Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Yay! It’s Saturday!

Hopefully you’re as glad to see the weekend roll around as I am… which is pretty darn glad.

It’s been a looooooooong week.

(oddly long)

But hey, enough of that… you probably came here for a workout of some sort, eh?

Cool. We can do that.

But first, if you’re racing this weekend?

Focus on that.

Racing is still a pretty ok thing to be doing in prep for the Cross season… for at least another week or so 😉

Not racing this weekend?

Today you’re gonna’ head on out and have a go at some…

Short Hill Repeats…

You want to do these on a climb that is big-ringable for you, but just at the edge of being a small ring climb.

Each effort should take 7-10 seconds, 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 for 7-10 seconds, full gas the whole way.

It’s perfectly OK to sit down 1/2 -3/4 of way through the effort.

Try to maintain your intensity for the duration of interval.

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 the intensity. 

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.

Seriously.

Warm down.

You saw those Team SKY guys riding the trainer after the stages at the TDF, right?

If those guys are making a point of climbing on a stationary bike after riding up Alpe deHuez twice, you can do it after some little ‘ol hill repeats, eh?

Take the hint. Warming down is worthwhile.

After you’ve warmed down, head on home and enjoy the rest of your day.

…and that’s a wrap.

G’night,

M

Posted in Cyclocross, The Workout Of The Day
Tags: Aerobic exercise, Bicycle pedal, Bicycle racing, bike racing, cx classes, cx handling drills, cx intervals, cx skills, Cycling, Cyclo-cross, Cyclocross, cyclocross classes, cyclocross handling drills, cyclocross instruction, cyclocross intervals, cyclocross skills, Fitness, Health, Heart rate, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, Seattle, Sports, XC Racing

Howdy folks,

My apologies for not getting this up last night. “Technical difficulties,” IE – “my aging computer crashed on me half way through writing the post, and it was already 2 am, and I fell asleep waiting for it to re-boot” interfered.

Ugh.

Anyways, here we are, and damn if it isn’t Friday already. Yay! Can you believe it? One week closer to the cross races!

Many of us are still working on the last remnant of the road & Mtb season, though, and if you’ve got a race tomorrow, today you should go out and do some…

Can Openers –  

Here’s the drill:

– 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 sprint efforts on a straight section of paved road, level or slightly uphill.

Do half of these from a near standstill, and for 1/2 of them, get going at a pretty good clip before you start the sprint.

… spin out the legs, go home, and get ready for the race.

Even if you aren’t racing tomorrow, you might give these a shot.

It’s important to get your day-before-race openers routine dialed in. Before the racing starts, you want to have a good idea of just how much work you need to do the day before in order to prime the pumps for a peak performance on race day.

The goal with your openers is to do just enough work to prepare your body for the next day’s efforts, while being absolutely certain that you don’t leave any of your performance out on the road the day before.

How do you figure out how much to do?

Practice, trial & error, and note-taking.

Do your openers, keep track of exactly what you do, and then keep track of the results the next day.

Trust me, the effort will be worth it.

*********

Wait, what?

Even after that speech you still don’t want to take a trial run at your Openers?

You say that your legs are totally dead from yesterday’s running workout?

OK.

That’s pretty legit.

Today, you get the…

Easy Rider –

Hop on your bike. Spin around a flat, easy circuit for an hour or two.

No sharp or hard efforts, just take it slow and easy.

Enjoy the day.

Stop to smell the flowers and stretch at some point during the ride, maybe about 1/2 way through.

It’s a nice, easy ride, got it?

R-e-l-a-x.

Enjoy!

M

Posted in Cyclocross, The Workout Of The Day
Tags: Aerobic exercise, Bicycle pedal, Bicycle racing, bike racing, cx classes, cx handling drills, cx intervals, cx skills, Cycling, Cyclo-cross, Cyclocross, cyclocross classes, cyclocross handling drills, cyclocross instruction, cyclocross intervals, cyclocross skills, Fitness, Health, Heart rate, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, Seattle, Sports, XC Racing

Howdy folks,

Phew… I’m getting this up really damn late on Wednesday night (OK, it’s actually early Thursday morning. Yikes.)

