I’ll admit it… I won’t be racing tomorrow. Just too damn early in the “season” for me, but I’ll be heading out there to support the event. If you see me out there, say “hi.”
If you’re going to race tomorrow, that means that 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.
Not racing tomorrow?
Well, if you’re planning on riding pretty hard tomorrow, that same openers workout isn’t a bad idea for you, either.
Like just about everything, it takes practice to get your day-before-racing openers routine dialed in. It’s a good idea to do that dialing before the season starts so that you’re not experimenting when it counts.
Stuff like “how long does it take me to get this routine cranked out” and “where the hell do I do this, and do I have to drive somewhere to get it done, and how long is that going to take” are things you want to have well sorted, well in advance. And that’s kinda’ the least of it.
How much volume/intensity do you need to put in the day before a race to be ready to race?
How much volume/intensity is too damn much, and will result in your leaving your legs out on the road the day before the race?
I dunno.
Do you?
If you don’t, maybe it’s a good time to figure that out.
Hit those Can Openers hard today, then see how you feel in your workout tomorrow.
Next week, do the openers session a wee bit differently.
See how you feel.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Take notes.
Experiment.
Figure this stuff out.
You’ll be glad you did!
Have fun!
M
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Thanks to everyone who came on out to the first night of the Wednesday Night Cyclocross Workouts out at lovely North SeaTac Park. Much fun was had, and much progress was made. Even better, next week we get to do it all over again! Hope to see you out there!
For today’s workout, we’re going to continue with our theme of having another go at the same workout we did this day last week. We talked about this a bit on Tuesday when we were doing some hard interval work on the bike. It’s like Deja Vu, all over again…
Today isn’t any easier, but it’s not on the bike. It’s…
Stairing –
spiral stairs
– First, figure out where you can do the workout.
We’re going to be running stairs today, so you need some stairs, or a small hill, or a grassy knoll – something you can run up. Stairs are best, but whatever you can come up with will work.
You don’t need NFL stadium stairs or anything crazy like that for this workout. Look for something that’s long enough to give you 10 seconds of running at a full sprint; That’ll be plenty long enough. We’re doing speed work, here. Short, sharp efforts.
On with the workout.
– get on your bike and warm up for 15 minutes or so.
(we’re going to warm up for any running efforts we do, all season, with some time on the bike. )
– Mosey on over to your stairs/knoll/whatever, and get set. Stretch, have a sip of water, turn up the volume on your Ipod.
– Jog up the stairs. Walk down.
Get a sense for the spacing and “feel” of the stairs. You’re going to be flying up these things in a full-on lactic acid bath shortly, so you want to get comfortable with the terrain.
– Repeat x5
– Sprint! up stairs, fast, using whatever stride is most comfortable. Walk down.
– Repeat x5
Rest for 1 minute, walking slowly up and down stairs.
– Sprint up stairs, this time using quick, tiny strides, 1 stairstep at a time. Walk down.
– Repeat x5
Rest again, same as before.
– Sprint up stairs, this time using long strides, several stairsteps at a time. Walk down.
– Repeat x 5
Rest again.
– Sprint up stairs, combining the previous two exercises – 1st time up, long strides; next time up, short strides, etc. Walk down.
Rest again, 2-5 minutes.
– Repeat entire damn thing until you just can’t do it anymore, or you are going so slowly it’s ridiculous.
Get back on bike, spin out your legs, go home.
Notes –
If you can, go really damn hard. If you do this right, it’s a brutal workout.
Don’t go that hard if you haven’t got the legs for that yet. Keep it under control. You want to build up to the point where you are going up the stairs in a dead sprint, and are completely gassed at the end of each set. That’s going to take a few sessions to build up to, though. Don’t kill yourself the first time out.
If anything starts to hurt, or feel strained, pulled, or otherwise bad – as in “something just ain’t right, bad” – stop. Just stop. Do Not Injure Yourself Running G-damn stairs in the pre-season, OK?
Have fun!
M
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Hey It’s Wednesday! If you’re in the Seattle/Tacoma area, that means you should think about heading out to…
Cyclocross Practices at SeaTac start up tonight! Click on the logo for info!
I have to admit, I really dig the start of the practice sessions every year. It always…
I’ll be out coaching/leading the skills clinic, hope to see you there!
If you can’t make it out tonight (maybe you live in Belgium? Hey… hat tip to the Belgian folk who have been frequenting the blog as of late! Nice to see that we’re being read in the motherland of cyclocross 🙂 ) Skills work is still on the agenda for you.
Skills work that goes a little bit like this…
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.
Mind blown?
Cool.
– Same drill, not pedaling through the turns.
– Same drill, alternate styles.
5 – 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.
6 – 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
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I can hear you saying it to yourself right now… “Uh oh. It’s Tuesday. He’s going to make us do 2×20’s again, isn’t he?”
Nope.
Count your blessings!
…or maybe not, because while we aren’t doing those today, what we are doing is at least as hard. In fact it’s the same thing we did last week**, it’s the ever so lovely…
Over/Under Intervals!
