It’s Saturday! Who doesn’t love themselves some Saturday?
Nobody, that’s who!
That out of the way, on with the workouts!
As we talked about yesterday, you may well be racing today or tomorrow. If you are, right on. Check out Yesterday’s post, and kick some ass this weekend. Good luck!
Not racing?
Well, hopefully you did those openers yesterday anyways. You’ll need ’em, ’cause we’re going to ride as if we were in a race today even if we’re not.
We’re going to have 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?”
M
PS… this is a hard workout. Depending on your schedule, and what you did yesterday, it might be a bit much. Might also toast you for tomorrow, so be warned, ok? Those openers we did yesterday will help, and if you didn’t do ’em? Maybe do those today instead, and then have a go at this tomorrow.
Somehow it’s Friday already. How the heck did that happen?
Not only is it Friday, but if you happen to live up in the Seattle area, like I do, it’s the very last Friday of the road racing season.
Yeah.
Crazy, right?
That means we’re well and truly about to enter the cross season.
It’s happening.
We’ll be kicking things into a higher gear with the training here on the blog as we get closer and closer to the actual racing… so be forewarned!
Right now, though?
Well, perhaps you’re racing this weekend.
If you’re racing tomorrow, you should be doing some form of openers today, perhaps…
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.
Well, darnit.
I kinda’ gave today’s workout away last week when I talked about starting to integrate running – slowly, and for short distances – into your routine starting, well… then.
Same thing, but hopefully a wee bit more of it, and a wee bit faster.
‘Cause we’re slowly building up to the point where we can run pretty quickly, for a pretty short distance. Mostly uphill.
Then the season will kick in, and we’ll pretty much stop running, except in races. Or practices. Or if we have specific requirements based on where we live, and the (unusual these days) courses there. Or if running happens to be a problem area that needs to be addressed.
Phew.
There’s quite a bit to talk about there!
Nice.
Just when I thought I was running out (hah!) of topics!
Before we go any farther, stop reading and click on this link so that you can read this post as a standalone. For some reason, there are a bunch of formatting issues when this displays on the full site view, and I can’t manage to fix them. Ugh.
Onwards!
Wednesday is the day that we typically work on our skills around here, so what the heck. Let’s talk a little bit about that most basic of cyclocross skills, clipping and unclipping from your pedals.
It’s…
The Hokey-Pokey Redux, Redux.
(or, left foot in, left foot out, that is what it’s all about.)
Fair warning: this is about as dweebish as it gets. It’s also (largely) a re-write of a post from previous seasons. If you find yourself actually wanting to read more on the subject, and similar subjects,
enter “Wednesday” into the search box on the lower right side of this page. If you wade through the posts that come up, you’ll find a pretty high volume of skills posts. Lots of words, some pretty
pictures.
Mostly words.
Anyways, onwards!
————————————————-
First, lets look at the Pedal/Shoe interface –
All of the clipless pedals commonly used for cyclocross operate on the same basic principles.
A cleat –
Is held in place in a pedal…
…by a hook at the front of the pedal, and a gate at the rear. *
The gate is spring-loaded, in an orientation that provides for extremely high resistance to force in the vertical plane, and extremely low resistance in the horizontal.
The cleat/pedal interface is designed so that lateral or medial rotation of the foot overcomes the spring tension holding the gate portion of the pedal in place, releasing the cleat and allowing for vertical disengagement.
The factors that limit the proper functioning of the pedal in release mode are these –
– Force necessary to overcome spring tension of gate
Can the lateral/medial motion of the foot produce enough force to overcome the spring tension of the gate?
– Range Of Motion (ROM)
Can the foot produce a wide enough range of lateral/medial motion to overcome the spring tension of the gate?
