and they can’t get rolling by the Weekend race.

Yet another group of people find that they race better on Sunday if they take Saturday easy.

Yikes.

How do you know?

Experiment.

Try easy(ish) on Friday this week, and really easy next week. Try switching to an easy day on Saturday.

Keep a written log of your reaction to the changes!

Figure out what lead-in to the weekend’s racing works best for you and begin to schedule your training around it.

You will be faster on Sunday for the effort.

M

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