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 Classic 2×20 workout. Whatever wattage, heart rate, or gear ratio you use for that interval will serve as your threshold baseline.
Get a solid idea of the wattage, heart rate, or tempo you ride your 20 minute intervals 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.
Begin today’s workout by doing a 5 minute effort at your 2×20 level.
After the 20 minute-style 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 10 minutes.
– Rest again for 2 minutes.
– Pile sets on until you’ve reached the duration of your typical race, or you’re starting to see a precipitous drop in your output level. You’ll know when that happens, even if you aren’t using a power meter. The odds of being able to do these properly for race duration the first (or second, or third, or fourth…) time out are pretty slim, so don’t be too upset when that doesn’t happen. 2, 3 sets is pretty darn good for mere mortals.
Have fun!
M
**I like to hit folks with a workout like this at least a couple of weeks in a row, because it takes practice to actually learn how to do an interval set well. This is something that’s underappreciated. This stuff – if you’re doing it right – is freaking hard. You will get better at doing them with repetition, and that improvement isn’t just physiological, it’s also mental and procedural. There’s a lot going on here!
Hey…
Cyclocross Practices at SeaTac start up tomorrow night! Click on the logo for info!
Monday! The day of the week when we set ourselves up for success the other six days!
How do we do that?
Well, today we do that by recovering from the hard work we put in over the weekend. It’s the day we relax a bit…
…but let’s not get carried away, ok?
Sitting on the couch inhaling donuts isn’t what we’re talking about.
What we’re talking about is a nice, relaxing…
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.
Enjoy!
M
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With the season just about to start up, there won’t be too many more “easy” Sunday mornings…
…at least for a while, so I slept In a bit today. I hope you did as well!
Now that I’m up, it’s time to start thinking about riding, and well… kinda’ running out of ways to say this, but… go long today.
Up here in Seattle, we’re exactly a month away from the start of the local CX series. For people that want to come into that first race flying, this is about the time they should be finishing up their long mileage weekends, with a transition into shorter intervals and speed work imminent.
Expect to see something a bit like that on here over the next couple/few weeks. Yay, more intervals!
Today, though?
Today, get on out there and put some miles under your wheels.
Might be a while before you’re doing that again…
MH
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Honestly, I’m kinda running out of ways to spin that, but it’s still the plan. Got the day free? Go spend it on your bike!
Especially if you aren’t coming off a road – or mtb – season, this is the time to lay down the base that will carry you through the long dark days of winter.
It’s one of the nice things about cyclocross. Unlike the roady crew, we get to put in our base miles when the weather is actually nice.
Long miles when it’s sunny and warm, short races when it’s cold and wet… it’s like there’s a higher power up there composing this whole thing…
Personally, I don’t have a free day today. Stuff to do, places to be… but that’s ok.
I haven’t spent any time on the actual cyclocross bike.
So, today I’m going to remedy that. I’m going to go out and spend part of this beautiful summer afternoon doing some skill work on my cx rig, so that I’m just a wee bit more sharp when I show tips and tricks to some of ya’all this Wednesday. If you’re in the Seattle/Tacoma area, I hope to see you out there!
Have I mentioned before that I like Fridays? Even though I work from home, and even though I pretty much work just as much on the weekends as I do on the weekdays, there’s just something about the imminent arrival of that weekend that feels good.
Well, OK. Maybe not that good.
So, it’s Friday, we’re feeling fine… what about a workout for this hot, sunny summer day?
Well – as per usual on Fridays – we’ve got to make some choices today, based on what your weekend plans are.
If you’re racing this weekend, then you should base today on that. If you’re racing tomorrow, well you should do openers of some sort today.
Racing on Sunday? Take it slow today. Go for an easy spin, or even take the day off.
Not racing this weekend, but planning to ride hard, perhaps get some long kitchen sink-style rides in?
You should probably take it easy today as well. Spin for an hour, then go out and hammer tomorrow (and perhaps Sunday as well.)
If you did the running workout yesterday, you might just be feeling it a wee bit in the legs today. Hey, guess what? Easy spinning is on the docket for you as well!
Not riding hard tomorrow? No dead legs from yesterday?
Okey doke.
How about a wee bit of targeted cyclocross work today?
How about some…
Sventervals –
Just like in the video.
Really darn short – 10 seconds max – full gas hill sprints, ideally on pretty technical terrain.
5 sets of 5 for today (you’ll build up to more) and notice how hard Sven is breathing after these?
Continuing the theme of the last couple of weeks, today we’re going to do ourselves a wee bit of running.
Well, maybe a bit more than a wee bit, if you’re up for it!
Today we’re going…
Stairing –
– First, figure out where you can do the workout.
We’re going to be running stairs today, so you need some stairs, or a small hill, or a grassy knoll – something you can run up. Stairs are best, but whatever you can come up with will work.
You don’t need NFL stadium stairs or anything crazy like that for this workout. Look for something that’s long enough to give you 10 seconds of running at a full sprint; That’ll be plenty long enough. We’re doing speed work, here. Short, sharp efforts.
On with the workout.
– get on your bike and warm up for 15 minutes or so.