– Resistance multipliers
The resistance of the pedal gate to lateral/medial motion is designed to be low, but several factors can cause substantial increases in the actual force necessary to release from the pedal. For EG –
– Contamination by foreign media
Mud, grit, crap of all sorts in pedals/shoes can jam spring mechanism
– Out of plane cleat motion in act of release
If the foot/cleat is pronated/supinated in the attempt to release from the pedal, it introduces a vertical force component to the cleat/pedal interface, causing potentially significant increases in overall force necessary to trigger disengagement.
OK?
Now, the body –
The rider triggers release from the pedal by rotating the foot medially or laterally –
(Generally speaking, we always try to release using medial rotation. There are lots of sharp spinning parts providing a disincentive for release motions that lean in towards the bike.)
Medial rotation of the foot is a result of medial/internal rotation of the hip
knee,
…some combination of the two, or rotation of the entire body.
The range of these rotational joint moments is limited. Here are some observed norms, if you’re interested –
What the hell does this have to do with cyclocross?
Bear with me.
When we dismount the bike, We’re trying to get off (the bike)
– Quickly
– smoothly
– efficiently
– without hitting the deck
Knowing how the mechanics of the pedal/shoe interface and the related body parts function, we can think logically about how best to do this.
Here’s how I described a super-basic “Cowboy” dismount in a previous post –
1. Unclip right foot.
2. swing right foot over saddle, behind left leg.
3. Left foot stays clipped in. Right side of leg/ass braces against saddle.
4. r hand leaves bar, braces on top tube.
5. Coast in this position.
6. left foot unclips.
7. DROP to ground. Do not step down, right foot is totally passive. Simply drop to ground as you unclip left foot.
Here’s why the dismount breaks down this way, with reference to everything above…
1. Unclip right foot.
Gotta start somewhere, right?
2. swing right foot over saddle, behind left leg.
We’re doing this “cowboy” style. More on the “step through” style later…
3(a). Left foot stays clipped in.
…more on this later.
3(b). Right side of leg/ass braces against saddle.
Bracing the right side of the leg against the top tube stabilizes the body in a position that will allow for sufficient ROM to disengage from the pedal, and provides for an additional point of contact with the bike, increasing control of the bike during the dismount.
4. r hand leaves bar, braces on top tube.
bracing the hand on the top tube reinforces vertical stability of the body, helping to control the tendency of the foot to supinate
during medial rotation. Hand on top tube also helps to control bike, facilitates shouldering/portaging after dismount.
5. Coast in this position.
We use this coasting phase to sight the dismount and to prepare for…
6. left foot unclips.
The body is held stable, in alignment, and within the ROM necessary to release the cleat from the pedal. There should be no difficulty with release unless resistance multipliers are present…
7. DROP to ground. Do not step down, right foot is totally passive. Simply drop to ground as you unclip left foot.
The key is dropping to the ground after cleat disengagement.
By suspending the body in the correct position using the hands and hip (per 1-4 above,) we facilitate the conditions necessary for safe disengagement.
Attempting to step towards the ground, or dismount motions of the body disturbing the established equilibrium can and will result in an increased likelihood of a failure to disengage, and subsequent danger of crash/collision.
————————————————–
Whatever controversy there is regarding the method of dismount I describe here appears largely to append to my “don’t unclip the left foot first” recommendation.
Please allow me to emphasize that I do advocate releasing the foot prior to making any sort of “exiting the bike” motion. I do not, however, teach the method taught by many, espoused by nearly all of the East-Coast luminaries, and described (excellently) by Adam Myerson in his blog.
Here’s what Adam wrote in the comments section of an earlier post on the topic –
…I advocate clipping out of the left first when you have time to do so, and don’t need to be on the gas all the way to the dismount point. It’s much easier to step off a bike you’re not still attached to.
I advocate staying clipped in on the left when you have to pedal all the way up to the dismount point, and when you’re not stepping through.
I advocate stepping through ONLY when clipped out of the left already, and when you have ample speed and coasting time to take the extra time needed to step through.
Option 1 works every time, in every condition, and I consider it the default.
