As promised yesterday, today we’re doing a little bit of speed work.
Heck, we’re pretty much doing nothing but speed work this last week as we taper in to nationals.
There will be a couple/few variations on this theme over the last few remaining days of the season, but for right now we’re going to focus on leg speed – not bike speed – and do some…
Spin Ups –
– Get on your bike and warm up with a leisurely spin, 10-20 minutes minimum.
– After you’re warm, find a nice, long, flat or slightly downhill section of road with little to no traffic.
– Begin 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.
– Spin the gear up out of the saddle. When your leg speed gets to the point where it’s hard to maintain, sit down and keep going until you are totally spun-out. We’re talking fast, can’t turn ‘em over any faster…
Think Road-Runner fast…
The goal here isn’t to make the bike go fast, it’s to make your legs go fast.
There’s a difference, eh?
You should do these in a small enough gear that you want to shift up.
Don’t.
– Repeat 3-5 times, a minute or so recovery between reps.
That’s a set.
Recover for 5 minutes, rolling around at a leisurely pace between sets.
– Go again, same thing.
Recover, then repeat as time and fitness allow.
Shoot for 3-5 sets of 3-5, or keep going until your leg speed drops off.
When you’ve completed all your reps, roll on home at a leisurely, relaxed pace. Ideally, take 1/2 hour or so to do this.
To be brutally frank, I’m pretty damn glad to see 2014 in the rear view mirror. Here’s hoping that ’15 is an improvement.
If you’re in the Seattle area, today is the Jerry Baker New Years ride. It leaves from Enatai Beach Park at noon. I’ll be there if my antibiotic-induced GI issues permit.
Yeah… sorry. Oversharing there, eh?
Anyways… a big group ride is a pretty darn goof thing to do today.
Don’t kill it at the front of the group, just get some solid steady miles in, and have some fun.
It’s a holiday.
We’ll be doing some speed work tomorrow, so just enjoy yourself and roll off the hangover today.
Well, it’s New Years Eve Day. People’s desire/capacity to get work done on the bike is all over the place today… some have the day off work, some have a half-day, some are stuck in service industry gigs catering to the drunks… like I said, all over the place.
So, let’s do some running today.
How about we…
Get High…
(Knees, that is) –
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.
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 would be great.
Three -four sets, 5 minutes between sets.
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.
The theme for today is essentially the same; if you aren’t racing (and you probably aren’t…) you should be riding as if you were.
That means go pretty damn hard today, in a way that will result in training stimulus as close to what you encounter in a race as practicable.
Yesterday we did something like that by tagging some sprint intervals on to the back end of a 2×20. How about another variation on the theme today?
Ready for some real fun?
Let’s drop another 20 minute interval on top of a 2×20, and do, horror of horrors,
The 3×20 (aka, the “I hate you, coach”)
Pretty simply, the 3×20 looks like this:
– Warm up.
– Go as hard as you can for 20 minutes.
– Recover for 5 minutes.
– Go again for 20 minutes
-Recover for 5 minutes
– Go again for another 20 minutes.
The idea here, folks, is to go as hard as you can for the duration of all threeintervals without being forced to go easier at the end of the last interval.
This is all about doing threeintervals.
Three intervals at as close to the same level of output as you can possibly maintain.
If you’re doing this with a power meter, you want your wattage output to be as steady and unvaried as possible.
For all three intervals.
Oh crap.
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 the intervals than it is to go too hard and crater part way through the second or third 20.
For most folks, this is a workout that’s easier to do as a 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 all three 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.
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.”
The thing is, though?
Cyclocross ain’t road racing.
A lot of the time you’re getting out of the saddle not to accelerate, but due to a bike handling challenge.
Heck, in Cross if you get out of the saddle in a super sketchy tech section and really put the power down, pretty often that’s going to result in rear wheel slip and lack of traction, with the expected bad results.
Here’s a little secret:
One of the keys to good bike handling is having a really good 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 works great on the 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.
It’s Saturday. It’s 2 weeks to Nationals. What should you be doing this weekend?
Racing.
OK, I get it. That’s an impossibility for most of us. There just ain’t any racing to be found.
Which is a bummer, and highlights the idiocy of having Nationals in January just because that’s when all the Euro countries do it.
Blecch.
So, you can’t race this weekend. What can you do?
Ride like you’re racing.
At least one day this weekend, go really g-damn hard.
Race hard.
Race-length.
Race speed.
Race-like.
Maybe hook up with some of your friends and do a race simulation out on the local trails, or on a low-traffic loop of road that you can ride like a circuit race.
The idea here, folks, is to go as hard as you can for the duration ofboth intervals without being forced to go easier at the end of the second interval.
This is all about doing two intervals.
Two intervals at as close to the same level of output as you can possibly maintain.
If you’re doing this with a power meter, you want your wattage output to be as steady 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.
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.”
The thing is, though?
Cyclocross ain’t road racing.
A lot of the time you’re getting out of the saddle not to accelerate, but due to a bike handling challenge.
Heck, in Cross if you get out of the saddle in a super sketchy tech section and really put the power down, pretty often that’s going to result in rear wheel slip and lack of traction, with the expected bad results.
Here’s a little secret:
One of the keys to good bike handling is having a really good 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 works great on the 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.
But hey… that’s not all.
This is the Happy Ending version.
Would you like to know more?
After the third ten-minute interval,
-spin for 1 minute.
sprint for ten seconds, starting at the one minute mark on your watch.
-spin until you hit the 2 minute mark on your watch
sprint for ten seconds
-spin until you hit the 3 minute mark on your watch
sprint for ten seconds
Etc., etc., continuing until you hit the five minute mark (ten minute, if you’re really motivated, or a bit of an animal), and give the last little bit of your energy in one final 10 second sprint.
I’m not certain, sure doesn’t feel like it. This whole holiday fustercluck screws with my body clock… bet I’m not the only one feeling that way, eh?
If you’ve got the day off today, odds are pretty decent that you’re already out on the bike doing something fun. Or you’re skiing, or something like that.
Nice.
Good damn options for a workout today.
No day off? Day off but feeling a bit taxed?
I feel ya.
(Sooooooo NSFW…)
We’re going to do some short but stout efforts this weekend, so the plan is to treat today almost like the day before a race. If you’re one of the few racing this weekend?
Even better.
How about some…
Ignition (Little L.B. Version) –
You’re going to be doing a series of short, hard sprints midway through a 1 1/2 – 2 hour ride, so give some thought to where you can do these effectively.
A flat, straight, low-traffic section of road or trail is what you’re looking for.
Even better if it’s about a :45 minute ride away; that will make things nice and simple.
Hop on your bike and roll out the door.
Ride steady, at an easy, relaxed pace for 45 minutes – 1 hour, eventually winding up at the aforementioned stretch of road.
You’re now going to do a series of Hard out of the saddle sprints from a standing start.
8 sprints, 7 seconds each.
1 minute between each sprint.
After the last sprint, roll back home spinning easily to recover.
Budget a minimum of 20 minutes for the spin/ride back home.
Happy Merry whatever the heck you celebrate (or don’t) on this special (or not so much so) day (or days)!
It turns out that a lot of folks are lookin’ to take advantage of today’s day off to get some riding in – or so it seems from the training client feedback I’ve gotten!
Sound like you?
If so, go ride ‘yer darn bike!
Have some fun. Hit some mountain bike trails, go for a road ride with some similarly disposed friends, whatever sounds like it would be the most fun.
Heck, if you didn’t do Yesterday’s workout, give that a shot; likely to be pretty open hunting out at the local parks today, might be a good chance to ride somewhere that’s normally too busy to work up any kind of speed in.
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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