So, hey… minimum hyperbole today, ok?

How about a little bit of off-the-bike action today?

Lets…

Run. Pause. Get High (Knees, that is…)

 – 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 stairstep at a time. Jog down.

– Repeat x3

Rest again, same as before.

– Sprint up stairs, this time using long strides, several stairsteps 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 –

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.

– Don’t go that hard if it’s your first (or nearly first) time running this season. In fact, don’t do this workout at all. Do this instead.

– If you’re super fit, or crazy, do a 20 minute effort on the bike (1/2 a Classic 2×20) immediately before running. Be aware, this is a completely bonkers workout combo if you do it right, and if you do do it right, you should need to take it easy tomorrow. Or you’re really damn fit. One or the other…

G’night,

M

Posted in Cyclocross, The Workout Of The Day
Tags: Aerobic exercise, Bicycle pedal, Bicycle racing, bike racing, cx classes, cx handling drills, cx intervals, cx skills, Cycling, Cyclo-cross, Cyclocross, cyclocross classes, cyclocross handling drills, cyclocross instruction, cyclocross intervals, cyclocross skills, Fitness, Health, Heart rate, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, Seattle, Sports, XC Racing

Howdy folks,

Big thanks to all of ya’all who came out to the CX clinic last night. Good fun, and great progress made by most everyone. Pretty darn cool.

I’m looking forward to doing it again, and hope to see even more of you out there next time.

If you didn’t make it out, never fear. More clinics coming soon

I’ll also work up a blog piece on some of the little tricks we covered last night. Look for it soon.

Today, though?

If you’re hoping to do some work on your Cyclocross skills, take a gander at last Wednesday’s post on remounts, and then head on out there and practice away!

Not planning on skills work today?

Want to get some riding in?

Legs feeling like logs after yesterday’s 2×20?

Yup.

Got a good one for you.

Today, take a shot at some…

Spin Ups –

– Get on your bike and warm up with a leisurely spin, 10-20 minutes.

– After you’re warm, find a nice, long, flat or slightly downhill section of road with little or 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…

– Repeat x3-5

Recover for 5 minutes, rolling around at a leisurely pace.

– Go again, same thing.

Recover, then repeat as time and fitness allow. Shoot for 3-5 sets of  3-5.

Spin out your legs, go home, relax.

Have fun!

M

Posted in Cyclocross, The Workout Of The Day
Tags: Aerobic exercise, Bicycle pedal, Bicycle racing, bike racing, cx classes, cx handling drills, cx intervals, cx skills, Cycling, Cyclo-cross, Cyclocross, cyclocross classes, cyclocross handling drills, cyclocross instruction, cyclocross intervals, cyclocross skills, Fitness, Health, Heart rate, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, Seattle, Sports, XC Racing

Howdy folks,

I hope you’re feeling well rested after yesterday’s recovery ride!

Today is Tuesday, and you know what that means, right? 

It’s…

Two By Twenty Tuesday!

Today, though, we’re doing  ’em 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. This is the get-up version, though, so…

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

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. We’re talking 10 watt variance at the most. Keep it steady.

These take practice to do well, and the better you get, the harder they get. This is another workout that works great on the 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 seeing spots thing. If you can learn to push through your limits when you do these, you will get better and well… you will get 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.

– No reason you can’t do these normal-style. Honestly, for many/most of you, that might be a better bet. Why did I tell you to do the variation today? Heck, gotta mix things up a bit, eh? 😉

Hey, just a reminder… Cyclocross clinic tonight at Seattle’s Woodland park, 7pm. Meet at the knoll above the dirt parking lot. Donations accepted, and will go towards keeping this page going.

Hope to see you there,

M

Posted in Cyclocross, The Workout Of The Day
Tags: Aerobic exercise, Bicycle pedal, Bicycle racing, bike racing, cx classes, cx handling drills, cx intervals, cx skills, Cycling, Cyclo-cross, Cyclocross, cyclocross classes, cyclocross handling drills, cyclocross instruction, cyclocross intervals, cyclocross skills, Fitness, Health, Heart rate, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, Seattle, Sports, XC Racing

Howdy folks,

It’s Sunday, and that means that the workout for many of you is pretty obvious (well, for the road race crew anyways…)

Option #1 for today is –

Race Your Ass Off!

