The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Saturday, 12.12.15. “Think Long”

•December 12, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

So… if you’re racing this weekend, you can ignore this post entirely. You know what to do this weekend, right?
If you’re done racing for the year, I’m hoping you’re still off the bike, out getting some skiing in or something of the sort. I’ll be in the weight room today, highly recommended, especially if you’re a master’s-age rider.

Still racing this season, but not this weekend? Trying to be fast for Nationals?

What should you be doing?

In short, think long.

 

 

It’s tough this time of year, but if you can make it happen, you want to get some long, hard rides in the next couple of weeks. Think rides that go for 4, 5, even 6 hours.

Yeaaaah. Short days, crap weather, long rides.

I didn’t say this would be easy.

It gets worse.

Long doesn’t mean slow.

You need to push the pace on these rides. In a week or so, the top Euro-crossers will all be heading out to Mallorca where they can bang heads with their teammates on long group rides. Same idea here, even if you don’t have the teammates. Ride like someone is chasing you.

“Tough” doesn’t mean impossible.

I mean,  sure…  you aren’t going to go out and get a training camp level of training out of a couple/few weekend rides, but if you follow the principles that underlie the intent of these week-long training camps, you can probably do better than you’re doing now, and set yourself up for success in January.

So, what is that intent?

Let’s start with this; It’s  incredibly difficult to make profound physiological improvements in your underlying, base-level fitness when you’re racing every weekend.

Can you  – and should you – get faster during the course of a season?

Absolutely.  But…

You race hard every weekend. If you’re doing it right, you’re spending most of the following week recovering from the weekend past & getting opened up for the weekend next.

You can do some small work mid-week to improve deficiencies or hone strengths, but you really can’t do the kind of work that it takes to  bump your FTP  enough to get to the front of the group you’ve been racing in, to be competitive at the next category level , or to win one of those races you’ve been sooo close in for sooo long.

The kind of work we’re talking about is the sort that if you did it on a Wednesday, you’d be way off the back come the weekend, and that’s assuming you could take a day off to do it mid-week and still be free to race on the weekend.

Sound likely? I didn’t think so.

So, this break in racing before the final national level races that end the season?

Perfect time to really work your ass off.

Want to be flying at Nationals? Spend the next couple of weeks doing long, hard, fast training rides.

This isn’t long, slow distance eating we’re talking about, this is “Oh crap, how the hell am I going to finish this ride” kinda stuff. These are the rides where you barely manage to drag your ass in the door of your house when you get home. The rides where, when you get home you need to drink a coke to summon the energy needed to order takeout.
4, 5, 6 hours of glorious suffering. That’s what we’re talking about.

Try one today. Tomorrow?

Same thing.

Have fun,

M

 

 

Hi there…

Thanks for following my blog!

This thing started off as a lark, and over the years that I’ve been doing it, has become a little bit of a monster.

It takes a fair bit of time – and a wee bit of money – to keep this thing rolling, and as you may have noticed, I’ve recently started asking for folks to chip in a bit if they feel like what they’re getting her is worth something to them.

Honestly, it’s not like I’m trying to get rich off this here thing… or really even make any money from it at all.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose quite as much money doing this as I currently do.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this!

So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, 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.

btn_donateCC_LG

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, The Workout Of The Day
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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Friday, 12.11.15. “Moderately good chance of a race happening next year”

•December 11, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Did your season just get a little bit shorter? No Master’s Worlds this year!

Not that this was all that surprising.

When there aren’t any race details or registration info available this close to an event, ya’ gotta’ figure the odds of it actually happening are pretty slim.

I know some people had already purchased flights and even lodging, though. Hopefully you aren’t among them!

So… no US based Worlds this year, but probably next year. Mark it (in pencil!) on the calendar.

One less thing to worry about now.

Onward…

If you did yesterday’s workout, and you’re planning on doing what we’ve got planned for this weekend, you’re going to want to take it easy today.

Ditto if you’re racing on Sunday this weekend.

If you’re racing tomorrow?

Openers, of course.

I don’t think all that many of you are, though, so today?

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.

1 notch above a recovery ride.

Make sense?

Have fun!

M

 

 

 

 

 

Hi there…

Thanks for following my blog!

This thing started off as a lark, and over the years that I’ve been doing it, has become a little bit of a monster.

It takes a fair bit of time – and a wee bit of money – to keep this thing rolling, and as you may have noticed, I’ve recently started asking for folks to chip in a bit if they feel like what they’re getting her is worth something to them.

Honestly, it’s not like I’m trying to get rich off this here thing… or really even make any money from it at all.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose quite as much money doing this as I currently do.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this!

