Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Gotta’ love Fridays, eh?

So damn close to the weekend, you can almost taste it.

Bike racing… mere hours away… yeeesssss….

Well, ok… maybe not everybody is quite that level of Gollum-speak ga-ga over this whole bike racing thing.

But if you’re reading this?

You’re probably pretty close, eh?

So, racing tomorrow?

Sweet.

Today you get to do some good ‘ole…

Can Openers – 

(Geezus… the chick in this vid… just buy a real can opener fer chrissakes… college kids… shakes head…)

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 5-6 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.

Do not stop until you get at least 3 perfect starts in a row, and I mean perfect; this is the cross equivalent of practicing free throws.

We all know how important starts are in the race, so make ‘em count.

I don’t quit until I nail 5 in a row, but set your own threshold.

Got em’ dialed? Ripped ‘em?

Cool.

Spin out the legs, then go home and rest.

You’re ready to race.

Not racing tomorrow? Racing Sunday?

You might think about taking today totally off.

Especially if you’re fighting off one of the early season colds that seem to bee dropping ’em like flies in my neck of the woods.

Or, maybe 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.

1 notch above a recovery ride.

Have Fun!

M

*********

Howdy…

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.

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, 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, Kannibaal Van Baal, Marymoor CX, Marymoor cyclocross, Marymoor practice, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, s: Aerobic exercise, Seattle, Sports, The Workout Of The Day Tags: Bicycle pedal, Van Aert, wootd, WOTD, Wout Van Aert, XC Racing

Howdy folks,

My apologies for the lack of a workout yesterday.

I just had one of those days. “Upgraded” my phone to the newest version of the Android OS, and it bricked the damn thing, which led to a ridiculous amount of time spent trying to bring the thing back to life, skipped meals, a daily routine in tatters, and no post on here.

Blech.

Not recommended.

What do I recommend?

Well, it kinda depends.

The workout we did last Thursday is kind of my own personal kryptonite…

…the workout I know I should do, but always find a reason to not do, and it always comes back to bite me in the ass.

I finished second in a race a couple of weeks ago, and the only damn thing that got me dropped was the fact that I couldn’t follow the guy who won on an uphill drag.

Because I didn’t do the g-damn…

Short Hill Repeats…**

You want to do these on a climb that has you right on the edge of being over-geared.

There are a couple of ways to do this…

– big-ringable, but just at the edge of being a small ring climb.

– small ring, but steep or with variable terrain, or both.

Each effort should take 5 seconds or so, which tells you how long the climb needs to be, eh?

Warm up for approx. 1/2 hour, then roll on up to the base of the climb you have selected.

Begin your intervals with an out of the saddle, full race-pace ATTACK  into the climb.

You’re looking to blast up the climb, full gas the whole way.

It’s perfectly OK to sit down 1/2 -3/4 of way through the effort – especially if you need to do so to maintain traction – but don’t let the intensity drop.

Try to maintain your intensity for the duration of interval, got it?

You’re going to recover for 30 seconds between each rep, and then 2-5 minutes between sets.

5 reps. per set.

Minimum of 5 sets.

If you can do more than that, great… but make sure you’re maintaining something in the ballpark of the level of output you had on your first set.

You aren’t trying to do all these at the same wattage – there’s some pretty good scientific evidence that if you absolutely drill your first intervals at a level that you can’t repeat for the rest of the set, it’s actually  a good thing – but you don’t want to drive yourself into the ground after the wheels have come off.

If you have a power meter, you’re done when the wattage you can maintain throughout the set drops off the edge of the table.

That’ll be pretty obvious when it happens, trust me.

Spin out & warm down after.

So, that’s the thing I should probably be doing today, and that’s why I’m putting it up.

But it might not be what you should be doing.

Your workout today?

Think of the one thing you always manage to find an excuse to not do, the workout you absolutely hate.

Do that.

Sorry kid.

It’s for your own good.

M

** Gotta’ be real here, ok? I didn’t lose just because I didn’t do the damn hill repeats… It had an awful lot to do with the fact that the person who did win was pretty damn good, and absolutely better than me. Credit where credit is due, and try to take motivation while still giving other’s their due, eh?

*********

Howdy…

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.

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, 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, Kannibaal Van Baal, Marymoor CX, Marymoor cyclocross, Marymoor practice, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, s: Aerobic exercise, Seattle, Sports, The Workout Of The Day Tags: Bicycle pedal, Van Aert, wootd, WOTD, Wout Van Aert, XC Racing

Howdy folks,

Well, it’s Tuesday again, are you ready to put in some work ?

No?

Hey… cool!

I can totally respect that.

Tuesday – and in particular this Tuesday are definitely rest days for some of my clients.

