The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Sunday, 12.18.16. “Speedy, Skillfull, Sunday.”

•December 18, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

There’s a ton of new stuff up on the for sale page, including a garage’s worth from ZMD. Check it out.

 

So, Sunday…

 

 

If you’re reading this, you’re probably not racing today.

Frankly, there isn’t a lot of racing going on in the US right now… which can be a bit of a problem.

It’s an old, tired conversation, but every year we hit this point in the season where the absurdity of having age-group Nationals a month after the vast majority of people in the country stop racing becomes apparent.

How the hell do you keep yourself in race form if there isn’t any racing?

Well, it ain’t easy.

You’ve got to force yourself to get in the intensity and fast riding over challenging terrain that you see in the races if you don’t want to lose your edge.

Yesterday we worked a bit on the intensity – and a wee bit on the skills – today we’re focusing on the skills.

As we talked about earlier in the week, with the short days this time of year, cramming a skills session in on Wednesday afternoon becomes increasingly difficult, sometimes impossible.

So we’re switching it around.

Intensity on Wednesday, skills on Sunday.

Skills like…

Speed – 

 

Go fast today.

Explode out of corners, accelerate up climbs, get out of the saddle and punch it every time you remount your bike after an obstacle.

Leg speed should be high tonight. No slogging a big gear, get the pedals turning over and get up to speed as quickly and emphatically as you can.

Think quick, snappy, dancing on the pedals type behavior. Today do everything one gear smaller than you ordinarily would, just to reinforce the idea.

On with the workout!

 – warm up on bike, 10-15 minutes.

– Brief run. 5 minutes, focused on short, quick steps.

– Active stretching, as discussed in previous posts.

– Barrier skills, 10 minutes.

Every time you remount your bike, immediately get out of the saddle and sprint up to speed.

You are remounting with your hands on your hoods, right? If not, you should be. Every time you get back on the bike, butt comes off saddle, and you give ‘er gas. Hard to do this when you’re planted on the tops…

Begin slowly, and gradually up the tempo until you’re going too darn fast, then take it down a notch.

This is your race speed. Just one notch below your absolute max.

You should always be able to do things one notch faster in practice then you ever have to do them in a race.

When you try to get that extra tiny little bit of speed out of the technical sections in a race, you tend to wind up flat on your face.

Falling is always slow.

Get things perfect at race speed, and then move on to…

– Technical skills, 15-20 minutes.

Off cambers, tight turns, wide/fast turns, mud, sand…  whatever you’ve got to work with on your training circuit, have at it.

Remember, speed is everything tonight.

Come out of corners faster than you went into them.

Sprint through the sand & the mud.

Go fast.

– Starts

Full-gas starts from standing, foot on the ground. Just like the beginning of a race.

Each start effort should include a second effort: after you’ve gotten up to speed and settled into the saddle, get your ass back up off of it and hit the gas again. Second effort is the focus!

Go until you get 5 perfect starts in a row.

– Race simulation. 3 x 10 minutes, 2 minute rest between efforts.

Explode out of the corners.

Attack up the climbs.

Go fast.

Got it?

– Warm down.

Go Home. Eat. Recover.

Have fun!

M

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, skills, speed work, The Workout Of The Day

The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Saturday, 12.17.16. “How do I phrase this…”

•December 17, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

There’s a ton of new stuff up on the for sale page, including a garage’s worth from ZMD. Check it out.

 

Here’s the plan for today:

Do something race-like.

 

 

Kind of.

Short, but race like.

If your race day at Nationals is 60 minutes, today you should endeavor to do a race-like effort (on the cross bike, on cross-race like terrain… you know, race-like) of approximately half that duration, at equal to or greater output.

Honestly? The hell with “equal to race pace.”

Harder than race pace.

Half as long as a race, but as hard or harder than what you would do in an actual race.

Try for harder than a race.

Hmmm… how can I phrase this simply?

Go really damn hard for half as long as you typically race.

Pretty simple, eh?

Go to it.

 

(of course, if you’ve actually got racing in your area – like you live in Texas – go do that.)

 

Have fun!

M

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, skills, speed work, The Workout Of The Day

The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Friday, 12.16.16. “Today we ride”

•December 16, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

There’s a ton of new stuff up on the for sale page, including a garage’s worth from ZMD. Check it out.

 

Well, it’s Friday.

Some of you are going to be racing this weekend, but most of you probably aren’t.

In a nice change of pace, though, it doesn’t matter which is which.

