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Howdy!

Man… lots of options this weekend…

Racing is in full swing just about everywhere, and some folks are racing today, others are racing tomorrow… some folks aren’t quite ready to race, or are training through the first couple of races to build fitness… Yikes!

So, today’s workout is “Option Anxiety.”

Racing today? Well, that’s your workout :0) Race. Race your ass off. Go full gas today, and make it hurt!

Racing on Sunday? Today’s workout is “Can Openers.” Read about it @ https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/workout-of-the-day-for-saturday-925/

Racing on Sunday, but feeling like you really need to work on your fitness, and don’t really care about results tomorrow? Try leading into tomorrow with a nice old fashioned Classic 2×20 workout! Read about that @ https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/workout-of-the-day-for-914-2/

Have fun, folks!

Tomorrow’s workout is going to be racing for most all ya’all, but I’m going to give you some interesting things to work on and think about during that race in tomorrow’s post…

M

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Howdy!

Phew. Lot’s o’ words on the blog today, so I’m going to keep this pretty short. Promise!

If you live in the Seattle area, you know that we have races Saturday and Sunday this week. Yikes! If you’re doing them both, have fun, and be sure to rest well early next week.

So, on to the workout(s!)

– If you’re racing Saturday, today’s workout is “Can Openers.” I’m gonna’ be all self-referential and stuff and give you a link to the previous write-up: https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/workout-of-the-day-for-saturday-925/

– Not racing on Saturday, but racing (or working out…) on Sunday? Your workout is the “S.M.R. ”

Here you go:

– 11/2 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.

G’night!

M

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This is prompted by a discussion I had with another coach out at the Kore Cross workout in Redmond last night. The group warm up included a double set of crunches. Crunches? For Cyclists? Yikes…

Here’s where I’m coming from…

I spend the majority of the time that I’m not sleeping or working doing one of two things; riding a bicycle or rolling Brazillian Jiu Jitsu.

These are both highly spinal flexion intensive sports. This can be bad news.

Huh?

OK. Lets start by establishing the terms under discussion.  A picture is worth a thousand words:

So, “Flexion” and “Extension.” Got it? OK…

Next –

Flexion is pretty bad.

Huh? Why?

Here’s what Flexion looks like when someone rips your spine out of your body:

So? Big deal!

It is a big deal.

If we really dramatically simplify things, we can visualize your spine as looking like a stack of Oreo cookies.

What happens to an Oreo if you squeeze one side of the cookie between your fingers?

The cream filling starts to squeeze out.

This is, essentially, what happens to the spine under flexion. Here’s another picture:

Notice the cream filling squeezing out of the spine in the Flexion picture? Yuck. Notice how it isn’t in the extension picture? Remember that…

OK. Scary stuff. Let’s take a step back…

The cream filling doesn’t immediately squeeze out the second you bend over and introduce Flexion. What does happen when you are in this position is that the pressure on the creamy filling increases. A lot.

Here’s some quantification of “a lot.”

Make sense?

OK. Over time, this increased pressure can cause lots of problems.

“Cyclist’s spend a lot of time bent over like that. They get used to it…”

The structures placed under these increased forces do not strengthen under increased stimulus, they get progressively weaker and more susceptible to damage. They do not heal from this damage. An adult human has no capillary blood flow to this area. There is no mechanism available to the body to heal damage to this area.

I repeat: Time + increased force = damage.  Look at that cookie picture again. Get one, and squeeze the edge of it. Watch how, the more you squeeze it, the easier it gets to do it. Do it long enough, and the cream squirts out.

This sucks.

When it’s your spine instead of a cookie, It hurts a lot. It  can be completely debilitating if the squirtation :o) is severe enough.

Why is this a concern for cyclists and Jiu-Jitsu players?

Hmmm…

Make sense?

So, back to crunches.

Why are crunches so bad?

If you don’t do them with perfect form, they introduce significant Spinal Flexion. Very, very few people teach the appropriate flexion-free approach to this excercise (it certainly wasn’t done at the Marymoor workout.)

Frankly, cyclists and BJJ players get far more of this type of Flexion than is good for them to begin with. Just look at the pictures above.

If you are going to do crunches at all, you’re probably going to do lots of them, and this is just bad damn news. Take an inherently bad exercise and repeat literally hundreds of times? Yuck.

OK.