So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, 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.

btn_donateCC_LG

Posted in Cyclocross, The Workout Of The Day
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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Thursday, 12.10.15. “Trainer Puddle”

•December 10, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Well, hell… this is going up really late. Sorry about that, been another one of those days.

 

 

Yeah… not that kind of “one of those days.”

I wish.

The weather gods have decided they absolutely hate Seattle, and they’ve been gifting us with absolutely horrid weather. Torrential rains, crazy winds… there was a freakin’ tornado in the area!

The end result is that it’s been impossible to get anywhere in anything resembling a reasonable time if you have to drive, and riding the bike? Ughh… hope you have a sauna at home to thaw out in post-ride if you’re biking around in this.

So how about a workout for the trainer today?

 

The 3×10++

Warm up, spinning on the trainer until you’re ready to lay down some watts.

When you’re warmed up, immediately embark upon one 10 minute interval, ridden like a 2×20.

Immediately upon finishing the ten minute interval, sprint hard for 10 seconds.

Recover for one minute.

Do it again.

Repeat for a total of five sprints, then immediately begin another 10 minute interval.

As soon as you finish that, another sprint set, same as before.

You’re going to do a total of 3 ten-minute intervals and 3 sprint sets. Only rest periods are the 1-minute breaks between the sprints.

Yeah, that makes this pretty damn hard.

Spin out your legs afterwards, then mop up the puddle of sweat under the trainer.

Enjoy!

 

M

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, The Workout Of The Day
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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Wednesday, 12.9.15. “Nope, not that…”

•December 9, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Well, it’s Wednesday, and if you’ve been following the blog for any period of time (save the last couple of weeks!) you know that on Wednesday we usually do some kind of skills related workout.

Up here in the Seattle area, we have a couple of pretty large group workouts that meet on Wednesdays, and this helps a lot with getting skills training in. There’s almost nothing that increases your technical ability more than riding with people who are better than you are, and stealing liberally from them. Highly recommended.

This time of year, though? Most folks are done racing for the year. No more group workouts, at least up here, and – so I’m told – in many other parts of the country.

This makes it pretty tough to keep your skills in peak form, especially when you combine it with a dearth of racing. Cranking out intervals on the trainer may make you strong, but it isn’t going to do much to help you keep the wheels rubber side down when things get slippy out there on a muddy or icy cross course.

You’ve got to find a way to get out in the wilds and put some practice time in on some actual cyclocross terrain.

This ain’t easy this time of year, especially up here in the PNW, with the incredibly short days we have this time of year. Blecch.

You still have to figure out a way to do it, though, if you don’t want to find yourself sliding sideways all over the course at Nationals, rusty skills kicking your ass sideways after a month away from real technical riding.

So, what can one do?

Find a couple of other folks who are also heading out to Nationals, and figure out a day and a time that you can all get together to chase each other around some kind of cylocross terrain. You don’t have to do this every day, but if you can do it every week, for an hour or so, it will make a difference.

If that isn’t going to happen, make yourself get outside and do some skills work all by your lonesome. Push the pace on some slippy mud, practice your mounts and remounts on some fallen branches, whatever it takes, just get out there. Again, even an hour a week will help.

Having said all that, guess what? No skills work on today’s post.

I’m going to save it for this weekend, when odds are there will actually be some daylight to get out and train in, and after you’ve had a couple of days to find some people to do skills work with.

Today, instead, we’re gonna’…

Get High, Ya’all!

whoah

(knees. get your knees high. what did you think I meant?)

Find a set of stairs to do today’s workout on. You’re going to be doing a set of short intervals, so you don’t need stadium stairs or anything like that. Somewhere in the neighborhood of one single flight of standard office building stairs is perfect.

– 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.

– Repeat x3

– Sprint! up stairs, fast, using whatever stride is most comfortable. Walk down.

– Repeat x3

Rest for 1 minute, walking slowly up and down stairs.

– Sprint up stairs, this time using quick, tiny strides, 1 stair step at a time. Jog down.

– Repeat x3

Rest again, same as before.

– Sprint up stairs, this time using long strides, several stair steps at a time. Walk down.

– Repeat x 3

Rest again.

– Sprint up stairs, combining the previous two exercises; long step, followed by 2 short steps. Do 1x.

Walk down.

– Run up stairs, high knees, exaggeratedly so…

Repeat x3

Rest again, 2-5 minutes.

Sprint up stairs, free form, just go as fast as you can. Go until spent.

– Repeat entire damn thing if you’re a freaking animal.

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.

– If you haven’t been doing much running this season, be careful. Don’t overdo this, and don’t risk screwing everything up for the rest of the season by blowing up a knee or something. Better yet, try this.

