For some of ya’all, the race season actually starts this weekend.
Which is bonkers.
Labor Day Cyclocross?
Yikes.
If you plan to be racing in January, this is just a bit too damn early to really be stepping on the gas.
So, if you’re racing this weekend? Don’t take it too seriously.
It’s a warm up race, eh?
Have some fun, work some rough edges off the technical bits, and use it as a basis for improvement via your training.
What the heck do I mean by that?
Well, first of all, take note of the things you do well in the race, and the things you do poorly.
Good start?
Awesome, don’t need to focus on that for a while.
Bad start? Okey doke, gotta work on the starts.
Run out of gas half way through the race?
Better get some more endurance.
Get stronger as the race wore on? Excellent.
You get the picture, eh?
Ditto gear.
How is the bike working? Need to change anything around?
Get that sorted now.
That’s what the early racing is for.
Figuring that shit out.
Not racing this weekend?
Nice.
If you’re in the US, it’s a 3 day holiday, so get some bike time in if you can.
Go get some fun, long rides in this weekend.
All three days, if possible.
That epic mountain bike ride that you’ve been wanting to do all summer?
Last chance this weekend.
Get ‘er done.
Got a crew that you normally go road riding with?
Hit ’em up for a long, aggressive, take-no-prisoners, try to drop each other road ride, or a trip up that mountain pass that you can only do once in a blue moon.
Set your dial to “Epic”.
So, that’s this weekend.
What about today?
Well, set the stage for an action packed weekend by taking it easy today.
Either take the day completely off the bike, or go for a…
Recovery Spin –
– Get on your bike. Roll out into the street, 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.
When you do your recovery ride – if you have the time – just get out 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.
I went out training with a small group of folks, and it reinforced something that most everybody should probably know by now; even some really fast folks still don’t have the basics wired, and do lots of small, technical things wrong.
You know what?
If you’re really damn fast, really damn strong, it means that you can screw up in lots of small ways and get away with it because you’re so damn strong.
Might don’t make right, it just makes fast.
If you don’t happen to have the giant engine that the front of the pack riders have, do you think you’re going to be able to get away with the same things they do?
Yeah… no.
So, please… don’t look to the local fast guy (or gal…) for technique tips. Better idea? Look for that rider who ain’t as obviously strong as all the folks they somehow manage to almost keep up with in the races.
That’s almost certainly the person who’s getting all the little details right, eh?
Unless you live and/or race in Belgium – where you might just find yourself struggling through half-lap long mud pits – running just ain’t as important in cyclocross as it once was.
If you’re going to skimp on one part of your training, guess what it should probably be. Yup. The running part.
Odds are you can do really damn well in almost all the Cross racing you’re ever going to do without spending any time at all running outside of the races.
If you’ve got a job, kids, responsibilities outside of riding your damn bike? You need to maximize the efficiency of your training to get the most out of the limited time you have available.
Training is all about priorities, and running well is just simply a much lower priority than riding well.
All that aside, though?
You do need to run in cross races, so even if you aren’t going to make it a priority in your training, you can’t afford to completely fall apart the first time you step off the bike.
So here’s what you do.
Run at least a little bit now, before the season gets underway.
Once the racing starts, you can let the running take care of itself, but if the first time you run at all is in a race?
It’s going to hurt.
Maybe even enough to screw up your race.
If you haven’t run at all this season?
Run around the block tonight.
Like, literally around the block.
5-10 minutes. That’s it.
Do it again tomorrow.
Just around the block. No more than that.
Finish your on the bike workout, then run around the block. Immediately after.
Do that every day for a week, and you’ll probably be good to go in your first race, at least good enough to go.
Of course, if you’re up for it, and have the time, there’s always that running workout I linked to above.
That’ll get your running going. Guaranteed.
But remember; that time spent running might be better spent riding yer damn bike.
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 15 minutes.
– 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.
We worked on the basics of the dismount a week or so ago. Feel like you need a bit of a refresher? Check out the post here.