Respectfully.
I think -at the most basic level- we agree where it really counts.
Unclip before you begin any motion that leads to or constitutes “stepping off” of the bike.
I can understand why the “Unclip before stepping over” approach works, and is popular with many riders. It’s a good way to get off the bike.
I don’t use it myself, and therefore I don’t teach it.
Why don’t I use it?
As explained well in the Cycle-Sport Blog post, this dismount method -while very effective – is not universally applicable, and is not optimal under conditions such as “…uphill dismounts, deep mud, last minute dismounts….” (I would also add sand to the list.)
Believe it or not (and I know I’m straining credulity writing this after forcing you to wade through this ridiculous post,) I’m all about simplicity.
If I can teach one technique that works all the time, or two techniques, one of which only works most of the time, I’m going with the one that works all the time.
Honestly, though?
I think this may largely be an East-Coast/West Coast thing. The main reason I don’t use the “unclip first” method is because I learned early on that on the rutty, crappy, chuckhole infested minefield disaster courses of Seattle in the 90′s, if you tried to ride into a barrier hanging off the side of the bike balanced on an unclipped pedal, you were pretty likely to get bounced off the pedal, and flat onto your ass.
It just wasn’t a good default position for the courses out here, and really… it still probably isn’t.
Above all else, figure out what works best for the the courses *you* ride on, practice it, wire it, and go fast.
Nothing wrong with either approach, just…
—————————————————————
* Yeah, yeah, I know… “what about crank bros, Speedplay, Time, etc.”?
The details are slightly different, but in all the commonly used “mountain bike” pedals, the function of the pedal still follows the same basic formula.
** ”What about the “step through?”
Save that thought. We’ll get there.
*** “Hey! What about a workout for today!?!?!*
Oh yeah. That.
Get on your bike. Go find a grassy field.
Practice clipping and unclipping, giving extra consideration to all the stuff above.
Everybody can always stand to get this stuff more wired in, especially this early in the (pre) season.
Have fun,
M
Hey! Have I told you yet that I’m one of the coaches at…
Well, here we are, It’s Tuesday again… and, yup; you’re getting another repeat of the old standard workout today.
But let’s chat just a bit first, ok?
This workout, the way I suggest that people do it, is hard. Especially for folks that haven’t done much of these in the past – or really need to do some work on the energy systems involved – it can be quite a shock just how hard this is.
Flat-out, no bullshit, this isn’t a workout that’s easy to do, or particularly fun (except for a very small subset of masochists. You know who you are.)
You should still do it even if you hate it.
Honestly, he more you hate something like this, the more likely it is that you stand to gain a lot from doing it. Cyclists typically dislike the workouts they’re the worst at the most, and that hate – more often than not – indicates areas where some of the greatest gains are to be made.
So, yes. This workout might really suck for you.
Good. Keep plugging away.
Embrace the suck.
It’s worth it.
Onward with The People’s (Nemesis) Workout,
The Classic 2×20 –
So, hey… what the heck is this 2×20 thing?
Pretty simply, the 2×20 looks like this:
– Warm up.
– Go as hard as you can for 20 minutes.
– Recover for 5 minutes.
– Go again for another 20 minutes.
– Spin out your legs
– Take a nap
That’s the basic version. Success on this is, however, all in the details.
First of all, warm up.
No, seriously. Don’t just hop on the bike and blast one out.
Warming up makes a difference, especially if you’re doing this as a test session.
You don’t need to do anything super hard or super involved, just make sure the legs are up and running before you kick off the workout proper.
Spin for a bit, blast a couple of 30 second to 2 minute efforts off pretty hard, spin a bit more, then go for it.
When you do go for it, really go for it.
But in a controlled sort of way.
The idea here is to go as hard as you can for the duration of both intervals without being forced to go easier at the end of the second interval. If you run out of gas before you finish the second interval, you went to hard. If your vision isn’t blurry at the end of the second 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. How constant?