Everybody get the same workout today, yay!

“Why? How?” you ask?

Well, whether you’re racing or not, this weekend I’m going to have you do workouts that simulate racing.

More on that tomorrow, so be sure to tune in.

Today, though?

Today we ride…

 

 

…as if we are racing tomorrow, and get some openers in.

Openers in, as in…

 

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.

Warm up, 10 minute effort, 5 minutes spinning, sprint efforts, spin down, go home

Really feeling risk averse? Maybe do these inside on the trainer today.

Nothing like sliding out on a patch of ice doing an opener sprint to put a crimp in your weekend race plans, eh?

Be smart.

Enjoy!

M

 

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, openers, The Workout Of The Day

The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Thursday, 12.15.16. “Just because Terry Kath was awesome”

•December 15, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

There’s a ton of new stuff up on the for sale page, including a garage’s worth from ZMD. Check it out.

Hey, are you racing this weekend?

If you are, take it easy today. Go for an easy spin, or even take the day off.

As we’ve talked about a lot already, don’t overdue it in the these last few weeks until Nationals. There’s a limit to how much you can improve in the little time left, but there’s no limit to the damage you can do to your fitness by overcooking it.

Be smart.

Not racing this weekend?

Hey, cool.

You can go a wee bit harder today.

How much harder?

Well, pretty hard.

In fact, pretty damn hard… although short, also.

First things first, though.

I need to come clean.

I lied to you.

Today, we’re going to repeat a workout from earlier in the week.

I told you that we would repeat it, but I told you that we would be doing it again next week, not this week.

So, I lied.

We’re doing it today.

Enjoy…

Five-By-One – 

 

(wait, why this video? Frankly, I just love the damn song. Am I gonna’ have to come up with a workout called the 25 or 6 to 4 just so I can use it?)

warm up well, then…

You’re going to do 3-5 sets of 1 minute efforts.

Hard efforts.

How hard? Hard enough that you can barely make it through the last effort of the set. The percentage of your one minute max that you can do will vary pretty tremendously from athlete to athlete, so it’s hard to give you a set number. Suffice to say that you’re trying to get as close to that max number as you can.

We’re going to do these again next week, and (probably) the week following. Be conservative, at least the first set. You’re going to get another shot at this.

2 minutes recovery between efforts, 5 -10 minutes between sets.

Go until you can’t hold the power level of the first set anymore, or until you’ve done (minimum) 3 sets.

Have fun,

M

 

 

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, The Workout Of The Day

The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Wednesday, 12.14.16. “Having it both ways”

•December 14, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

There’s a ton of new stuff up on the for sale page, including a garage’s worth from ZMD. Check it out.

If you’re still following along with us, odds are you’re racing through Nationals. With the exception of a couple of posts that will discuss off-season strategies (look for the first of those soon) that’s going to be the assumption from here on out.

So, it’s Wednesday, three weeks or so to go to the big race.

Typically this is the day of the week that we do skills, drills, and technique. If that’s been working for you so far this season, there’s no reason to change. Heck, if there isn’t any more racing on your calendar between now and the big event in January, I’d go so far as to say that you need to make sure there’s some skills work penciled into your schedule.

Gotta’ keep that shit tight.

 

Having said that, man the days are short right now, and it’s pretty damn tough to get out and do any kind of extended training sessions on a weekday if you haven’t got a lighted venue sussed out.

So, what’s a person to do?

Well, oddly enough, right about this point in the schedule folks with a focus on nationals should be starting to taper off their volume, so the longer rides that would be on the schedule for the weekend days – for those not racing – are going away.

Convenient.

Skills training on the weekend from here on out, folks.

Well, kinda.

We can do workouts that work on both fitness and skills.

Like the one we’re doing today…

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.

Don’t have a good place to do these? Try this instead.

Enjoy!

M

 

 

 

 

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.

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Thanks for the consideration!

 

 

What’s that you say? You’d kinda’ like to have a cycling coach help figure this stuff out for you? Check out…

se

Posted in climbing, Cyclocross, Intervals, skills, The Workout Of The Day

The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Tuesday, 12.13.16. “Hard, fast, short.”

•December 13, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

There’s a ton of new stuff up on the for sale page, including a garage’s worth from ZMD. Check it out.

So, hey. Nationals is in three weeks.

Yeah.

Sorta’ crunch time if you’re going.

If you aren’t? Odds are you’re finished with the season already, so no big deal.