Have fun!

M

 

 

 

 

 

Hi there…

Thanks for following my blog!

This thing started off as a lark, and over the years that I’ve been doing it, has become a little bit of a monster.

It takes a fair bit of time – and a wee bit of money – to keep this thing rolling, and as you may have noticed, I’ve recently started asking for folks to chip in a bit if they feel like what they’re getting her is worth something to them.

Honestly, it’s not like I’m trying to get rich off this here thing… or really even make any money from it at all.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose quite as much money doing this as I currently do.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this!

So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, 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.

btn_donateCC_LG

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, running, skills, The Workout Of The Day
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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for 12.8.15. “Box Of Hammers”

•December 8, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Sorry this is going up late today,ca-razy day.

It’s Tuesday, ready to put some work in?

If you’re still looking to be doing some racing this season, that is.

If you aren’t? Hopefully you’re still taking a little break from the bike.

I feel like I got hit with a bag of hammers today…

…’cause I started my off-season resistance training program yesterday. Yay, squats!

Does knowing I’m going to be even more sore tomorrow make this better? Ugh.

Anyways, onward with today’s workout.

It’s a stout one. It’s…

 

 

The MB15 – 

One of my colleagues at Source Endurance Coaching wrote a companion piece to this workout. Check it out here! 

Warm up well. (Seriously. Warm up for this one, it’ll help.)

The basic idea here is to do a series of very short efforts with very little rest between them, for a pretty long period of time.

Sound confusing?

Here’s how it breaks down…

Warm up.

Get set…

Go!

15 seconds on

15 seconds off

15 seconds on

15 seconds off

…and so on and so on for the duration of the interval.

How long are you going to do this for?

– Ten minutes

How many sets?

– Three -four sets, 5 minutes between sets. Ideally, you aspire to pile enough ten-minute segments on top of one another to equal the duration of your races.

How hard do you go during the “on” segments?

– Pretty darn hard.

You’re familiar with the level of effort you put out in your 2×20’s by now, right?

You need to go harder than that.

A fair bit harder would be good.

Ideally, you’ll hit these on periods at right about 150% of your FTP, if that’s a number that means anything to you. If it doesn’t, it’s harder than what you’re dong your 2×20 effort at. Actually, it’s a lot harder. Roughly 50% harder.

Like I said, “ouch.”

How easy do you go during the “off” segments?

– A lot easier, but you aren’t soft pedaling.

Right about 50% of your FTP, or half as hard as your 2×20 level.

Again, ouch.

Want to know the real “Ouch”?

Ultimately, you want to be able to do 6 sets of these, or 3 sets twenty minutes each, or however many it takes to equal the duration of your races.

Seriously, Ouch.

Do what you can.

That’s the basics of this workout, but let’s talk about how folks tend to screw this up, shall we?

First of all, you really can’t do this workout correctly with a power meter that’s set to anything other than instantaneous power display. Even a 3-second display rate can screw things up; that’s 20% of the interval duration!

So, go check your PM settings and adjust accordingly.

Next big screw up? These aren’t sprints.

You’re looking to nail these output levels for the duration of the intervals, not way overshoot them and then coast back down to them.

If you’re doing a 300 watt “on” segment, that means 300 watts for 15 seconds, not 400 watts for 5 seconds and then 250 watts for 10 seconds.

That’s fine and all, but it’a different exercise.

A corollary to this is, on the “off” segment, you aren’t coasting. Ever. You’re doing 50% of your ftp. It’s not uncommon at all for people to experience the “off” portion as just as hard – or harder! – as the “on” section as the overall duration of the interval set reaches the duration of your race day.

In graphic form, your workout should look more like a square wave –

Square-Wave-1kHz-24W-Push-Pull-KT88-Tube-Amp

Than like this…

niki microb

(yup, snipped from a real-life attempt at this workout)

Make sense?

Have fun,

M

Hi there…

Thanks for following my blog!

This thing started off as a lark, and over the years that I’ve been doing it, has become a little bit of a monster.

It takes a fair bit of time – and a wee bit of money – to keep this thing rolling, and as you may have noticed, I’ve recently started asking for folks to chip in a bit if they feel like what they’re getting her is worth something to them.

Honestly, it’s not like I’m trying to get rich off this here thing… or really even make any money from it at all.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose quite as much money doing this as I currently do.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this!

So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, 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.

btn_donateCC_LG

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, The Workout Of The Day
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Monday, 12.7.15. “Of course there are vids…”

•December 7, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

I Hope you had a great weekend, whatever you found yourself doing. If you were racing or training hard, you know what you’re doing today, right? You’re going for a …

 

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 rest as you can. Eat, stretch, and put your legs up. Get a massage if possible.

