Before we get started, a couple of quick notes for the Seattle locals…
– The Legendary Marymoor Wednesday Night Cyclocross Training Series starts up it’s 47,000th season tomorrow, Wednesday the 24th. We’ll get things rolling at 6:30, hope to see you there!
– I’ll be leading a Cyclocross Skills clinic out at St.Edwards Park this Saturday at 1pm. Price is $10 or whatever you can afford if you’re honestly broke or a Jr. rider. If you like the stuff we do on here, I’m pretty darn sure you’ll get a kick out of the Clinic, so come on down!
OK, on with The Workout Of The Day (and it’s a doozy…)
The MI-30
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!
30 seconds on
30 seconds off
30 seconds on
30 seconds off
…and so on and so on for the duration of the interval.
How long are you going to do this for?
Well…honestly?
In a perfect world, you’d do enough sets of enough length that the total would roughly equal the duration of your races.
Yeah. Geezus.
Good luck with that!
Unless you’re a total beast and you’ve been practicing these damn things in secret, I doubt that’s going to happen.
So…
Ten minutes would be great.
Three 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 at least that hard.
Harder would be good.
Ideally, you’ll hit these on periods at right about 150% of your FTP, if you’re down with FTP…
(FTP, I said FTP. Sigh…)
That’s about 1/2 again as hard as your 2×20 level.
To make things even more simple?
your level of output should be such that you can barely finish the damn intervals on the last set.
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.
Remember, ultimately, if you’re racing for 60 minutes, you want to be able to do 6 sets of these, or 3 sets twenty minutes each.
I’ve had some people asking about archived workouts, and how to make their way through the what is – at this point – a rather imposing (how did that happen?) collection of ramblings.
Over on the right side of this page…
Just below the Facebook box is a little search box.
You can find any of the posts that have gone up on here over the years by entering some targeted search terms.
I haven’t been great about tagging posts to make it easy to look ‘em up.
Sorry.
Frankly, I didn’t think this would go on as long as it has.
Never fear, though! there’s an easy shortcut to make it easier to find general types or categories of workouts:
Search by day of the week.
Generally speaking, the type of workouts posted on, say, Tuesday all fall into the same narrow-ish category, IE 2×20′s, or some variation on the theme.
Looking for skills work? Search through the Wednesday posts.
If you read through a week or two’s worth of posts, the pattern should become pretty clear.
Make sense?
Good.
So, hey… how about today?
Well, today, most of you are – yup – racing, so Go Race!
Lot’s of info on race-day particulars if you search through Saturday or Sunday posts. See how that works?
It’s easy!
Not racing today?
Well, have at it. The search function I just described?
Personally, I’m still recovering from the effects of an asthma attack at my race last weekend, so even if you happen to see me out at a race this weekend, It’ll be purely in a spectator role.
Damn those lungs!
You, though?
I’m guessing you’re racing this weekend.
I’m guessing you’re racing on Sunday, which means that today you’re ready for…
Ignition –
You’re going to do a series of short, hard sprints midway through a 1 1/2 hour ride, so before you head out on your ride, give some thought to where you can do these effectively.
A flat, straight, low-traffic section of road 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 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, relax and get ready for the next day’s race.
What’s that you say?
You feel like you need a little bit more work than this to fully open your legs the day before a race?
Ho-kay, hotshot… add in a single ten-minute effort at your 2×20 level of output just before your sprint efforts.
Warm up, do the 10 minute effort, recover for a minute or two, jump right into the 10-second intervals.
The weekend is just about upon us, and with the weekend comes the racing!
If you’re racing on Sunday, you should think about taking it easy today.
Go for a short spin if you have to, but to tell the truth, a pretty large percentage of folks would do well to take today off the bike completely.
That doesn’t mean sit on the couch eating bon-bons and drinking beer, it means taking it easy and taking care of yourself.
Eat well, maybe get a massage, get to bed early… that kind of stuff.
You’ll note I said “pretty large percentage of folks.”
The flip side of that statement is that for all the people who ride well if they take it easy two days before a race, there’s a population of folks who ride like absolute crap if they do so.
…and, well… some who fall kind of in the middle.
They can go both ways.
Do you know what category you fall into?
No?
How do you figure it out? (and you really should…)
You experiment.
You try it both ways.
You keep track of the results.
Eventually you figure it out.
I have a couple of coaching clients who actually need to ride pretty damn hard two days before a race in order to make sure their legs work right come race day.
There just ain’t no hard and fast rule about this, you do what you gotta’ do.
So, we’re gonna try it the easy way this week, and the hard way next week.
Sorry this is going up so late. My laptop died a thousand deaths last night, and looks to be unfixable. Yay!
Kinda’ hard to crank this stuff out on an Ipad!
Maybe I should make like all the semi-pro cross racers out there crowd funding their racing careers and set up a donation site to get a replacement, eh?
$500 donation gets you a free lesson, a box of donuts, and a re-purposed thank you card that was received after the funeral of my ex-girlfriend’s schnauzer!
Yeah…
Maybe not.
Anyways, enough whining.
It’s Wednesday, and that’s…
Skills Day!
1 – warm up for 10 minutes.
2 – Stretch out after you’re warm.
Pay special attention to all the muscles used in those movements you make hopping on and off the bike that are different from what you usually do.
3 – Dismount/remount skills for 5-10-15 minutes (depends how rusty you are. Do more of these, less of everything else if you need to.)
– Start at literally a walking pace, and slowly increase speed until you can mount and dismount the bike smoothly and perfectly at full speed. Do not jump on and off the bike, you are looking to smoothly slide yourself on and off.