Can you keep it in a 10 watt range?
Probably not.
15 watts?
More likely
20 watts?
Try.
Keep it steady.
These take practice to do well, and the better you get, the harder they get (you’re welcome.) This is a workout that’s a natural for the turbo trainer, and that’s how I do ‘em.
This is a good thing, because I always wind up flat on my back on the floor trying not to puke after the 2nd interval.
I’m really not kidding about the blurry vision thing. You should aspire to seeing-spots level of output on these.
If you can learn to push through your limits, really push, you will get better and you will get better fast.
Remember, you might hate doing these… but it’s a good hate!
I hope you had a great weekend, and got all your ya-yas out on the roads/trails…
Got ’em out enough that today you’re fixin’ to do 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.
Ugh. Last day of my move today, which means that – once again – I’m running around screwing up my back lifting boxes that have far too much crap in them…
…rather than training or writing about training.
Hopefully you’re doing just about anything else.
Like maybe riding your bike a bit.
Given how late I’m getting this up, I doubt that it’s going to be a particularly useful post for ya’all… If you’re going to ride today, odds are you’ve already done so, or you’re in the process of doing so as this goes up.
So, why am I bothering?
Well… because the idea here is that I’m going to get something up every damn day, unless I have a good reason not to.
And suddenly, we’ve stumbled upon a useful metaphor.
If you want to do well in just about anything, one of the keys to success is to make a regular practice of it.
Want to be a good writer?
Write. Every day. Unless you really, really can’t.
Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday! This is the final weekend of moving house for me, and I need to be completely out of the place I’ve lived in for almost 15 years by the end of the day tomorrow.
I bet you can imagine just what a pain in the ass this is. There sure hasn’t been much bike riding going on. Yesterday was just about the nicest day we’ve had in Seattle all year, and the best I could do was grab a few minutes on the trainer to spin my legs out so that they felt just slightly less wooden after a morning of moving boxes.
Blecch.
Hopefully you’re not finding yourself in similar straits…
…and you’ll actually be able to get out and ride today.
What should you do for a ride today/this weekend?
Well, you’ve got options!
Go Race!
Got a good road race, crit, or Mtb. event going on locally this weekend? Maybe an event at the local Velodrome?
Give one of ‘em a shot.
Good fun, and good training.
Ride hard, ride fast, have a blast.
Nothing on the local race calendar that’s appealing? Want to take advantage of the hot weather that we’re having all over the country
Maybe go for a…
Hard Group Ride…
3, 4, 5 hours… whatever is pushing things just a skosh past what you could/would do riding by yourself.
Try to ride a bit over your head.
Either ride with a group of riders that are just slightly better than you – and ride defensively – or push the tempo at the front with a group that you’re comfortable in.
The idea is to ride just outside your comfort zone all day.
Push your limits.
Try not to pay to much attention to your power meter or heart rate monitor, just ride hard.
Does all that sound like it’s just a little bit too much right now?
No problem.
Something more sensible is probably… well, way more sensible.
Be the smart one in the group, and go for a…
One to Two Hour Moderate Ride –
Get on your bike.
Go ride for an hour or two.
No hard efforts, but do throw in a couple of moderate ones. By moderate, I mean just that. You can sprint for the town line, but you should be laughing while you do it.
You’re not doing a recovery spin, so you need to put a little bit of gas into the pedals… just don’t go out and kill yourself.
Check out the view, smell the flowers, just do it while you’re putting a little bit of effort into the pedals.
It’s Thursday, and if you’re like me, you’ve been inundated with politics the last week or so…
Blecch.
What better way to get all the noise out of your brain than to go for nice run!
“Wait” I can hear you saying to yourself. ” ‘nice’ run? Are you freaking kidding me?”
“Running ain’t fun, and it certainly ain’t “Nice.” Not for a damn cyclist!!”
