You made it through the week… which is awesome. But that means we’re one week closer to the start of the Cross season.
Yikes.
It’s sneaking up on us quickly!
So, what to do today…
Well, it depends on what you’re doing this weekend.
Some of ya’all are still racing, and if that’s the case, and you’ve got an event on Saturday, today you’re doing…
Ignition –
You’re going to be doing a series of short, hard sprints midway through a 1 1/2 – 2 hour ride, so give some thought to where you can do these effectively.
A flat, straight, low-traffic section of road or trail 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 an easy, relaxed pace for 45 minutes – 1 hour, eventually winding up at the aforementioned stretch of road.
You’re now going to do a series of Hard out of the saddle sprints from a standing start.
8 sprints, 7 seconds each.
1 minute between each sprint.
After the last sprint, roll back home spinning easily to recover.
Budget a minimum of 20 minutes for the spin/ride back home.
Put your feet up, relax, and get ready for the next day’s race.
You’re going to do that. If you did the running workout last week, today you push things out just a little bit longer, but the same principles hold true.
Yikes… if you’ve been playing along, we’re just a couple of days into training, and we’ve already hit it pretty darn hard.
You know what?
Take it a little bit easy today.
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.
If you didn’t do ’em yesterday, give a thought to having a go at them today. Page back one post and take a gander at the workout, eh?
If you did flog your way through that pain yesterday, then odds are you could use something a wee bit lighter today.
OK.
We can do that.
How about today we work on some Cyclocross Skills, in particular our dismounts?
Let’s all do…
The Hokey-Pokey
(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.
Well, we’ve been talking about it for a few days, but now we’re done with all the blah-blah-blah. Time to get it on…
If you’ve been playing along with us in previous seasons, you probably saw this coming, it’s…
2×20 Tuesday!
The 2×20 is one of the primary building blocks of your fitness, and it is a great default workout. Short on time? Not sure what to do? Do a set of these.
The 2×20 isn’t just a staple workout, though. It also doubles as a test session, a regular, oft-repeated gauge of your fitness.
That’s really what we’re after today; setting a baseline for your fitness for all the workouts you’ll do as the season rolls on.
Keep track of your performance in this, and in all of the 2×20′s you do!
Ideally, you want to keep track of your performance in all your workouts, but it’s extra-special super-duper important on these. You’re going to do them on a pretty regular basis, and if you keep track of ’em, you’ll find that you’ve left a really good trail of bread crumbs behind you all season.
It doesn’t matter how you do this keeping-track-of. Wattage, heart rate, what gear you’re pushing on the trainer; don’t really care. Just figure out some way of measuring your performance during the workout, and write it down/download it/whatever.
Every time.
Yes, it’s great if you have a wattage measuring device, but it isn’t critical. If you do these intervals on a trainer, you can keep track of the cadence used, and the gear ratio, and you can track your progress that way. Works great.
It’s all about establishing some kind of metrics to keep track of, dig?
We will be referring to these metrics throughout the season, and your level of output in the 2×20 will form the basis for determining your target output in most of the workouts we do from here on out.
So, hey… what the heck is this 2×20 thing?
Pretty simply, the 2×20 looks like this:
– Warm up.
– Go as hard as you can for 20 minutes.
– Recover for 2 – 5 minutes.
– Go again for another 20 minutes.
That’s the basic version. Success on this is, however, all in the details.
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 to 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. How constant?
Can you keep it in a 10 watt range?
Probably not.
15 watts?
More likely
20 watts?
Try.
Keep it steady.
These take practice to do well, and the better you get, the harder they get (you’re welcome.) This is a workout that’s a natural for the turbo trainer, and that’s how I do ‘em.
This 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. You should aspire to seeing-spots level of output on these.
If you can learn to push through your limits, really push, you will get better and you will get better fast.
It’ll be painful, though.
I promise.
Have fun!
M
PS –
In the Seattle area where I live, Tuesday nights are a local weekday circuit race, for a couple/few more weeks, at least.
That’s what I’m doing tonight. Maybe you should, too. If you’re up for it, think about taking advantage of the remnants of your local road racing season to train up for Cross. Get it when you can, while you can, though. There probably aren’t all that many road/mtb. racing opportunities left as the season winds down in front of our eyes…
I hope you enjoyed your weekend, and the finale of the TDF…
How great was that, eh?
I’ve got to admit, though… I’m kinda’ bummed that the new Tour Champ is such a shambling mess of a travesty of an aesthetic nightmare on the bike…
Dude looks like a monkey humping a pickle barrel. Like a human/crab hybrid.
Yikes.
Enough with the tour chatter, though (if I keep going I’ll start in on Phil&Paul and we’ll be here for a while…)
Let’s talk about some training, eh?
We’re starting things afresh this week, so the first thing we’re going to need to do is get some testing in, an assessment of where our fitness is at right now. We won’t talk too much about the actual testing right now, but since we’re going to do it, we need to lay a little bit of groundwork in order to have our legs & lungs open and ready to give us some good data.