Scared off of crunches?

Good.

Wondering what you should do instead?

Here’s a good place to start:

http://www.thehealthyvillage.com/fitness-and-exercise/5-ab-exercises-better-than-crunches.html

Wondering why I asked you to note the difference between Flexion and Extension forces on the spine? More later…

Interested in more info and science on this topic? Here’s a place to start:

http://www.backpainoconnor.com/demophysreal.asp

… and yeah; credit to the above link for several of the images used in the above post…

MH

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Damn… It’s October already?!? Holy cow…

OK – today’s workout… A question first; did you double-up yesterday?

If you did, you need to ask yourself how you’re feeling today.

Don’t overdo it and get yourself sick/hurt. Take it easy today if you need to…

If you’re feeling gassed, make today an easy day, and just go for a spin. Ride for an hour at an easy, relaxed tempo. No hard efforts.

If you’re feeling good, we’re going to work a little bit on your leg speed today…

The workout for today is Spin-ups. We’ve done a couple of days of pretty heavy-legged stuff, so this is about as light on the pedals as it gets. The idea is to get your legs moving quickly; we’re not concerned about the watts you’re putting out, what we’re looking to work on is your pedal velocity…

– You’re going to ride somewhere between an hour and 2 hours. An hour and 1/2 is probably about perfect.

– Ride at a steady, moderate tempo – well under threshold level the whole way, but not a recovery pace. If you’re a power meter junkie, you’re looking to ride 15-20% below your CP level for an exercise of this duration. If you’re winging it, you should be able to maintain a conversation for the duration of the ride, but, well, it’s a strained conversation :o)

– After about 1/2 hour, shift into a gear that feels just a little bit to small for the speed you’re going.

– Over a (roughly) 30 second period, slowly spin that gear up seated until you are pedaling as quickly as you can. Totally spun out. We’re talking ridiculous, cartoon-legged effort. Like the road runner…

– If/When you begin to bounce, or when you are totally spun out, back off and then hold at that level for several seconds. Stay RELAXED!

– Return to the previous/baseline level of exertion, and recover at that tempo for 5 minutes.

– Repeat.

Follow this pattern for a full 1/2 hour, or to a maximum of 10 spin-up efforts.

Stop if you feel that the spin-ups are becoming labored, or if your foot speed is becoming significantly diminished.

If you’re going long, finish the ride at the same moderate tempo as you began it, and throw in one last spin-up effort at the very end.

Spin out your legs and go home.

Goodnight!

M

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It’s Wednesday, so once again it’s Cross Practice night. If you have an organized local practice, get out to it. If you don’t… maybe try to organize one? Start with some friends and some home-made barriers, and before you know it, you’ll have a practice happening.

If you’re feeling extra frisky, try and turn today into a 2 workout day. You need to be really damn motivated to make this work, but if you do it a couple of weeks in a row, your fitness will get a serious jump start.

Schedule your Skills practice for the evening (after work?) and in the AM – before work/school/whatever –

– jump start your day with a tasty 2×20! Details here: https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/workout-of-the-day-for-922/

OK, got that out of the way, did all that real-life stuff, now it’s time for the cross practice!

Here you go –

1 – warm up for 10 minutes.

2 – Stretch out after you’re warm. Pay special attention to all those movements you make hopping on and off the bike that are different from what you usually do.

3 – Barrier skills for 15 minutes.

– Start without barriers, and at literally a walking pace.

– 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 using the same motion at full speed as at your walking pace.

– When you’ve got it wired, bring on the barriers. Work on single barrier and double barrier skills.

4 – Carrying the bike

– Work on picking up the damn bike. Top tube grab, down tube grab, wire them both, and figure out where and when you would use each one… Again, get it wired at a slow speed, and only go as fast as you can go while maintaining perfect form.

5 – turning and handling skills for 15 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, pedalling 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.

6 – practice starting efforts

– full-gas starts from a stand still, with one foot on the ground. Do these until you get 3 perfect starts in a row. Make the efforts long enough that you need to shift up a gear or two, but quit right after you do.

7 – Practice race

– This is best if you can do it with a group of riders that are just a wee bit better than you. Push your limits, and learn what you can do at speed. Go faster than you will race, but shorter. If you are racing for 60 minutes on the weekend, do a single 20 minute effort, or three 10 minute efforts.