If you’re feeling gassed, or still haven’t recovered from this weekend’s racing?

You should probably think about following that path yourself.

No shame in resting!

Far from it. With motivated, ambitious clients, the hardest part of my job is usually getting them to back the f**k off!

So, listen to what your body – and all the data you’ve been collecting* – is telling you, and be smart, OK?

If the smart ting for you today is some hard efforts, we’ve got you covered.

We’re going to replay last week’s Tuesday workout and hurt ourselves (but in a good way!) with…

The 2×20, Get-Up Style – 

Here’s how this goes…

– Warm up.

– Go as hard as you can for 20 minutes.

– Recover for 2 minutes.

– Go again for another 20 minutes.

That’s the basic version (and if you’re new to all this, it’s probably the version you should do. In fact, you should do this workout today, instead of what you’re currently reading.) This here is the get-up version, though, so…

Start the first interval out of the saddle, and stand for the first 30 seconds.

Don’t surge, don’t go harder when you get out of the saddle.

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 successive interval.

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 too 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. 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?

This is a workout that’s  great to do on the turbo trainer, and that’s how I do ‘em, which 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.

Hit these hard enough that you’re seeing spots at the end of the intervals, and you’ll be nudging right up to the limits of what you can do on the bike.

If you can learn to push through those limits?

You will get better and well… you will get better.

That’s the goal in all this, right?

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.

– No reason you can’t do these normal-style. Honestly, for many/most of you, that might be a better bet.

Have fun,

M

* You have been collecting data on your performances over this season, haven’t you?

Wattage numbers on workouts, HR data, subjective impressions on how workouts and races went?

No?

You should. Start now. Never too late!

**Don’t have a credit for the shopped photo. Someone sent it to me on FB, will gladly credit if/when possible.

*********

Howdy…

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.

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, 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, Kannibaal Van Baal, Marymoor CX, Marymoor cyclocross, Marymoor practice, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, s: Aerobic exercise, Seattle, Sports, The Workout Of The Day Tags: Bicycle pedal, Van Aert, wootd, WOTD, Wout Van Aert, XC Racing

Howdy folks,

Yikes…

Sorry to get this up so late today. Internet connectivity problems last night and again this morning. Blech.

We’ll keep it pretty simple today, and go with the assumption that you’re racing tomorrow.

If you’re not, you’re probably racing today.

Which means you’re probably already out at the races.

Good luck out there, wherever you are! Kick some butt, have fun, and Brrrrrrr… stay warm!

No racing today, but racing tomorrow?

We have for you a nice serving of…

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.

Hey… one final thing.

If you’re racing tomorrow?

Do yourself a favor and don’t overdo it today.

I keep reading social media posts from people who are all kinds of stoked about the clear (but cold!!) conditions we’re having in much of the country, and who are “taking advantage” of this by cramming in a team ride or some long road/Mtb miles today.

This is fine and dandy, and for sure some good fun… but don’t kid yourself into thinking a 4 hour road ride is the way to prepare your body for tomorrow’s cross race, ok?

Maybe if you’re planning on punching people’s tickets at Nats and you don’t care what you’ve got in the tank tomorrow it makes sense, but other than that?

Have fun with it, but do it knowing full well you’ll be paying for it tomorrow.

Make sense?

Enjoy!

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.

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, 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, Kannibaal Van Baal, Marymoor CX, Marymoor cyclocross, Marymoor practice, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, s: Aerobic exercise, Seattle, Sports, The Workout Of The Day Tags: Bicycle pedal, Van Aert, wootd, WOTD, Wout Van Aert, XC Racing

Howdy folks,

We’ve got a fun one for you today!

Well, ok… maybe.

These are fun for people for whom they’re fun, and excruciating for those who don’t like ’em.

Not much middle ground.

Which one are you?

Find out when you do today’s…

Short Hill Repeats…

You want to do these on a climb that has you right on the edge of being over-geared.

There are a couple of ways to do this…

– big-ringable, but just at the edge of being a small ring climb.

– small ring, but steep or with variable terrain, or both.

Each effort should take 5 seconds or so, which tells you how long the climb needs to be, eh?

Warm up for approx. 1/2 hour, then roll on up to the base of the climb you have selected.

Begin your intervals with an out of the saddle, full race-pace ATTACK  into the climb.

You’re looking to blast up the climb, full gas the whole way.

It’s perfectly OK to sit down 1/2 -3/4 of way through the effort – especially if you need to do so to maintain traction – but don’t let the intensity drop.

Try to maintain your intensity for the duration of interval, got it?

You’re going to recover for 30 seconds between each rep, and then 2-5 minutes between sets.

5 reps. per set.

Minimum of 5 sets.

If you can do more than that, great… but make sure you’re maintaining something in the ballpark of the level of output you had on your first set.

