For many of you, that’s it… the season is now officially over.
Nicely done. You made it through another year.
That doesn’t mean your work is over, though. Soon, we’ll chat about things you can do in the off-season to set yourself up for success next year… but right now?
Enjoy some time off the bike.
Starting tomorrow.
Today, 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.
– Just get out on the road and spin aimlessly. At a certain point, your legs suddenly feel better.
– As soon as that happens, turn around, go home, eat, stretch, and put your legs up.
Tomorrow you’re off the bike.
Heck, if your season is over, you’re going to hang the bike up for a while (more on that soon, promise…) but trust me; you should spin your legs out today, you’ll be glad you did.
Word has been coming down through the grapevine that a fair number of folks with these brakes on their bikes are thinking of holding off until season-end to send ’em in, thinking “Hey, I’m not riding in sub-zero insanity, I’ll be fine.”
Don’t.
Flat-out, no BS, I know of several folks who have had total loss of function failures in these brakes in normal “JRA” conditions.
Don’t take a chance on this, even if it means missing your last race of the season.
Send ’em in, get ’em fixed.
It’s just not worth it.
…and on with the workout…
If you’re racing today, you know what to do, eh?
Go race yer ass off.
Not racing today, but racing tomorrow?
Rad.
Get primed for tomorrow by doing Ignition today!
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?
6 -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.
So, it’s Friday – awesome – and some of us are gearing up for some racing this weekend.
Sound like you?
Racing on Saturday?
Guess what?
You’re doing…
Can Openers…
today!
– 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. make ‘em count.
… spin out the legs, go home, and get ready for tomorrow’s race.
Racing on Sunday but not Saturday this weekend? Not racing at all this week?
Sorry for the extended absence. My trip down to Bend for the Deschutes CX turned into a bit of an epic journey.
No frozen-off extremities for me, but some darn cold racing and spectating, and a bought of car trouble on the way home led to… well, led to no posting on here.
I’ll have a workout up here in a few hours, just wanted to drop ya’all a line to apologize.
It’s Friday, and as you read this, I’m probably en-route to the frigid wastelands of Bend, Oregon for the UCI C-1.
It’s right around z-e-r-o degrees right now.
Which is way to g-damned cold for a cross race.
As a client just texted me to ask: “do they cancel races for that cold?”
“No,” I responded. “But they should.”
Well, I’m headed down there anyways, and I’ve got bikes in the car, but I’m not laying long odds that I’ll be towing the line if the temps are in the single digits.
Cut me some slack, man. I’m Algerian…
Can we race here, instead?
OK, enough whining.
On with the workout!
If you’re racing tomorrow, in arctic tundra or in more reasonable conditions, today you need to open the legs and lungs a bit.
You need…
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.
A bit of fair warning: I’m going to be in Bend this weekend for the CX races, so the workout posting schedule might be a little bit erratic over the next couple/few days. APologies in advance, and I’ll do my best, but you know, things happen.
…and odds are some beer will be consumed post-Saturday’s race.
That tends to have a deleterious effect on the posting efficiency 🙂
Well, it’s Wednesday, but no Skills workout today.
If you’re a Seattle local, I can’t very well tell you to do skills when we’ve canned the Marymoor workout, now can I?
If you feel like doing some skills work, head on down to the search function on the bottom right hand side of the page, enter “Wednesday.”
You’ll find a whole bunch of content to work with.
If, however, you found yourself really struggling with something skill related in your last race, it might not be a bad idea to do a little skills session.
Y’know, brush up on the little things that you had trouble with.
The default workout today, though is a…
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.
If you’re feeling pretty spry today, would like to get a little bit more intensity in, or if you’re racing this weekend, you might want to do something a little bit more intense.
How about some speed work?
Everything’s Going Downhill Fast!
Start by warming up well, a bit longer than usual – 30 minutes or so.
Find a gradual downhill that lets out on a flat section of road or trail. The ideal setup for this workout is a downhill that’s about a block long that turns into a flat section of road another block or so in length.
Extra bonus points if you can loop back to the start without having to turn around – that would be perfect.
You’re going to do 3-5 sets of 5 sprints, full gas. Here’s how the sprints go:
Roll down the gradual descent in a comfortable gear. You want to hit the bottom of the hill going fast, but not yet in a sprint.
As soon as you hit the flat section at the bottom of the hill, get out of the saddle and give it full gas.
Sit back down as you get up to full speed, and try to go even faster.
Go until you are spun out.
Spun out means that your legs can’t go any faster, your form goes completely to hell, or you start bobbing up and down on the saddle a lot.
Ideally, a little bit of all of those things.
Remember, we’re working on leg speed today, so really focus on turning your legs over. The goal isn’t to make the bike go fast, the goal is to make your legs go fast.
There’s a difference, eh? Try to keep it in mind, ok?
ANYways, That’s one rep. You’re doing sets of 5.
Ouch.
Each sprint should take just a few seconds. Recover for 30 seconds to a minute between them, and 5 minutes between sets.
Stop when you hit 5 sets or just aren’t getting the same leg speed you were on the first couple of reps.
When you’re done, spin out your legs and go home.
Tips –
– You should start the sprint in a pretty big gear, and spin it out. How big? It depends on how fast you’re going and how strong you are. You’re working on speed here, so don’t try to lug a giant gear, but the gear needs to be big enough that you accelerate when you hit it at the end of the downhill.
– Important, let me reiterate: stand up out of the saddle when you start to sprint, and gradually sit down as you begin to spin up into your sprint.
– Don’t forget to breathe. Seriously. Too many people hold their breath when they sprint. Don’t be one of them.
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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