Spinning on the trainer today?

Here’s the vids from yesterday’s big euro races to keep you entertained…

 

 

If you didn’t ride hard this weekend, I’m guessing it was because you’re enjoying the early part of your off-season. Nice. That’s what I did this weekend!

Don’t get too used to sitting around relaxing, though. Off – season training starts soon.

Stay tuned…

 

M

Posted in Cyclocross, recovery, The Workout Of The Day
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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Sunday, 12.6.15. “Long but not slow”

•December 6, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

So… are you racing today?

If not, you’re probably in the doughnut hole period of the season; local racing is over, but the big races – Nationals and maybe even Worlds – are looming on the horizon.

Lots of people find themselves in a quandary this time of year. How the heck do you get fast for Nationals when there isn’t any racing happening locally, and most of your training partners have packed it in for the season.

It ain’t easy, folks.

What should you be doing?

In short, think long.

It’s tough this time of year, but if you can make it happen, you want to get some long, hard rides in the next couple of weeks. Think rides that go for 4, 5, even 6 hours.

Yeaaaah. Short days, crap weather, long rides.

I didn’t say this would be easy.

It gets worse.

Long doesn’t mean slow.

You need to push the pace on these rides. In a week or so, the top Euro-crossers will all be heading out to Mallorca where they can bang heads with their teammates on long group rides. Same idea here, even if you don’t have the teammates. Ride like someone is chasing you.

“Tough” doesn’t mean impossible.

I mean,  sure…  you aren’t going to go out and get a training camp level of training out of a couple/few weekend rides, but if you follow the principles that underlie the intent of these week-long training camps, you can probably do better than you’re doing now, and set yourself up for success in January.

So, what is that intent?

Let’s start with this; It’s  incredibly difficult to make profound physiological improvements in your underlying, base-level fitness when you’re racing every weekend.

Can you  – and should you – get faster during the course of a season?

Absolutely.  But…

You race hard every weekend. If you’re doing it right, you’re spending most of the following week recovering from the weekend past & getting opened up for the weekend next.

You can do some small work mid-week to improve deficiencies or hone strengths, but you really can’t do the kind of work that it takes to  bump your FTP  enough to get to the front of the group you’ve been racing in, to be competitive at the next category level , or to win one of those races you’ve been sooo close in for sooo long.

The kind of work we’re talking about is the sort that if you did it on a Wednesday, you’d be way off the back come the weekend, and that’s assuming you could take a day off to do it mid-week and still be free to race on the weekend.

Sound likely? I didn’t think so.

So, this break in racing before the final national level races that end the season?

Perfect time to really work your ass off.

Want to be flying at Nationals? Spend the next couple of weeks doing long, hard, fast training rides.

This isn’t long, slow distance eating we’re talking about, this is “Oh crap, how the hell am I going to finish this ride” kinda stuff. These are the rides where you barely manage to drag your ass in the door of your house when you get home. The rides where, when you get home you need to drink a coke to summon the energy needed to order takeout.
4, 5, 6 hours of glorious suffering. That’s what we’re talking about.

Try one today. Next weekend, do it both days. Give me a few weeks of this, and you’ll be really, really strong.

Then we can spend the last couple of weeks before Nats turning that strength into speed.

Have fun,

M

 

 

Hi there…

Thanks for following my blog!

This thing started off as a lark, and over the years that I’ve been doing it, has become a little bit of a monster.

It takes a fair bit of time – and a wee bit of money – to keep this thing rolling, and as you may have noticed, I’ve recently started asking for folks to chip in a bit if they feel like what they’re getting her is worth something to them.

Honestly, it’s not like I’m trying to get rich off this here thing… or really even make any money from it at all.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose quite as much money doing this as I currently do.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this!

So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, 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.

btn_donateCC_LG

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, Race Day, The Workout Of The Day
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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Saturday, 12.5.15. “December Canning”

•December 5, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Yes, that’s right… it’s Saturday!

If you’ve finished up your cyclocross season recently, I hope you’re having a great day doing something other than riding your bike. I know people are starting to get a bit stir crazy already – wanting to get back on the bike after just a week off – but hold onto your horses. Keep the powder dry for a bit longer. Go ski or something.

If you’re still racing, right on.

Racing today?

Have fun. Kick ass.

Not racing at all this weekend?

Try to get some miles in. We’ll talk more about this tomorrow, but getting a long ride or two in this weekend might be a good idea.

Racing tomorrow?

Bam!

Can Openers – 

american-metalcraft-bbc-39-wood-handle-bottle-can-opener

– 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 practicingfree throws. Make ‘em count!