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 never do 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, they 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 – turning and handling skills for 10-15 minutes.
– work on tight, high speed turns as well as super tight low speed turns. Roll some off camber slopes, and learn to turn on them as well.
– Put two traffic cones about 10 feet apart from each other, and ride a figure eight around them, pedalling the entire time.
Make the turns tighter and tighter until you can’t hold the line and you fall down. Learn where the break point is between riding a tight line and falling on your ass, and push that line until you are definitively over it.
6 – Finish the night with two 5-minute 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.
– 5 minutes full gas, rest for 5 minutes, then go for 5 again.
Well, it’s Tuesday, and I’m pretty sure that by now you know what that means.
It’s Two by Twenty Tuesday!
We do a lot of these over the course of a season, eh?
You know what, though?
As much as we talk about these, and as many of them as people do (or try to do…) I still hear tales of woe when it comes to this workout.
That’s pretty understandable. These just ain’t easy.
This past weekend, when I was out at the WWCX event, E.A. had this to say: “Now that I’ve upgraded to Cat 3, I can see why I need to do those 2×20’s. The extra length of the race really hurt. Too bad I can’t ever get through the second half of the 2×20!”
Ahah!
Guess what?
This is the single most common issue I hear of people having with these workouts.
They just can’t make it through the second half of the darn workout.
Let’s stop right here for a second, and check out the 2×20 workout description, just so we’re all on the same page…
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.
Remember, folks, 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.
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 powermeter, you want your wattage output to be as steady and unvaried as possible.
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.
If you’ve had trouble finishing the workout in the past?
Dial things way back on the first 20 today, and force yourself to finish the second.
Maybe next week you can bring the intensity back up a bit.
As I always say, 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.
Eventually.
After you get a handle on cranking through both intervals rather than just one.
Eventually, when you learn to push through your limits – really push – you will get better and you will get better fast.
You can probably guess what’s on the agenda for today, eh?
It ain’t a heck of a lot, but it is pretty damn important.
Seriously, rest and recovery are every bit as important as all the hard training you put in, and for most of the folks I coach one on one, getting them to take their recovery as seriously as their training winds up being the hardest part of the job.
So do things right today, ok?
Go for a nice…
Recovery Spin (Damnit)
Wait… recovery spin, not beverage…
Sigh…
– Get on your bike. Roll out into the street, 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.
When you do your recovery ride – if you have the time – just get out 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.
Well, this one is going to be short. I’ve got a (hopefully) minor eye injury, and I can’t see a damn thing out of one of my eyes, so typing & editing copy? Not so much fun.
Boo-hoo.
It’ll be fine, really. Made for an interesting ride today, though! “Oh crap. I’m 30 miles away from home and my depth perception just went to s**t. Hope I get used to this quick!”
Anywhoo, I was thinking today might be a good day for a do-whatever-you-feel-like kinda’ ride, so I’m taking this as a sign.
Today?
Ride how you feel.
Long, short, fast, slow, hard, easy… whatever sounds good to you, just do it.
The season is just about to start, and it’s good for your mental health to get some days of unstructured, whatever the heck feels good kinda’ riding in before it’s race every weekend, train hard, rest when you can time.
For some of us, this is the it, the last weekend before the Cross racing starts up.
Yikes.
Frankly, that’s probably way too damn early for most of us, but that’s the way the seasons are shaping up these days, so not much use fighting it.
If you’re pretty darn close to the start of your Cross season – but not quite there – this might be one of the few remaining opportunities to get some long miles in before the season starts.
That wouldn’t be a bad idea for a workout today.
Just get out there and get some long, hard miles in.
Heck, if you’re up for it, you might even try a…
Jacky Day.
This is a good general climbing and endurance workout that will stretch you a fair bit longer than anything you’re ever going to see out on the cross courses.
Heck, this is about as hard and sustained as you’ll ever see in a road race.
In fact, what we’re trying to do is, essentially, simulate a day off the front of a road race.
Ouch.
