Sorry for getting this up so late, but I’m a sick puppy. Caught a piece of the ugliness that was going around Interbike this year, tried to race through it yesterday, feel like I got hit by a car today.
How under the weather am I?
Well, (geezus, am I writing this on a public site?!) I fell asleep sitting on the can last night.
Yup. It’s just as weird and disturbing to experience as you’re thinking it would be.
One minute you’re going about your business, the next you’re waking up sliding off the side of the throne.
Yeaaaaah.
SO, hey… don’t push yourselves that hard, eh?
If you happen to come down with the flu or some such crud this season, take good note of just how sick you are, and don’t push through it if it isn’t smart.
I had a fever…
…and the cowbell didn’t help.
Shoulda’ sat yesterday out, might even have been able to race today – and raced reasonably well – if I had done so.
Instead?
Blech.
So, about today.
At this point, most of ya’all are probably already out racing.
Sweet.
I envy you, darnit.
Ride hard, have fun.
Not racing today?
If you raced yesterday, don’t forget to get in a recovery spin today.
Didn’t race yesterday, either?
Looking to get some work in today?
It’s maybe a bit too late to head out and get some long miles in, so 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.
5 sets of 5 for today (you’ll build up to more) and notice how hard Sven is breathing after these?
Apologies for the lack of a post yesterday! It just wasn’t possible for me to cram one in given travel schedule and paucity of internet connectivity. Sorry!
I’ve got one for today, though!
We’re going to assume you’re racing tomorrow, in which case you need to get some openers in today.
How about trying…
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 while “feeling” ready often times isn’t exactly the same as “being” ready, for many folks it’s pretty tough to give 100% if they don’t feel like they’re at 100%.
And some folks really do need to do a bit more than a few sprints to get ready to race.
If you’re part of this club, add a 10-minute effort at right about your 2×20 output level before you start the sprint sets.
I’m writing to you from Las Vegas, the land of slow internet. Consensus seems to be that if you’re online, you ain’t gambling, so they do their damndest to make it near-impossible to access the interwebs at anything higher than wagon-train speeds. Yeee-haw!
This makes the blog posting thing a wee bit difficult. But because I love you, here we go…
If you did yesterday’s workout, my guess is you’re going to want to back things down a bit today. If you happen to be a pro – or unemployed (and let’s face it, there’s a fine line there…) – you might want to log some steady miles today, 3 or 4 hours just cruising.
If you’re a pro…
For the rest of us?
Depending on how tired you are, anything from a recovery spin to a shorter version of the pro day would be a good choice today.
I’m in Vegas at the Interbike tradeshow, and I’ll be on the sidelines for the CrossVegas World Cup Race tonight thanks to the fine folks at Clif Bar who hooked me up with tickets. Big, big thanks to them for getting me in, for their support of the event, and for being consistently, reliably, and unfailingly, a patron of the CX scene up here in Seattle.
I don’t give out a whole lot of plugs on here, but these fine folks sure as hell deserve one… and yup; I buy their products myself.
Onward!
In honor of the race and the suffering I expect to witness tonight, I’m going to hit you with something pretty evil today…
The MB15 –
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. A fair bit harder.
Like I said, “ouch.”
How easy do you go during the “off” segments?
– A lot easier, but you aren’t quite 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.
Before we get rolling today, just a quick heads up; I will be in Vegas for the next couple of days, attending Interbike and the Cyclocross World Cup. I will do my best to keep the blog updated while I’m there, but things tend to get a wee bit… fraught… in that temple of sin, and it can sometimes be pretty difficult to stay on top of things.
Will do my best!
It’s Tuesday and as per usual we’re going to do a bit of intensity today, but there’s a catch; are you recovered from the weekend?
If you’re still feeling the effects of a race on Sunday, you should probably take it easy today.
Don’t do anything hard today, maybe even take the day off.
The first race of the season is a big shock to the system for a lot of people, and it’s a good idea to give yourself a chance to recover fully before hitting it hard again.
Make sense?
Good.
If you’re feeling pretty great today?
Get On Up!
…with the 2 x 20, Get Up Style.