Yeah, yeah… I hear ‘ya.
Running can be a drag if you haven’t been doing much of it. If that sounds like you, check out this post from last week.
For the vast majority of people, what I outlined in that piece applies. What you should be doing today is some variation on the theme of “run down to the end of the block and then back”.
If that’s where you are with your running, don’t try and pretend you’re at some other point and go out and flog yourself. As discussed in the link, if you do that you’re likely to hurt yourself, or at least put yourself on the couch for a few days.
That wouldn’t be awesome.
So don’t do that, ok?
But we still want you to run, and build up to the point where you can run pretty quickly for at least a short while, like in a cross race.
Hmmmm.
Short.
Like in a cross race.
How far do we run in a cross race?
Not very far at all, and not for very long.
So maybe we can train by doing some short bits of running.
And you know what?
If you’re doing really short runs, you can pretty much run every day.
I mean, we’re talking maybe ten minutes, right? How much more than that do you ever really run, in aggregate, in most races? Certainly not 1/6th of the damn time!
And ten minutes ain’t much.
Most people can find a way to shoehorn ten minutes into their schedule to literally run down to the end of the block. And back.
And we’re talking about building up to that!
Give five minutes to your running today and tomorrow.
Then 6 minutes on the third day.
Then 7 the next.
Then 8.
See the pattern?
Do this for a week or so – stopping before you start to get sore, every time – and then we can throw something a little bit harder into the mix.
**********
Oh.
You’re already for something a bit harder?
OK.
You got it. Today we do some…
Stairing.
First, figure out where you can do the workout. Since we’re going to be running stairs, you probably 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. 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.
Got a location?
Cool.
Get on your bike and warm up for 15 minutes or so. Maybe ride on out to wherever you’re doing these.
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 so you don’t have any… problems…
– 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.
If this is your first time running stairs this season, that’s it. You’re done. Feel free – heck, feel obligated to stop early if you have any tweaks, twinges, or strange feelings in your legs.*
If you’ve got some running miles in ya’ already, repeat the entire damn thing until you just can’t do it anymore, or until you are going so slowly it’s ridiculous.
Get back on bike, spin out your legs, go home.
Notes –
The idea here is to get good enough at this to go really damn hard. If you do this right, it’s a brutal workout.
Don’t go that hard if it’s your first (or nearly first) time running stairs this season. 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.
We’re going to do this exercise – or a variation of it – every week for a while, so be patient. You will get better at it, and I will throw in some variations that will keep it fun and challenging, including some agility and lateral stability drills. Stay tuned!
Enjoy!
M
Hey! Go Check out…
Coaching for Cyclocross and all your other bike-related activities!
If you’ve done this workout of the day thing with us in previous seasons, you know that Wednesday is the day when I typically talk about cyclocross specific skills, and hand out a prescription for a skills intensive session.
Today is going to follow that theme, at least in a general sense.
What’s on the docket?
We’re going to get out and ride our cyclocross bikes.
Give it a little shake out cruise.
Make sure everything is working right, that the damn thing actually fits you, and that you’re comfortable on it.
Maybe hop on and off it a couple/few times. Rip down some trails, rail some turns. Have some fun, but try to think about the bike itself, and how it’s working for and with you.
Now, before the season is underway, is the time to make any changes to rider position and/or componentry. Mid-season changes can impact your adaptation and proprioception (ask me sometime about the year I tried to switch to wider bars mid-season. One of my fingers still sticks out at a funny angle…) so if possible, it’s better to get this stuff sorted before you have a large volume of training time in on the rig.
If you haven’t even looked at your bike since last season?
Okey doke.
Pull it out of the closet. Give it a once over, make sure it’s rideable. If it’s not?
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
Yeah, that's right... if you have completely lost control of all sense of fiscal responsibility, you can now purchase silly articles of clothing with my blog address on them.
How cool is that?
Just go to - http://crosssports.spreadshirt.com/
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