If you’re finished – as I wrote yesterday – take some time off the bike. Again, as I wrote yesterday, more on this soon.

Trust me, though. Take some damn time off. Go ski or something.

Still going?

Great.

If you raced this past weekend – especially if you raced both days – take today off.  Recovery is key in the next few weeks during the run in to Nationals.

You want to keep things hard, fast, shorter, and fully recover from everything you do.

Having said that, if you’re fully recovered today?

Hard, Fast, Short.

 

 

 

Here you go…

Five-By-One – 

warm up well, then…

You’re going to do 3-5 sets of 1 minute efforts.

Hard efforts.

How hard? Hard enough that you can barely make it through the last effort of the set. The percentage of your one minute max that you can do will vary pretty tremendously from athlete to athlete, so it’s hard to give you a set number. Suffice to say that you’re trying to get as close to that max number as you can.

We’re going to do these again next week, and (probably) the week following. Be conservative, at least the first set. You’re going to get another shot at this.

2 minutes recovery between efforts, 5 -10 minutes between sets.

Go until you can’t hold the power level of the first set anymore, or until you’ve done (minimum) 3 sets.

Enjoy!

M

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, The Workout Of The Day

The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Monday, 12.12.16. “Yeah, it’s Monday”

•December 12, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

There’s a s**tload of new stuff up on the for sale page, including a garage’s worth from ZMD. Check it out.

 

So, it’s Monday.

At this point, you’re either dead-dog tired from a hard weekend of racing and/or training, or you’re done for the season.

If it’s the latter option, congrats! You made your way through another one!

Do today’s workout, then take some time away from the bike. We’ll talk more about “why” in the coming days, but for right now, suffice to say that time off the bike is good for you, and you should get some of that good stuff for yourself.

Still racing?

Sweet! I’m jealous.

Equally sweet is the relief your legs will feel from today’s…

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.

Video footage from the weekend’s racing? You betcha!

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

M

Posted in Cyclocross, recovery, The Workout Of The Day

The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Sunday, 12.11.16. “Late Season Jacky”

•December 11, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

There’s a s**tload of new stuff up on the for sale page, including a garage’s worth from ZMD. Check it out.

 

Today is the District Championship Race out here in WA State, good luck to all who are headed out to it. Frankly, I expect that to be very few people.

Want to guarantee a low turnout for a championship race?

Make it the very last race of the season, force people to ride in categories that are different from the ones they’ve been racing in all season, reduce the number of categories, and stick the race in a venue that’s on an island almost two hours away from the big Metropolitan center of the state.

You can get away with some of those things, but all of them? Good luck. Seriously, I wish the promoter luck, but I’m betting on some small fields today.

 

Anyways, if you’re racing today, have a great one! If it’s your last race, tune in the next couple of days, we’ll begin to talk about transitioning out of cross season over the next week or so.

Not racing today, but still got some races on the calendar?

If the weather isn’t too horrible, head out on the road and get in some long, hard miles. Maybe do something like a…

 

Jacky Day.

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

Heck, this is about as hard and sustained as you’ll ever see in a road race.

In fact, what we’re trying to do is, essentially, simulate a day off the front of a road race.

Ouch.

Select a route that will enable you to hit at least 3 climbs of  5-10 minutes or so each, with flat to rolling terrain in between. If your local climbs aren’t that long, try and do more shorter ones. If hills are longer… well, cool. Just don’t turn this into an all-out climbing day, ok?

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 90% on the climbs, and just over 50% between the climbs.

Remember, 3 climbs of 10 minutes, or the equivalent. With a warm up of 15-20 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?”

PS… this is a hard workout. Depending on your schedule, and what you did yesterday, it might be a bit much. If you’re looking to win Nationals, and you aren’t racing or resting today, though?
Yeah. This is the kind of thing you should be doing.
Enjoy!
M

Posted in Blather, Cyclocross, Masochism, The Workout Of The Day, Volume!

The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Saturday, 12.10.16. “It’s a mixed bag”

•December 10, 2016 • Leave a Comment

 

 

Hey! Check out the stuff I’m selling, newly updated (yet again!)

 

Howdy folks,

It’s Saturday. Racing? Good luck. Have a good one!

Racing tomorrow?

Check out Yesterday’s Post. You gotta’ get some openers in, and that post has ’em.

Not racing this weekend?

Still got some time left to go in the season?

Not gonna’ ride outside today ’cause the roads are just too damn sketchy?