You’re going to do a stout test/workout on either Tuesday or Wednesday this week, and what you do today will have a pretty big effect on how that goes.
So, if you’re gonna’ hit that test hard tomorrow, today you’re doing…
L.B. Number One –
In the course of a pretty easy 1:30 ride, you’re going to do a series of 10 second sprints, six of ’em.
So, first, make sure you have a spot where you can go pretty darn fast for 10 seconds without getting killed. Think level ground, secluded road, low traffic.
Ride out to the spot, warming your legs up on the way. 1/2 hour – 45 minutes warmup is about perfect.
Get yourself set, with a time-keeping device at the ready.
Sprint hard.
Full gas, out of the saddle for 10 seconds.
You want to start these in a gear that’s easy enough that you can blast out of the saddle from a near dead standstill. It’s a short interval, so you don’t want to lug a big gear up to speed, focus on an explosive, relatively easy-gear effort.
Recover for one minute, then do it again.
Repeat the whole shebang 10 times.
After the last interval, spin your way home, finishing up the last of the 1.5 hour ride.
When you get back, Put your feet up, relax, and get ready for the next day’s workout.
That’s what you’re doing if you want to do the test/workout tomorrow.
Prefer to do that on Wednesday, or ride pretty darn hard this weekend (In which case you really shouldn’t do the test on Tuesday)?
Great.
Go for an easy…
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.
I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but here it goes again… for most of you, this is probably a good time to be chilling out just a bit before you hit the reset button for cross season.
It’s going to be a long haul!
Feeling like you want to get some real riding in this weekend, though?
Cool with me.
Why not go for a…
Hard Group Ride…
3, 4, 5 hours… whatever is just a little bit of a stretch for you.
Try to ride a bit over your head.
Either ride with a group of riders that are just slightly better than you – and ride defensively – or push the tempo at the front with a group that you’re comfortable in.
The idea is to ride just outside your comfort zone all day.
Riding shorter? Ramp it up a bit.
Push your limits.
Try not to pay to much attention to your power meter or heart rate monitor, just ride hard.
Yes, I know I posted this as one of the workout options for yesterday.
So maybe you just did this, and maybe you’re feeling a bit gassed today.
Take it a little bit easy, then, and just go out and cruise for a while.
Get some fun, unstructured miles in and enjoy your time on the bike.
Ride any darn way you feel today…
Get on your bike.
Ride.
Ride some more.
Stop when you feel like it.
You’re going to be doing a bunch of hard riding – and even more structured intervals – over the next couple of weeks, so go on out there and enjoy the great summer day.
If you’re racing an entire cyclocross season, you need to think long-term in your training, and long-term thinking means you need to schedule in some rest. Now’s a good time for that, eh?
It’s interesting… I’ve been talking to a fair number of prospective new training clients over the last week or so, and by far the number one thing I’ve heard is “I need help with making sure I don’t flame out after the first couple/few races of the season.”
Step one towards making sure that doesn’t happen is not turning yourself into burnt toast before the season even starts.
‘Nough said, eh? I’m starting to sound like a broken record here!
Soooooo…
You’re rested & ready to get things going in earnest for the upcoming Cross season. What should you do this weekend?
Nothing on the local race calendar that’s appealing? Still feeling like you want to take advantage of the great weather to get yer ya-ya’s out?
Cool.
Go for a…
Hard Group Ride…
3, 4, 5 hours… whatever is just a little bit hard for you.
Try to ride a bit over your head.
Either ride with a group of riders that are just slightly better than you – and ride defensively – or push the tempo at the front with a group that you’re comfortable in.
The idea is to ride just outside your comfort zone all day.
Push your limits.
Try not to pay to much attention to your power meter or heart rate monitor, just ride hard.
Does all that sound like it’s just a little bit too much right now?
No problem.
Something more sensible is probably… well, way more sensible.
Be the smart one in the group, and go for a…
One to Two Hour Moderate Ride –
Get on your bike.
Go ride for an hour or two.
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.
Make sense?
Whatever you do this weekend, don’t forget to have some fun!
I’ll admit it, I didn’t. I went to the local Thursday night crit and got some racing in (actually, as I write this I’ve just finished packing up to head over there. Fingers crossed I’m not jinxing anything somehow by writing this in the past tense. After all the carnage in the local road races this season, none of us can use anything that even remotely resembles bad luck. So cross those rabbit tails, or whatever.)
I will be doing some running soon, but not yesterday, and not today.
Today, we take it easy.
I raced last night.
Some of you just might have done some running yesterday.
Still more of you might have taken the advice from my post on Wednesday, and you’re taking it easy this week.
Heck, maybe you’re riding hard this weekend, and you just need to get yourself set for that.
All good. All cues to take it slow today and go for a…
We’re going to back things down a notch.
Today we’re doing a…
One to Two Hour Moderate Ride –
Get on your bike.
Go ride for an hour or two.
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.
Make sense?
Have fun!