Select a route that will enable you to hit at least 3 climbs of 5-10 minutes or so each, with flat to rolling terrain in between. If your local climbs aren’t that long, try and do more shorter ones. If hills are longer… well, cool. Just don’t turn this into an all-out climbing day, ok?
Warm up well, at least 20-30 minutes before you hit the first climb.
Climbs should be hard but steady.
Start medium hard (not full gas!) and try and hold it the whole climb.
Drive it over the top, and roll down the descent. Visualize a prime at the bottom of each descent, and a chase pack nipping at your heels. Don’t sit up at the top of the climbs,stay on the gas all the way down and through.
In between climbs, keep it steady.
You want to stay on top of a pretty big gear, at a level that is below threshold, but not that far below.
If you’re a power meter type, with an ftp of 265, you would want to try and average about 200 watts between the climbs and 300 on the climbs.
Not a PM type? Try and go about 90% on the climbs, and just over 50% between the climbs.
Remember, 3 climbs of 10 minutes, or the equivalent. With a warm up of 15-20 minutes, and a cool down of about the same, this would be just about perfect for a 2.5 hour ride.
Got more time? Rest after the 3rd climbing effort, repeat the cycle.
It’s better to keep the intensity up than to go longer. Remember, we aren’t resting between climbs, we’re dieseling along in a big gear.
Visualize yourself driving an all-day breakaway, and you get the idea…
Have fun, and think to yourself, as you’re rolling along…
“What would Jacky do?”
M
PS… this is a hard workout. Depending on your schedule, and what you did yesterday, it might be a bit much. Might also toast you for tomorrow, so be warned, ok?
PPS… The Washington Women Of Cross event is on Sunday. If you happen to be in the Seattle area, you should swing on by. I’ll be there, and if you say “Hi” I’ll give you a sticker…
That takes us to today, and darnit… I think most of ya’all probably need to back off the gas a little bit.
So, hey…
Why not do that?
Nothing super brutal or intense or grueling today, instead 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.
I hope you didn’t find yesterday’s dissertation on clipping and unclipping (and unclipping and clipping again. And again.) too off-putting. Got any questions? Please feel free to let ’em rip. It’s always good to get questions, gives me something to write about, and makes it feel a lot less like I’m sitting here scribbling manifesto notes while I grow out my beard and build pipe bombs.
Has any one ever talked to you about the illuminati?
KIDDING! I’M KIDDING!
Seriously. That was a joke. Unless you believe in that stuff, and are of a vindictive, violent disposition.
In that case, I was dead serious. Or something.
Awww crap, what the heck is that scratching noise at the window…
Well, after that nonsense, what better thing to do for a workout than…
RUN AWAY!!!
First, warm up on your bike if you can.
Ideally, you will also warm down on the bike.
Don’t run with the bike on your shoulder or anything silly like that, just get the legs working on the bike before you run.
Maybe ride out to wherever you’re going to do these (you’ll need a short flight of stairs) with your running shoes in a back pack or something.
When you do get to wherever that is…
You’re going to do sets of 5 repeats on a short flight or section of stairs.
*Short* section of stairs.
10 seconds at the most going hard. Even shorter is fine, heck 5 seconds is groovy.
Focus on moving your feet fast. Quick steps, high turnover, short strides.
Really short strides, really quick steps.
Concentrate on moving your feet quickly, not on getting up the stairs quickly.
You’ll see pretty (ahem) quickly that these aren’t the same thing.
Run up, walk down.
2 minutes between sets.
Repeat sets until you see a drop off in performance, IE you just aren’t knocking down the reps as fast as you were.
That might take a while, or it might happen in just a couple of sets. Depends on what kind of running form you have.
It is what it is.
Don’t keep going past the point that you’re really noticeably slowing down.
Unless you’ve got some pretty decent running form in the system already, and you’re looking to put in some serious work.
If that’s the case? Have at it.
Go until you can’t anymore.
Ouch.