Gotcha covered…

The Mixed Bag (with Happy Ending…)

340x_mixedbag72310_01

– Warm up.

– Go as hard as you can for 10 minutes.

– Recover for 2 minutes.

– Go again for 15 minutes.

– Recover for 2 minutes.

– Go again for 15 minutes.

That’s the basics. Success on this is,  however,  all in the details.

The idea here is to go as hard as you can for the duration of all 3 intervals without being forced to go easier at the end of the subsequent interval.  If you run out of gas before you finish the second or third interval, you went too hard. If your vision isn’t blurry at the end of the last 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. We’re talking 10 watt variance at the most. Keep it steady.

These take practice to do well, and the better you get, the harder they get.

This is a workout that works great on the trainer, and that’s how I do ‘em.

But hey… that’s not all.

This is the Happy Ending version.

What does that mean?

After the third interval,

-spin for 1 minute.

sprint for ten seconds, starting at the one minute mark on your watch.

-spin until you hit the 2 minute mark on your watch

sprint for ten seconds

-spin until you hit the 3 minute mark on your watch

sprint for ten seconds

Etc., etc., continuing until you hit the five minute mark, and give the last little bit of your energy in one final 10 second sprint.

Ouch.

 

Have fun!

M

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, The Workout Of The Day

The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Friday, 12.9.16. “Smart Opening”

•December 9, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Hey! Check out the stuff I’m selling, newly updated (again)!

 

 

Howdy folks,

Well, what do you know, it’s snowing in the Seattle area. Not much, but there’s definitely white stuff on the ground.

We don’t see much of this around here, but you know what? There’s a good chance you’re going to have to know how to ride in the snow if you want to do well at Nationals the next couple of years.

Snow riding is a skill that you have to learn – and practice – to get good at, just like everything else. Think about using this (rare) opportunity to get at least a wee bit of that experience, it’ll pay off down the road.

If you’re racing tomorrow, though, you’re doing openers today, which might limit the amount of time you have to practice. Heck, this late in the season, maybe it’s not worth taking a chance on slippy-slidey snow and ice training at all.

Your choice.

Want to get in some openers and some time in the snow?

Today you’re doing…

 

Can Openers – 

p38_instructions

Here’s the drill:

– Warm up for 1/2 hour or so, spinning easy with a couple of short bursts thrown in. Hey, do this in/on the snow if you can!

– 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.

 

Feeling a wee bit more conservative?

OK. Today you’re doing…

Ignition!

 

distributor1

 

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.

Warm up, 10 minute effort, 5 minutes spinning, sprint efforts, spin down, go home

Really feeling risk averse? Maybe do these inside on the trainer today.

Nothing like sliding out on a patch of ice doing an opener sprint to put a crimp in your weekend race plans, eh?

Be smart.

Enjoy!

M

 

 

Thanks for following along.

As you’ve probably noticed, there’s been a “begging for money” bit attached to the beginning of this page for a couple of weeks now.

I’d like to thank everyone who has chipped in this season – and the past couple of seasons – when I’ve asked you to. It’s made a difference.

How much of a difference?

Well, let’s put it this way; the small donations from you folks have kept the lights on on this page.

There’s a certain (small) amount of money that has to come out of my pocket to pay for this page, and there’s a certain (larger) amount of money that, as a self-employed person, I need to write off based on the time spent on writing, posting, and – yes – giving training advice away that other people charge for.

So, once again, thanks to those who have contributed.

As much as I hate to say it, though, the contributions this season are way down compared to the last two years, and I don’t know if I can keep this going unless more people contribute.

Yeah. That sucks. I hate to have to write it, but I just looked at my bank balance, and the bills sitting on my desk, and the paying work that I’m putting off while I sit here writing this, and… well… crap.

So, that’s where we’re at.

I don’t know what the future of the CXWOTD looks like. Maybe there’s a paywall, maybe I try to pursue some corporate sponsorship, maybe I just bag the whole thing, maybe I scale things down and post less often… heck, maybe I just decide that I don’t care what the numbers say, and keep going anyways.

I dunno.

Nothing is going to happen in the short term. At minimum, I’m going to play things out through the end of this season before making any decisions.

Just wanted to let ya’all know what was what.

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.

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Thanks for the consideration!

 

 

What’s that you say? You’d kinda’ like to have a cycling coach help figure this stuff out for you? Check out…

se

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, openers, skills, The Workout Of The Day

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