8 – Warm down when you’re done. Spin the legs out until you loosen up, then spin for another couple of minutes. Have a drink of water, then go home.

G’night…

M

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OK, back to it after yesterday’s rest & recovery. Feeling motivated?

Today I’ve got two options for you:

– If you haven’t done the excercise before, I want you to do the basic 2×20 workout.

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

– If you’ve done the 2×20 before, we’re going to mix it up a bit today and do a 1×20 followed by 10 and then 5 minute 0ver-unders.

Huh?

OK, here’s how this goes:

– warm up. You don’t need to go crazy warming up, just spin around long enough that you know your legs are ready to go.

– Start by doing one twenty minute interval at your 2×20 pace. Check out the link above if you need to refresh your memory on this.

– Recover for 2-5 minutes.

– Do one 10 minute over/under interval.

– Recover for 2-5 minutes.

– Do one 5 minute over/under interval.

– Spin out your legs, go home, stretch, eat, and etc.

So, what the heck is an over/under interval?

– “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 20 minute interval we just did. Whatever wattage, heart rate, or gear ratio you used for that interval will serve as your threshold baseline.

Get a solid idea of the wattage, heart rate, or tempo you ride the 20 minute interval in, and keep it firmly 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 20 minute baseline effort, spin easy for 2 -5 minutes.

When you are ready, begin the 10 minute Over/under thusly:

– Ride for one minute at your baseline/20 minute intensity 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 2-5 minutes.

Do it again for 5 minutes.

Have Fun!

M

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Howdy!

Phew… if you’re as tired as I am, you need a day off after Sunday’s race… so that’s what you’re getting today. It’s “Rest & Recovery Day.”

Spin for an hour (see last Monday’s post for a description of a good recovery spin protocol.) Relax. Try to get to sleep early. Get a massage.

Not feeling all that tired?

Do some off the bike work.

Cycling tends to be  flexion intensive in the core, and it’s important to work on the extensor side of the equation to keep things in balance, and keep the injury bug away.

Trust me on this – imbalanced muscular development can lead to ugly and severe injury. I speak from experience. It is well worth your time to work on developing a balanced physique. If you look like a cross between a T-rex and a Praying Mantis, I’m talking to you…

So, what the hell does this mean, excercise-wise?

In some ways, it’s pretty simple; you should spend a certain amount of time every week working on the muscles and motions you don’t use in cycling.

Cyclocross is actually way better at working more of the body than most of the cycling disciplines (duh…) but you should still do some maintenance and cross-training work during the season.

Here’s a basic idea of some good excercises to start with:

– Back extensions

– Plank excercises

– low-weight lunges and squats, especially ones incorporating lateral stability work.

– abdominal excercises of all sorts, done correctly and with an emphasis on form (more on this later if anyone is interested.) This doesn’t include sit-ups and and crunches as they are typically done, btw.

– excercises for the shoulder, back, and arms to strengthen them for the rigors of ‘cross, and to help prevent injury from falls.

Make sense?

Oh yeah – don’t forget to stretch…

but do it right….

M

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Race!

Fun day. Time to race. Don’t have a race happening in your area today? Go out and simulate one. Find some friends, and a course – or a field – and race each other. Have fun. Go Fast.

Don’t do this:

Seriously. Winning at any cost? Not worth it.

Lots of the season left to go, so if you’re racing… keep your brain turned on. Don’t kill yourself or those around you.

I see lots of hare-brained idiocy out there at the races, especially in the early season. If you’re reading this you probably have a job to go to on Monday morning. Please remember that, and remember that everyone else does too.

End of sermon. :0)

Notes:

– It’s still too early to go 100% full-gas for an hour, so pace yourself. If you’re in contention, go for it – see how much gas you have. If you’re not, try rolling a lap on/lap off style, or pick section of the course that you’re particularly strong on, and kill it there. Experiment, have fun.

–  We’re going to work on identifying and maximizing your strengths in the next couple of weeks, and part of that is starting to think about where you’re strong and where you’re weak when racing. Give me some feedback; what do ya’all need to work on?

M

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Saturday, Saturday…

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 legs, go home and rest.

M

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…is up with all these workouts?

I’m off to Lost Wages for the Interbike show, and won’t have computer access for a couple of days…  so I’m thinking ahead.

Enjoy the week!

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