Whatever local racing is on tap for today, do it.

Take full advantage of the few remaining road and MTB races, and get some hard efforts in.

Workout option #2?

Hard Group Ride –

Get out there and kick some A** on the local roadie ride, or on the trails with your buddies.

Push the pace if and when you can, try and go hard – harder than usual – and see how you recover from some stiff efforts on a course or in a group you know pretty well.

Duration? 3 hours or so. OK to go long today, but better to go kinda long and really damn hard.

You want to finish up the ride  tired, sore, and needing to rest a bit tomorrow.

In other words, if you aren’t racing today, put enough into your ride that when you’re done, you feel like you raced.

Have fun, ride hard, and guess what? You’ve got an rest day coming tomorrow. Leave it all out on the road/trail today…

If you rode hard yesterday, though?

Maybe take it a little easy today, and just go out and cruise for a while.

Get some fun, unstructured miles in and enjoy your time on the bike.

You’re going to be doing a bunch of hard riding over the next couple of weeks… so go on out there, and enjoy another fine summer day. They’re a limited commodity.

M

M

Posted in Cyclocross, The Workout Of The Day
Tags: Aerobic exercise, Bicycle pedal, Bicycle racing, bike racing, cx classes, cx handling drills, cx intervals, cx skills, Cycling, Cyclo-cross, Cyclocross, cyclocross classes, cyclocross handling drills, cyclocross instruction, cyclocross intervals, cyclocross skills, Fitness, Health, Heart rate, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, Seattle, Sports, XC Racing

Howdy folks,

This weekend –  if it’s at all possible – I recommend getting in one of the remaining few road or MTB races of your season. The Cross racing is right around the corner, and it’s really darn hard to match the intensity of racing when you’re training on your own.

So, if you can manage it, your workout today is –

Go Race!

No racing in your neck of the woods?

Today’s Workout, then, is…

The Hills Have “I”s

(“I” is for “intensity.”)

Warm up, ideally in the course of a ride out to some pretty darn hilly terrain.

Find a hill –  or a series of hills – that will take you 5-10 minutes to climb at pretty darn close to race pace.

Hit the base of the climb hard, out of the saddle, and accelerate into it.

Sit down when you feel you’re starting to lag, and drop a couple of gears. Spin (but still fast, IE about the same as your 2×20 minute level.)

Stay seated until you are breathing a little easier, then…

Out of the saddle, Attack! Hard like you did at the base of the climb.

Same as before, when you start to lag, sit down, spin.

Repeat to top of climb.

At the top of the climb, get out of the saddle, and accelerate as the grade eases.  Power over the top and well into the descent, until your speed is great enough that coasting is faster than pedaling.

Coast/spin to bottom of climb.

Pedal at moderate intensity (IE – 2/3 of your 2×20 minute level,) for roughly equal to the amount of time it took to complete the entire climb, or until you get to the next hill, whichever is greater.

Repeat 3-5 times, or until you are spent, or until you run out of time.

If you do more than 3 repeats, spin easy for 5-10 minutes after 3rd repeat.

Total duration should be 2-3 hours, longer = more climbs.

If you do 4 hours, you’re either really damn fit, or you’re kidding yourself.

Better to go shorter and harder than to extend the ride and slow things down.

Have fun!

M

Posted in Cyclocross, The Workout Of The Day
Tags: Aerobic exercise, Bicycle pedal, Bicycle racing, bike racing, cx classes, cx handling drills, cx intervals, cx skills, Cycling, Cyclo-cross, Cyclocross, cyclocross classes, cyclocross handling drills, cyclocross instruction, cyclocross intervals, cyclocross skills, Fitness, Health, Heart rate, Personal Training, Physical exercise, Running, Seattle, Sports, XC Racing