As we’ve talked about in previous posts, 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, and we’ll get there soon enough, I promise.
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.
Tips:
– I do these on the trainer, with a stopwatch on the bars and an Ipod blaring in my ears. Start the stopwatch at the beginning of the interval, and the format is really easy to follow; you stand up for :30 at the 2:oo, 4:00, 6:00, etc. mark(s). Get it? It’s easy!
– A power meter will help you to keep the level of intensity constant. You want the power output to be as steady as possible with these. If you don’t have a PM, do these on the trainer, choose a gear ratio and a cadence, and stick to that for the duration of the exercise – instant home made ergometer.
I hope you had a fine weekend of racing… better than mine, at least!
I re-learned an old lesson yesterday; you can’t squeeze an extra season out of a Dugast tire. Even if it’s glued on tight, and you can’t push the tire off with your hand, once you start to get some sidewall rot the timer is ticking. After a while, the base tape simply gives up the ghost and you’re rolling tires.
Blech.
Don’t let this happen to you.
Enough whining, on with the workout!
I’m guessing you’re tired after a hard weekend of racing. Nothing quite as good for that as a nice…
Recovery Spin –
– Get on your bike. Roll out into the street – or into your living room if you’re on the turbo – and just spin around for an hour.
– 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 aimlessly. At a certain point, your legs suddenly feel better.
– As soon as that happens, turn around, go home, eat, stretch, and put your legs up.
So I’m going to assume it is for all ya’all, even though that clearly isn’t the case.
Sorry! Can’t make these perfect for everybody!
Since you’re racing, before the festivities get underway you need to…
Warm It Up.
First of all, don’t overdo it.
I see way, way too many people spending a ridiculous amount of time on their trainers before the race, and frankly, I think a huge number of racers leave their best effort of the day back in the tent on the Gerbil Wheel before the race.
Don’t let this be you.
If you feel like you need to spend more than an hour warming up for your race, frankly you’re doing something wrong.
There’s been a fair bit written about warming up for cycling events, and if you spend any time at all reading through some of the stuff that’s out there, you will no doubt find that the only commonality is that most everyone disagrees.
Until you start reading some of the science, and some of the warm-up protocols suggested by those who have also read the science.
During endurance events of intermediate duration (4-5 min), performance is enhanced by warm-up irrespective of warm-up intensity
Note, also this little tidbit –
There were no differences in anaerobic power output during the trials, but aerobic power output during the first 1000 m was larger during both EWU (203 W) and HWU (208 W) versus NWU (163 W) trials.
Huh. Go figure.
I pretty much never warm up for road races, unless I Know the first few K are going to be pedal to the metal.
When people ask how I can get away with this (and they do!) I always respond with “that’s what the first lap/loop/5k is for…”
You can’t really get away with this in Cyclocross.
You need to hit that first K, hell that first hundred meters at 100%, with all guns blazing.
Warming up definitely improves your aerobic power output over the first K of a race.
End of story. You need to warm up for Cyclocross.
How much do you need to warm up?
Well, here’s where we get into interesting territory.
The study I linked to above basically showed no difference between the results of warm ups conducted at different levels of intensity and duration. The key was simply to warm up, get the legs turning over.
However you do it, warming up helps.
Nice.
Remember this the next time all hell breaks loose and you can barely get in any kind of a workout before your race. Even a little bit of a warm up helps.
OK, it’s just a study. Heck, it’s just one study.
Frankly, for Cyclocross, I think you need to warm up pretty hard, if for no other reason than that you don’t want the shock of that F-ing start effort to hit your body (and mind!) like a ton of bricks.
What you don’t need to do is warm up for a long time.
After a certain point, all a long warmup does is get you tired. And that ain’t good…
tired?
OK, so what should your warm up look like?
Something like this…
Get on your bike.
Ride at a super easy level for 5 minutes. No pressure on pedals, recovery day light.
5 minutes more at just one notch higher.
2-3 minutes at right around your 20 minute output level.
then
2-3 minutes at one notch/gear easier
30 second race pace effort.
recover for 2 minutes easy…
30 second race pace effort.
recover for 2 minutes…
2 full-gas start efforts, 2 minutes between them.
