Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

I hope you’re all having a lovely Thursday morning!

Thursday can be kind of a strange day, training-wise.

What you do today is really dependent on what your weekend plans look like, and there’s a pretty tremendous variance in that, both from person to person, and from week to week, within any one person’s schedule.

So it’s really hard to have consistency in your Thursday plans.

Unless, of course, you think of the consistency of the inconsistency as being consistent.

That works, I guess.

So… what should you be doing today?

Well, it depends.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I’ve been seeing lots of people sorta’ hitting the wall lately, so getting some extra rest & recovery in is probably a good idea for a lot of you. If you’re racing on Saturday –  especially if you’re also racing on Sunday this week – think about taking today completely off the bike.

Relax a bit, get some life stuff done, try to get to sleep early tonight.

Racing on Sunday but not Saturday? Feeling pretty darn good?

How about doing some…

Sventervals – 

Just like in the video.

Really darn short – 10 seconds max – full gas hill sprints, ideally on pretty technical terrain.

Notice how hard Sven is breathing after these?

That’s the idea.

Hit it hard. Really hard.

5 sets of 5 with 5 minutes recovery between sets, or until you see a pronounced drop in output level.

Not racing at all this week? Feeling pretty good?

If you have the freedom to do so, maybe think about getting out on a long ride.

One of the things we start to see this time of year is that the longer endurance work we put in over the summer is starting to wear off, and while folks might be pretty fast, they’re starting to lose their oomph at the tail end of the races.

Sometimes this is just general fatigue, but other times it’s a lack of the sort of form that only comes from putting in some saddle time.

If you were a Euro pro, you’d be starting to think about the training week in Mallorca that’s coming up.

Sounds nice, eh?

Probably not so realistic for most of us, though, but maybe start to think about some ways you can inject a couple of long riding days into the schedule over the next couple of weeks.

Got a race you’re not really excited about doing?

Maybe skip it, and put in a weekend of long rides.

Got some personal days you need to burn before the end of the year?

A mid-week cycling staycation could be just the ticket.

Think about it…

Have fun,

M

Hey 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.

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, recovery, The Workout Of The Day
Tags: Bicycle racing, bike racing, cx classes, cx handling drills, cx intervals, CX practice, cx skills, CXWOTD, Cycling, Cyclo-cross, Cyclocross, cyclocross classes, cyclocross handling drills, cyclocross instruction, cyclocross intervals, Cyclocross Practice, cyclocross skills, cyclocross workouts, Fitness, Health, Heart rate, Howy folks, Intervals, Marymoor CX, Marymoor cyclocross, Marymoor practice, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, s: Aerobic exercise, Seattle, Sports, The Workout Of The Day Tags: Bicycle pedal, wootd, WOTD, XC Racing

Howdy folks,

Well, hell. It’s Tuesday, but where I’m sitting it feels like it’s the Thursday of a week that’s never, ever going to end. Just one of those days, in one of those weeks.

I’m hearing similar things from lots of other people.

When I start to hear “oh man, I’m tired, work sucks, I’m riding like s**t, I’m bummed out…” comments from a bunch of people, I know it’s time for “the talk” post.

“The talk” about taking a break.

When was the last time you took a few days off the bike?

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Feeling a bit burned out? Irritable? Work bugging you more than it should (even if it probably should, a little, just ’cause it’s like that…)?

Yeah.

You might maybe should think about taking it easy for a bit.

Take today off.

Maybe tomorrow as well.

Thursday, you can ride a bit, but maybe not hard.

Friday? Well, if you’re racing on Saturday, do some openers. If not? Easy spin.

Easy week, folks!

I’m guessing a lot if you are due for one.

Enjoy!

Not quite ready to take it easy this week?

No sweat, got you covered.

It’s Tuesday.

Hold on, let me amplify that statement a bit.

It’s Two By Twenty Tuesday!

Get-Up Style today!