However many you do…
*STOP IF YOUR LEGS START TO HURT IN A BAD WAY, IE: NOT A FATIGUE TYPE PAIN*
(Hey, please click on the title of this post to read it on a discrete page, that’ll take care of the formatting errors that make this post crappy looking and difficult to read in the front page view. Thx.)
If you’re new to this whole CXWOTD thing this season, what you’ll discover is that we will typically focus on the skills & handling components of our CX training on Wednesdays… and, hey – it’s Wednesday!
So, how about some skills work?
Based on a question/conversation I had out on the trails this past weekend, this seemed like a good time to roll back the clock and whip out a post from last season, that was an edit of a post from the previous season, that may have been a re-write of something from a year earlier than that… aw heck; suffice to say this ain’t anything new, but it’s probably the post that gets the most page views out of all the stuff that’s piled up on here over all the years I’ve been doing this.
So, why mess with success?
Let’s all do…
The Hokey-Pokey Redux, Redux.
(or, left foot in, left foot out, that is what it’s all about.)
Fair warning: this is about as dweebish as it gets. It’s also (largely) a re-write of a post from previous seasons. If you find yourself actually wanting to read more on the subject, and similar subjects, enter “Wednesday” into the search box on the lower right side of this page. If you wade through the posts that come up, you’ll find a pretty high volume of skills posts. Lots of words, some pretty pictures.
Mostly words.
Anyways, onwards!
————————————————-
First, lets look at the Pedal/Shoe interface –
All of the clipless pedals commonly used for cyclocross operate on the same basic principles.
A cleat –
Is held in place in a pedal…
…by a hook at the front of the pedal, and a gate at the rear. *
The gate is spring-loaded, in an orientation that provides for extremely high resistance to force in the vertical plane, and extremely low resistance in the horizontal.
The cleat/pedal interface is designed so that lateral or medial rotation of the foot overcomes the spring tension holding the gate portion of the pedal in place, releasing the cleat and allowing for vertical disengagement.
The factors that limit the proper functioning of the pedal in release mode are these –
– Force necessary to overcome spring tension of gate
Can the lateral/medial motion of the foot produce enough force to overcome the spring tension of the gate?
– Range Of Motion (ROM)
Can the foot produce a wide enough range of lateral/medial motion to overcome the spring tension of the gate?
– Resistance multipliers
The resistance of the pedal gate to lateral/medial motion is designed to be low, but several factors can cause substantial increases in the actual force necessary to release from the pedal. For EG –
– Contamination by foreign media
Mud, grit, crap of all sorts in pedals/shoes can jam spring mechanism
– Out of plane cleat motion in act of release
If the foot/cleat is pronated/supinated in the attempt to release from the pedal, it introduces a vertical force component to the cleat/pedal interface, causing potentially significant increases in overall force necessary to trigger disengagement.
OK?
Now, the body –
The rider triggers release from the pedal by rotating the foot medially or laterally –
(Generally speaking, we always try to release using medial rotation. There are lots of sharp spinning parts providing a disincentive for release motions that lean in towards the bike.)
Medial rotation of the foot is a result of medial/internal rotation of the hip
knee,
…some combination of the two, or rotation of the entire body.
The range of these rotational joint moments is limited. Here are some observed norms, if you’re interested –
What the hell does this have to do with cyclocross?
Bear with me.
When we dismount the bike, We’re trying to get off (the bike)
– Quickly
– smoothly
– efficiently
– without hitting the deck
Knowing how the mechanics of the pedal/shoe interface and the related body parts function, we can think logically about how best to do this.
Here’s how I described a super-basic “Cowboy” dismount in a previous post –
1. Unclip right foot.
2. swing right foot over saddle, behind left leg.
3. Left foot stays clipped in. Right side of leg/ass braces against saddle.
4. r hand leaves bar, braces on top tube.
5. Coast in this position.
6. left foot unclips.
7. DROP to ground. Do not step down, right foot is totally passive. Simply drop to ground as you unclip left foot.
Here’s why the dismount breaks down this way, with reference to everything above…
1. Unclip right foot.
Gotta start somewhere, right?