Spin for 5 minutes.
Go race.
That’s just the actual warm up, though.
You need to figure in course preview time, getting all your stuff schlepped to where it needs to be, registration… the whole package.
Heck, in a perfect world, you would go ride for an hour in the morning several hours before your race!
The whole shebang is what’s important, and in a perfect world, your race day would look something like this:
Wake up.
Eat breakfast.
Ride for an hour.
Snack, take a nap.
Eat lunch (3 hours before race.)
Course preview
(while mechanic preps bikes, team staff handles everything else.)
Snack, electrolyte drink, change into race clothing.
Warm up (that thing we just talked about)
Win Race.
Post-race cool down.
Yeah, right.
Oh well, we try.
Get as close to that as you can, and remember – the science shows that any warm up is better than none!
I’ve managed to do really well in races where the only warm up I got was a 1 or 2 lap preview of the course, and I know I’m not alone!
If you are forced to choose, always pre-ride rather than warm up.
You get a less than perfect course preview, and a less than perfect warm up, but part of each is better than none of one!
Ok, after all that, are you ready for the reality-based warm up?
Quite frankly, this is what I wind up doing most of the time, and almost always if I wind up stuck on the turbo. It’s the –
R.S.W.O. – The Rock Stupid Warm-up and Opener –
First, get everything you need to do before the race done. Sign up, course preview, etc., etc. More questions you probably didn’t even have on the topic of race day routine answered here –
– Ride 30 seconds in this gear, then shift up one cog.
– Ride 30 seconds in this gear, then shift up one cog.
– Repeat until you hit the hardest gear you’ve got, or can handle.
– Ride 30 seconds in that gear, and then shift all the way back down to the Big/big combo.
– Ride 30 seconds in that gear, then immediately shift to hardest gear you can handle.
– Full gas sprint, out of the saddle, for 30 seconds.
Back to big/big combo.
– Spin for two minutes.
Repeat The entire sequence (Usually minus the 2nd “20 minute level” effort.)
Oddly enough, this really simple warm up winds up looking a whole heck of a lot like…
…This…
Yup.
That’s the actual Team Sky Time Trial warmup, photo is of a reminder sheet that was posted on the side of the team bus.
Go figure.
’nuff said?
Have fun,
M
* If you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about when I say “20 minute level”, check this out…
** The Warm Up routines I describe here are actually pretty hard, and believe it or not, are likely to be too damn hard and too long for non-elite racers. You will need to experiment and figure out what works for you. Don’t be afraid to cut the warm up short, or go easier. You don’t get a prize for winning the warm up!
Not the flat. Pretty bummed about that. The ride on the race rig. Glad I did that.
Glad I did it yesterday so I have time to get a new tire on today.
Oh. Crap.
Guess I need some tires.
Any tire manufacturers out there want to send me some tires? 😉
Hopefully you aren’t finding yourself forced to glue up tires today, and you can devote yourself entirely to preparing for tomorrow’s race by doing some…
Can Openers –
Warm up for 1/2 hour or so.
Follow with several short attacking efforts, IE 30 seconds at 80% of your max, or pretty damn hard.
Back off and spin for 5 minutes.
Follow with 10-15 minute effort at AT level, or CP30, or “I could talk to you if I had to, but I don’t want to” level.
Spin for several minutes.
Follow with 5-10 full gas 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.
Just like a race start. Clip in, go hard until you’re up to speed.
That’s one start.
Do not stop until you get at least 3 – 5 perfect starts in a row, and I mean perfect. No bobbling with the pedal. On, in, and off.
We all know how important starts are in the race, so make ‘em count.
This is the cross equivalent of practicing free throws, practice matters and it makes a difference.
I don’t quit until I nail 5 in a row, but set your own threshold.
Make sense?
Cool.
Got em’ dialed? Ripped ‘em?
Excellent. You’re done.
Spin out the legs, then go home and rest.
You’re ready for tomorrow’s race.
Not racing at all this weekend?
Right on.
You might think about going for an epic Kitchen Sink ride today, especially if you can follow up with another one tomorrow.
Enjoy!
M
Hey! I work for…
Check us out if you’re looking for a cycling coach.