You aren’t trying to do all these at the same wattage – there’s some pretty good scientific evidence that if you absolutely drill your first intervals at a level that you can’t repeat for the rest of the set, it’s actually  a good thing – but you don’t want to drive yourself into the ground after the wheels have come off.

If you have a power meter, you’re done when the wattage you can maintain throughout the set drops off the edge of the table.

That’ll be pretty obvious when it happens, trust me.

Spin out & warm down after.

Hey… if you’re racing on Saturday?

Maybe don’t do these.

Probably better to take it a bit easy today.

Enjoy,

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.

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, 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, Kannibaal Van Baal, Marymoor CX, Marymoor cyclocross, Marymoor practice, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, s: Aerobic exercise, Seattle, Sports, The Workout Of The Day Tags: Bicycle pedal, Van Aert, wootd, WOTD, Wout Van Aert, XC Racing

Howdy folks,

If you’re from the Seattle area, heads up; the Wednesday Night Cross Clinics at The Marymoor Velodrome have been cancelled for the remainder of the season due to the damage that was done to the grounds during the MFG race Two weeks ago.
We’re pretty darn certain we’ll be able to return next year, but feel free to cross your fingers!

I’ve had a couple of feelers from people, and if there’s enough interest, I might just run a Saturday clinic in the near future, stay tuned…

We usually devote the Wednesday WOTD to skills work, but since a fair number of people are suddenly finding themselves out in the cold (so to speak… groan…) with no good place to drill, how about something different today?

One of the big problems that tends to rear  it’s ugly little head this time of the season is endurance.

Racers have the legs to go like gangbusters at the start of the race, but they fall off the pace 1/2 way through, and by the time they get the bell, they’re rolling like a wounded bird.

Been feeling a bit like this yourself?

No go left in the tank at the end of the race?

I’m going to hazard a guess that it’s been a while since you went and hammered out  a few hours in a single go with your riding buddies.

There’s nothing wrong with that, nothing at all.

In fact, one of the nice things about Cross season is that you don’t really need to go out and spend hours chasing the roadies around in the crappy weather to get your  winter training in.

Well, ok…

That was before the weather got all wacky and we stopped having rainy days during most of cross season.

But still…

Fact remains, if you race cross, you get – and maintain – a damn solid level of fitness without having to wade through the mires of the typical off season.

But, even more still…

Folks still tend to see the wheels come off their endurance a bit this time of the season.

Pretty often, this is mostly due to the lack of longer miles in the training diet, but that isn’t the only cause.

Burnout/overtraining is also one of the reasons for this.

How can you tell the difference?

You’ve been tracking your performance in training, right?

Pull out those notes now.

– Have you been showing good, consistent numbers in training with no real noticeable drop in performance?

–  Not waking up dreaming of a day where you can get 12 hours more sleep?

– Not finding yourself repeatedly in strange situations where it takes a massive mental effort to prevent yourself from murdering relative innocents with an axe for what would generally be considered really minor transgressions?

– Running out of steam earlier in the races than you did at the beginning of the season?

If you answered “yes” to most or all of those, you probably need to work a bit on your endurance.

Makes sense, right?

So, what can you do?

Well, if you’re a pro, you do a short block of endurance training, with some long, hard, steady rides.

If you’re a super-duper top level Euro-pro, you head off to Mallorca for a week where you can not only ride for hours in the sun, but also duck the vampires for a while.

Not so plausible if you’ve got a day job.

Working stiff?

Gotta’ do things a little bit differently.

Heck, how about an old-school, traditional, part of the Euro-pro Crosser’s training routine, something a World Cup veteran I coach calls “The Belgian Wednesday.”

Around here, we call it the…

Slow Roast

Ideally, you would make this a longer ride than most, 2 – 2  1/2 hours. It’s absolutely fine to go shorter, but go as long as you can/are able, up to 2 1/2 hours.

No real warm up effort required. You pretty much hop on the bike and go.

So, hop on the bike.

Ramp up to a level of output that’s approximately 2/3 of your FTP level, or 2/3 of what you’ve been doing your 2×20 Workouts at.

Hold this level for the duration of the ride.

Seriously, you’re looking to average that power level for the whole damn thing.

One twist… do it in a big damn gear.

If you can, you do the whole damn ride one damn gear bigger than you feel comfortable.

Damn it.

Ouch.

When you’re finished, go home, eat, relax, recover.The

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.

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, 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, Kannibaal Van Baal, Marymoor CX, Marymoor cyclocross, Marymoor practice, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, s: Aerobic exercise, Seattle, Sports, The Workout Of The Day Tags: Bicycle pedal, Van Aert, wootd, WOTD, Wout Van Aert, XC Racing