Do just the most basic dismount/remount as per above until you have it wired, smooth at all speeds. When you are feeling confident, add some barriers to the session…
– Again, start at a super, super slow speed.
– Approach the barrier, dismount smooth as silk.
– Step over the barrier, paying attention to how you lift the bike, and how you place your feet.
– Remount. Again, think smoooooth….
– Start with a single barrier, move to a double, and keep going slow until you have things wired. Then, speed things up until you aren’t smooth, back it down 1 notch, and make it smooth.
(If you don’t have barriers, anything will do. Use a log, put a stick on the ground – whatever.)
4- Shouldering the bike.
Start with the basic dismount, as you’ve been working on.
Back things up a bit, and dismount again, but really focus on the “drift” phase of the dismount, where you are still clipped in with one foot, your off-side foot has already swung over the saddle, and you are coasting with your left hand on the bars and your right hand on the top tube.
Concentrate on the moment where your left foot unclips, and you drop to the ground. Try to coast with both feet unclipped, weight transferred onto the bike through your hand on the top tube, and your right ass-cheek against the side of the saddle.
Drop to the ground, literally. No big step, nothing dramatic, just drop to the ground.
– I don’t care if you “cowboy” your dismount, or “step-through” (right foot passes between left leg and frame.) Ideally you will work on both, and be equally competent, but there are riders on the World Cup circuit who neverdo a step through dismount, so… whatever.
Repeat, trying to coast with your weight on the top tube for a longer and longer period of time.
Got it wired?
Good.
This time, drop to the ground and swing the bike up onto your shoulder using the hand on the top tube (next week, down tube grab shouldering. Don’t worry about it right now.)
– Use both a palm-up and a palm-down grip on the top tube. Figure out which one works best for you.
– as you shoulder the bike, think about how you are going to carry it. There are really only two good options…
1 –
2 –
It doesn’t really matter which one you choose, both have their advantages, just pick one.
If you don’t look like one of these two pictures when the bike is on your shoulder… well, you should.
So, the bike is on your shoulder.
Run.
It doesn’t have to be uphill (we’re working on the skill, not the fitness, and you’re doing stairs tomorrow…) but it helps.
Whatever. Just run a few steps.
Place the bike gently on the ground. Don’t drop it, slam it down. Just place it.
Remount.
Repeat the whole cycle until you’re sick of it, then on to…
5 – Starts.
Practice your starts, just like the beginning of a race. One foot on the ground, dead standstill, get-up-and-go.
Begin with a few medium effort starts, just to work on the mechanics. Round off your rough edges, and make sure you remember where the heck your pedals are.
When you start to get the feel for things, hit it hard a couple of times, then back off.
Here are some tips –
– Start with your pedals at 3&9 o’clock, not 12 and six.
It might take some practice if you’re used to starting with your pedals ant closer to 6 & 12, but it really is better and faster.
Every gate start event does it this way, and they do it for a reason, eh?
Associated Press photo by Ricardo Mazalan.
See what I mean?
-Try starting with your butt on the saddle, and your butt off the saddle. See what works best for you.
– Ditto, try starting with hands in the drops vs. hands on the hoods.
After you have tried a couple of variations at a medium/slow pace, get yourself set to go hard.
– Do 2 sets of six full-gas starts.
– short effort, just go long enough that you are up to full speed, then back down, turn around, go again.
6 – Recover for a few minutes, then Finish the night with two interval efforts on relatively easy terrain.
– “Easy” as in a loop on grass with some tight-ish turns on it, or some pretty buffed double-track.
– Go hard, and work on accelerations out of the turns.
– Every time you slow down entering a turn, get on the gas on the way out of it, ass out of the saddle, working hard.
– 6-8 minutes full gas, rest for 2 minutes, then go again for 5.
– Start each effort with, well… with a start. Like you were working on a couple of minutes ago…
It’s Tuesday, and yup. That means today we’re doing…
The Two x Twenty… Get Up Style.
(vid language kinda NSFW)
Pretty simply, 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 here, folks, 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.
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, 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.”
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.
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.
Before we get started on today’s workout, a quick word.
I’m headed off to the Interbike trade show in lovely Las Vegas in a couple of hours, so there’s a pretty good chance that my output will be diminished significantly the rest of the week.
I will try to get posts up, but no promises – and frankly, it’s a fair bit unlikely.
If you find yourself in need of a W.O.T.D., there’s a search box on the bottom right side of the page. Type the day of the week into the box, hit return, and you’ll get back a pretty long list of workouts, and as we kind of keep to a general theme in terms of what we do each day of the week, you’re pretty sure to find something that makes sense with where you’re at in your training.
If you happen to be in Vegas this week, say “Hi” if you see me!
On with the workout!
Hey, did you know it’s Tuesday?
Two x Twenty Tuesday, that is!
Pretty simply, 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 here, folks, 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.
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.
These take practice to do well, and the better you get at doing them the harder they get, as you figure out how to push yourself into a deeper and deeper hole.
This is a workout that’s a natural for the turbo trainer, and that’s how I do ‘em, because I always wind up flat on my back on the floor trying not to puke after the 2nd interval.
That’s not an exaggeration.
You should aspire to seeing-spots level of output on these.
But that might take a while
Get a handle on cranking through both intervals rather than just one, first.
Eventually, when you learn to push through your limits – really push – you will get better and you will get better fast.
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/
and think "conspicuous consumption... mmm... feels so good..."
Crosssports's Weblog 