At it’s most basic 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.

The idea 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.

It’s all about doing two intervals.

Two intervals at as close to the same level of consistent, steady power output as you can manage.

If you’re doing this with a power meter, you want your wattage output to be as constant and unvaried as possible.

For both intervals.

Both.

How steady?

Can you keep it in a 10 watt range?

Probably not.

15 watts?

More likely

20 watts?

Try.

Keep it steady.

If you run out of gas before you finish the second interval, then you went too hard.

If your vision isn’t blurry at the end of the second interval, you went too easy. But guess what?
It’s way better to go too easy and finish both intervals than it is to go too hard and crater part way through the second 20.

That’s the basic version (and if you’re new to all this, it’s probably the version you should do.) Today, though?

Today we’re doing the get-up version, so…

Start your 20-minute interval out of the saddle, and stand for the first 30 seconds.

After those 30 seconds are up, sit down. Keep the effort going, and keep your level of output consistent.

Stay seated for the next 1:30, then stand for 30 seconds.

Repeat to the end of the interval, and follow this format for the next 20 minute interval.

Remember, 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’re doing this with a power meter, you want your wattage output to be as close to constant as possible, and the out of the saddle time we’re throwing in makes this even more challenging.

Keep it steady.

These take practice to do well, and the better you get, the harder they get, as your output level gets closer and closer to the absolute max you’re capable of doing for an interval of this duration.

Add in the constant standing and sitting component, and you’re going to know you did some work when you’re through.

I know I’m repeating myself, but do try to avoid the temptation to up the output level when you get out of the saddle, OK?

That’s an entirely different workout – check out this post for the beta on Over/Under efforts.

One of the things we’re learning with this workout is how to calibrate our out of the saddle efforts. We’re getting a better handle on what we’re actually doing when we stand up on the bike.

You need to know – really know – when you’re going harder and when you’re not.

What most people find when doing this workout is that every time they get out of the saddle their power output takes a big jump.

Which isn’t a huge surprise, because we largely train our bodies to correlate out of the saddle with “go time.”

Cyclocross ain’t road racing, though.

A lot of the time you’re getting out of the saddle not to accelerate, but due to a bike handling challenge.

Heck, if you get out of the saddle in a super sketchy tech section and reflexively put the power down,  that might just result in rear wheel slip and lack of traction, with the expected bad results.

One of the keys to good bike handling is having an almost instinctive understanding of how much power you’re producing, and the effect that has on your traction.

Step one to developing that understanding is getting a real feel for how your power output can change when you get out of the saddle.

Nothing will give you a better feel for that than this workout.

Make sense?

Especially since we’re trying to work on perception not just output, this is a workout that’s especially suited to the indoor trainer, and that’s how you should do ’em if you can stand it. If not, really try to find the most vacant, flat, soulless terrain possible. The fewer the distractions the better.

Have fun!

M

Thanks for following my blog!

This thing started off as a lark, but over time it has become a little bit of a monster. There are over 1000 workouts on here! How the hell did that happen?!

It takes a fair bit of time – and a wee bit of money – to keep this thing rolling, and it’s suddenly the time of the year when the bills come due. I need to ante up if I want to keep the lights on for the page.

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

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.

Posted in Cyclocross, Intervals, recovery, The Workout Of The Day
Tags: Bicycle racing, bike racing, cx classes, cx handling drills, cx intervals, CX practice, cx skills, CXWOTD, Cycling, Cyclo-cross, Cyclocross, cyclocross classes, cyclocross handling drills, cyclocross instruction, cyclocross intervals, Cyclocross Practice, cyclocross skills, cyclocross workouts, Fitness, Health, Heart rate, Howy folks, Intervals, Marymoor CX, Marymoor cyclocross, Marymoor practice, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, s: Aerobic exercise, Seattle, Sports, The Workout Of The Day Tags: Bicycle pedal, wootd, WOTD, XC Racing