 – spin out the legs, go home, and get ready for the race.

Have fun!

M

 

Hi there…

Thanks for following my blog!

This thing started off as a lark, and over the years that I’ve been doing it, has become a little bit of a monster.

It takes a fair bit of time – and a wee bit of money – to keep this thing rolling, and as you may have noticed, I’ve recently started asking for folks to chip in a bit if they feel like what they’re getting her is worth something to them.

Honestly, it’s not like I’m trying to get rich off this here thing… or really even make any money from it at all.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose quite as much money doing this as I currently do.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this!

So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, 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.

btn_donateCC_LG

Posted in Cyclocross, openers, The Workout Of The Day
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Friday, 12.4.15. “Except when they don’t…”

•December 4, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Man, I love Fridays. Except when they don’t feel like Fridays, like today.

Somehow, it feels like it’s Monday today. With no racing this weekend – for the first time in forever – and being self employed, the next couple of days are looking like just two more days in the work week.

Blecch.

It’s stuff like this that makes me want to get back on the bike, to hell with the rest period I told myself I was gong to take.

But… no.

I’m off the bike for a couple of weeks, because even if it kills me, mentally, it’s good for my body.

It needs to recover.

What I should be doing this weekend is getting out to the Methow Valley for some skate skiing. Anybody got some skis they need to get rid of? 🙂

Well, that ain’t in the cards (for this weekend at least) but I will be hitting the weight room, and getting in a bunch of mat time at the BJJ Academy. 

Training type stuff that ain’t cycling.

If you’re done racing for the season, I would suggest you do something similar.

It’ll be good for you.

What’s that you say? You are racing this weekend?

You’re racing tomorrow?

Nice.

Today you’re doing…

Ignition – 

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.

Have fun!

M

 

 

Hi there…

Thanks for following my blog!

This thing started off as a lark, and over the years that I’ve been doing it, has become a little bit of a monster.

It takes a fair bit of time – and a wee bit of money – to keep this thing rolling, and as you may have noticed, I’ve recently started asking for folks to chip in a bit if they feel like what they’re getting her is worth something to them.

Honestly, it’s not like I’m trying to get rich off this here thing… or really even make any money from it at all.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose quite as much money doing this as I currently do.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this!

So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, 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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Posted in Cyclocross, openers, The Workout Of The Day
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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Thursday, 12.3.15. “Kinda’ the opposite”

•December 3, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Phew… what a morning I had today! Lot’s of people finishing up their cross seasons means lots of debriefing and planning for next season. As promised earlier, we’ll be talking about that type of thing in the near future, but right now, we’re going to assume that you’re still racing, and that you’re following along with the workouts on here.

In which case, you did some big-gear slogging yesterday.

So, today? Today we do a bit of the opposite. We work on our leg speed by doing some…

 

Spin Ups –

Get on your bike and warm your legs up, 10-20 minutes.

After you’re warm, find a nice, long, flat or slightly downhill section of road with little or no traffic, or if you’re on your trainer, put something loud on your headphones, and make sure a towel is handy to wipe up sweat.

Begin each interval by rolling into it at a moderate speed, in a gear that’s smaller than you would typically use to sprint.

Get out of the saddle and sprint.

Not a power sprint, though.

The idea here is to move your legs quickly, not to make the bike go fast.

Still out of the saddle, spin that gear up until…

…your leg speed gets to the point where it’s hard to maintain.

Sit down and keep it going until you are totally spun-out, should take 10-15 seconds.

We’re talking  fast legs. Can’t turn ‘em over any faster fast.

Think Road-Runner fast…

– Repeat x 5 with one minute of recovery between efforts.

Recover for 5 minutes, rolling around at a leisurely pace.

– Go again, same thing.

Recover, then repeat as time and fitness allow.

Shoot for 5 sets of  5, but stop while you still have some legs left! 

Remember, save something for the damn race, ok?

Recover on the bike for another 10-20 minutes, then go home (or wipe yourself down), and get ready for the weekend.

Have fun!

M

 

 

 

Hi there…

Thanks for following my blog!

This thing started off as a lark, and over the years that I’ve been doing it, has become a little bit of a monster.

It takes a fair bit of time – and a wee bit of money – to keep this thing rolling, and as you may have noticed, I’ve recently started asking for folks to chip in a bit if they feel like what they’re getting her is worth something to them.

Honestly, it’s not like I’m trying to get rich off this here thing… or really even make any money from it at all.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose quite as much money doing this as I currently do.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this!

So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, 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.

btn_donateCC_LG

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, The Workout Of The Day
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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