2. swing right foot over saddle, behind left leg.
We’re doing this “cowboy” style. More on the “step through” style later…
3(a). Left foot stays clipped in.
…more on this later.
3(b). Right side of leg/ass braces against saddle.
Bracing the right side of the leg against the top tube stabilizes the body in a position that will allow for sufficient ROM to disengage from the pedal, and provides for an additional point of contact with the bike, increasing control of the bike during the dismount.
4. r hand leaves bar, braces on top tube.
bracing the hand on the top tube reinforces vertical stability of the body, helping to control the tendency of the foot to supinate
during medial rotation. Hand on top tube also helps to control bike, facilitates shouldering/portaging after dismount.
5. Coast in this position.
We use this coasting phase to sight the dismount and to prepare for…
6. left foot unclips.
The body is held stable, in alignment, and within the ROM necessary to release the cleat from the pedal. There should be no difficulty with release unless resistance multipliers are present…
7. DROP to ground. Do not step down, right foot is totally passive. Simply drop to ground as you unclip left foot.
The key is dropping to the ground after cleat disengagement.
By suspending the body in the correct position using the hands and hip (per 1-4 above,) we facilitate the conditions necessary for safe disengagement.
Attempting to step towards the ground, or dismount motions of the body disturbing the established equilibrium can and will result in an increased likelihood of a failure to disengage, and subsequent danger of crash/collision.
————————————————–
Whatever controversy there is regarding the method of dismount I describe here appears largely to append to my “don’t unclip the left foot first” recommendation.
Please allow me to emphasize that I do advocate releasing the foot prior to making any sort of “exiting the bike” motion. I do not, however, teach the method taught by many, espoused by nearly all of the East-Coast luminaries, and described (excellently) by Adam Myerson in his blog.
Here’s what Adam wrote in the comments section of an earlier post on the topic –
…I advocate clipping out of the left first when you have time to do so, and don’t need to be on the gas all the way to the dismount point. It’s much easier to step off a bike you’re not still attached to.
I advocate staying clipped in on the left when you have to pedal all the way up to the dismount point, and when you’re not stepping through.
I advocate stepping through ONLY when clipped out of the left already, and when you have ample speed and coasting time to take the extra time needed to step through.
Option 1 works every time, in every condition, and I consider it the default.
Respectfully.
I think -at the most basic level- we agree where it really counts.
Unclip before you begin any motion that leads to or constitutes “stepping off” of the bike.
I can understand why the “Unclip before stepping over” approach works, and is popular with many riders. It’s a good way to get off the bike.
I don’t use it myself, and therefore I don’t teach it.
Why don’t I use it?
As explained well in the Cycle-Sport Blog post, this dismount method -while very effective – is not universally applicable, and is not optimal under conditions such as “…uphill dismounts, deep mud, last minute dismounts….” (I would also add sand to the list.)
Believe it or not (and I know I’m straining credulity writing this after forcing you to wade through this ridiculous post,) I’m all about simplicity.
If I can teach one technique that works all the time, or two techniques, one of which only works most of the time, I’m going with the one that works all the time.
Honestly, though?
I think this may largely be an East-Coast/West Coast thing. The main reason I don’t use the “unclip first” method is because I learned early on that on the rutty, crappy, chuckhole infested minefield disaster courses of Seattle in the 90′s, if you tried to ride into a barrier hanging off the side of the bike balanced on an unclipped pedal, you were pretty likely to get bounced off the pedal, and flat onto your ass.
It just wasn’t a good default position for the courses out here, and really… it still probably isn’t.
Above all else, figure out what works best for the the courses *you* ride on, practice it, wire it, and go fast.
Nothing wrong with either approach, just…
—————————————————————
* Yeah, yeah, I know… “what about crank bros, Speedplay, Time, etc.”?
The details are slightly different, but in all the commonly used “mountain bike” pedals, the function of the pedal still follows the same basic formula.
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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