(we’re going to warm up for any running efforts we do, all season, with some time on the bike. )
– Mosey on over to your stairs/knoll/whatever, and get set. Stretch, have a sip of water, turn up the volume on your Ipod.
– Jog up the stairs. Walk down.
Get a sense for the spacing and “feel” of the stairs. You’re going to be flying up these things in a full-on lactic acid bath shortly, so you want to get comfortable with the terrain.
– Repeat x5
– Sprint! up stairs, fast, using whatever stride is most comfortable. Walk down.
– Repeat x5
Rest for 1 minute, walking slowly up and down stairs.
– Sprint up stairs, this time using quick, tiny strides, 1 stairstep at a time. Walk down.
– Repeat x5
Rest again, same as before.
– Sprint up stairs, this time using long strides, several stairsteps at a time. Walk down.
– Repeat x 5
Rest again.
– Sprint up stairs, combining the previous two exercises – 1st time up, long strides; next time up, short strides, etc. Walk down.
Rest again, 2-5 minutes.
– Repeat entire damn thing until you just can’t do it anymore, or you are going so slowly it’s ridiculous.
Get back on bike, spin out your legs, go home.
Notes –
If you can, go really damn hard. If you do this right, it’s a brutal workout.
Don’t go that hard if you haven’t got the legs for that yet. Keep it under control. You want to build up to the point where you are going up the stairs in a dead sprint, and are completely gassed at the end of each set. That’s going to take a few sessions to build up to, though. Don’t kill yourself the first time out.
If anything starts to hurt, or feel strained, pulled, or otherwise bad – as in “something just ain’t right, bad” – stop. Just stop. Do Not Injure Yourself Running G-damn stairs in the pre-season, OK?
Have fun!
M
Hey folks! Go Check out…
If you think you might just need some more personalized coaching or training!
Before we get started, just a heads up; one week from tonight, we’ll be starting up the Wednesday Night Worlds Cyclocross practices out at SeaTac. If you’re in the Seattle area, come on out and work on your skills and speed with us. There is no better way to get a jump start on your season!
That’s next week.
What about tonight?
Tonighht, you’re likely out there working on your skills by your lonesome self. What to do, what to do…
Give this a shot…
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.
3 – Dismount/remount skills for 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.
We worked on the basics of the dismount a week or so ago. Feel like you need a bit of a refresher? Check out the post here.
Do just the most basic dismount/remount as per above until you have it wired, smooth at all speeds. When you are feeling confident, add some barriers to the session…
– Again, start at a super, super slow speed.
– Approach the barrier, dismount smooth as silk.
– Step over the barrier, paying attention to how you lift the bike, and how you place your feet.
– Remount. Again, think smoooooth….
– Start with a single barrier, move to a double, and keep going slow until you have things wired. Then, speed things up until you aren’t smooth, back it down 1 notch, and make it smooth.
(If you don’t have barriers, anything will do. Use a log, put a stick on the ground – whatever.)
4- Shouldering the bike.
Start with the basic dismount, as you’ve been working on.
Back things up a bit, and dismount again, but really focus on the “drift” phase of the dismount, where you are still clipped in with one foot, your off-side foot has already swung over the saddle, and you are coasting with your left hand on the bars and your right hand on the top tube.
Concentrate on the moment where your left foot unclips, and you drop to the ground. Try to coast with both feet unclipped, weight transferred onto the bike through your hand on the top tube, and your right ass-cheek against the side of the saddle.
Drop to the ground, literally. No big step, nothing dramatic, just drop to the ground.
– I don’t care if you “cowboy” your dismount, or “step-through” (right foot passes between left leg and frame.) Ideally you will work on both, and be equally competent, but there are riders on the World Cup circuit who never do a step through dismount, so… whatever.
Repeat, trying to coast with your weight on the top tube for a longer and longer period of time.
Got it wired?
Good.
This time, drop to the ground and swing the bike up onto your shoulder using the hand on the top tube (next week, down tube grab shouldering. Don’t worry about it right now.)
– Use both a palm-up and a palm-down grip on the top tube. Figure out which one works best for you.
– as you shoulder the bike, think about how you are going to carry it. There are really only two good options…
1 –
& 2 –
It doesn’t really matter which one you choose, they both have their advantages. Just pick one. If you don’t look like one of these two pictures when the bike is on your shoulder… well, you should.
So, the bike is on your shoulder.
Run.
It doesn’t have to be uphill (we’re working on the skill, not the fitness, and you’re doing stairs tomorrow…) but it helps.
Whatever. Just run a few steps.
Place the bike gently on the ground. Don’t drop it, slam it down. Just place it.
Remount.
Repeat the whole cycle until you’re sick of it, then on to…
5 – turning and handling skills for 10-15 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 (or sticks, or rocks… whatever you’ve got!) about 10 feet apart from each other, and ride a figure eight around them, pedaling 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 – Finish the night with two 5-minute efforts on relatively easy terrain.
– “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 out of the turns.
– 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.
– 5 minutes full gas, rest for 5 minutes, then go for 5 again.
Warm down, go home, relax.
G’night,
M
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