I expect that feeling to stick around for a while. The fact that it’s the 11th of September isn’t helping things; this is just a rough day for a boy from NY.
I will be thinking of Jerry at the race on Sunday for sure, and I know I won’t be the only one.
Speaking of “race on Sunday,” if you, too, are racing on Sunday, today you should take it easy.
Like, really easy.
Personally, all I have planned is an easy shake out ride on my CX bike, fully built up and configured as I plan to race it on Sunday. Same tires, same shoes, socks, skinsuit, the works.
When it’s the first race of the season, there simply hasn’t been any opportunity to shake out the bugs in the system, so today I’m going to get a little bit of time in on the race rig, just to make sure that nothing glaringly obvious needs to be fixed before Sunday.
What do I mean by “Glaringly Obvious?”
Well, great example: a few years back, when I was racing for a manufacturer that is no longer in the Cyclocross market (RIP, Redline!) I got my kit for the season from the team manager in the parking lot of the venue, about an hour before the first race of the year.
No big deal, right?
I wish.
There was this one seam in the chamois pad of the skinsuit that wasn’t quite right, and it somehow interacted with the saddle on the “B” bike – the “B” bike only – in such a way that…
I’ll spare you the details.
Suffice to say, it was really damn unpleasant.
Nominally the same saddle, and exactly the same position on both bikes, but somehow there was an evil synergy at work that just tore s**t up.
Switched bikes 1/2 way through a muddy race and… OUCH!!
Ugh.
So, last time I made that mistake.
New kit?
I check it out on both the “A” and the “B” bike before I race in it.
Suggest you do the same.
So, bearing that in mind?
Today go for a…
1.5 – 2 Hour Moderate Ride –
Get on your bike.
Go ride for 2 hours.
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.
If you’re doing this as dry run of new gear, as suggested above, you need to put the gear through it’s paces a bit, so do so.
Throw in a few mounts/dismounts, and ride some corners aggressively. Make sure those tires are glued on tight, better to roll one now than in a race!
This is 1 notch above a recovery ride, but just one notch.
Don’t overdo it. You should finish up the ride feeling refreshed, not fatigued.
Got your gear all sorted? Feeling a bit tired today? Racing on Sunday?
You might even think about taking the day entirely off the bike today. Day off two days before a race can be a really good plan for a fair number of folks, maybe you’re one of them.
If you take today off, though, you’ll probably find that you need to hit it a bit harder in your openers tomorrow.
Which we’ll talk about, well… tomorrow.
Until then, enjoy!
M
PS – Forgot to add this! If you’re racing tomorrow, scroll down a wee bit and look on the right side of the page for the “Search” box. It’s just below the Facebook link.
Type in “Openers” and then click away. Lots of day-before-race workouts for you to enjoy!
I woke up this morning to the incredibly sad news that my friend Jerry Baker had passed away. From his family:
Dear friends & family, sorry to deliver this sad news: Surrounded by loving family, Jerry Baker passed away early on September 10th after the sudden onset of acute leukemia. Please share this news to anyone he has touched. We will follow up with more details once we figure things out.
Love from Spot, Julia & Andy
If you ride a bicycle in the Seattle – or Washington State – area, you owe Jerry a debt of gratitude for a lifetime spent expanding and improving the cycling scene. From race promoter to clothing purveyor, from Marymoor Velodrome to Cascade Bicycle Club, Jerry’s influence lives on in the hearts of the generations of cyclists he touched. As a founder and guiding force behind the original Seattle Cyclocross series, Jerry’s influence on the sport of Cyclocross in the US at it’s infancy was seminal and profound.
Thank you for everything, Jerry.
Heartsick, on with the workout…
We’re going to be doing some more running today, and we’re going to be running on stairs, so… well… start by finding yourself some stairs.
These are going to be short intervals, so you don’t need stadium stairs or anything like that. Something in the neighborhood of one single flight of standard office building stairs is perfect.
In a pinch, you can use a grassy knoll or hillside, but stairs are really the ticket for what we’re dong today.
– get on your bike and warm up for 15 minutes or so.
– Mosey on over to your stairs 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.
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
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