M
PS – if you’re looking for something a bit more intense to do today and you came here hoping for ideas, check out the search box lower down on this page, or simply keep scrolling down. You’ll find something. If you’re new here, it might not be obvious, but there are several hundred workouts up here, going back a couple/few years.
I’ve got absolutely no idea how it happened, but somehow this thing just turned into a monster. Hopefully all that scribbling yields something worthwhile for ‘ya!
Hey… if you didn’t see it, take a gander at yesterday’s post. The best thing that you can do for your cross season right now might just be a whole bunch of not much. We talked about that here…
Today, though?
Today we’re going to talk a little bit about running.
In fact, that’s the Workout Of The Day…
A little bit of running.
Right off the bat, let’s get this straight… I’m pretty serious when I say a little bit of running.
Unless you’ve been running a s**t ton already for some reason, whatever you do, don’t head out the door today and lay down a blazing fast 5k.
That would be a really bad idea.
Not that I know this from experienc…
Oh, hell… who am I kidding? I’m totally speaking from experience.
I can’t tell you how many times – over soo many years – I started out my cyclocross training with a way too fast, way too long run that totally toasted my legs and made me super damn sore.
And accomplished precious little else.
That’s the key here, folks.
Doing a workout that hurts you and makes it impossible to train for a while just ain’t very darn useful. At all.
So don’t do that, OK?
Heck, I’ve seen many, many riders over the years put themselves on the couch for a whole week – even weeks – by blowing up various body parts in a misguided attempt to channel a year’s worth of not-running anxiety into one single workout.
Please.
Don’t.
Do.
That.
OK?
Got it?
Make sense?
OK.
So, onward. Some words about running for cross, generally.
With the way cross races go these days, especially in the US, you might not need to train your running at all to be really, really damn fast, even at the top level of the sport.
It’s just not that important anymore.
If you’re in really damn good bike form, you can fake your way through the miniscule amount of off-the-bike awkwardness that passes for running on today’s courses.
In fact, for most folks, I don’t recommend doing any run-specific training during the season.
None. Zip. Nada.
99.9% of what goes on in a Cyclocross race has nothing to do with running at all, so why would you waste precious training time on that .1%?
You wouldn’t, and you shouldn’t, with one important caveat: if you run so damn poorly that you throw your entire darn race away the second your feet hit the ground, you need to work on that.
Let’s expand on that a bit.
If you roll into the cross season without having done any running at all, there’s actually a pretty darn good chance that the first time your feet hit the ground and you need to hoof it in a race, things aren’t going to go so well.
So, while I’m not all that big on run training in-season, I’m definitely afan of running in the pre-season.
You don’t need to become an awesome runner, but if you can get just enough running miles in your legs that you don’t suffer a giant shock to the system when you launch off the bike in those early races, you just might have purchased yourself a nice little advantage.
I’m always down with things that give us a nice little advantage.
So, we’re going to do some running the next couple/few weeks.
A little bit of running.
How little?
Well, for right now, you need to stop running before your legs get sore.
If you haven’t done any running since last Cross season, that’s going to be an absurdly short amount of time.
Seriously absurd.
We’re talking 10, maybe even five minutes.
Yup.
A five minute run. A ten minute run. You stop before you hurt yourself, and if you start to feel sore knees/legs/whatever, you’re starting to hurt yourself.
When that happens, you stop running, and you walk home. Ideally you stop before that happens.
That’s it.
Put your running shoes on, walk out the door, and go for a run, stopping before you get sore.
Don’t run hard, don’t run fast, just run.
And stop when it’s smart to do so.
Which is probably going to be way before you think it should be.
Keep it under control. Keep it ridiculously short. We’re going to build up the time slowly, and we’ll do something running-wise that feels more like an actual workout soon, but for now the sole idea is to get something that’s a little bit like running into your legs without messing yourself up.
Make sense?
Have fun!
M
Some notes:
– if you don’t have good running shoes, and if you’re going to train your running (you don’t have to, OK? You.Don’t.Have.To.) go get some. Buy them at a specialy running store that will spend time with you to make sure you get the right ones. Don’t listen to your CultFit friends who tell you to get some kind of barefoot foot glove monstrosity to run in. They’re the biggest gift to the Physical Therapy trade in the history of ever. Just say no. Unless they work for you. Then, whatever. Enjoy.
– Try to run on grass or on trails, if you can, and while you can. Cross races don’t have you running on pavement, and there isn’t much reason to train on a surface that’s just going to increase the pounding on your body if you don’t need to. So don’t.
– 99.9% of you are going to ignore almost everything you just read, except for the “Go Run” part. Have some Ibuprofen and a hot bath waiting for your return from your ill-advised marathon.
I got an email from a training client this morning, and he pointed out something that I already knew (Man, I BETTER have known it if I’m coaching him, eh?)
Cross racing starts in 7 weeks.
I guess that means it’s time to start training.
Or thinking about training.
Or something like that.
First, though… seven weeks? That’s kinda’ nuts.
IT JUST GOT WARM! I DON’T WANT SUMMER TO GO AWAY!
OK.
Sorry.
Had to get that out of my system.
Let’s talk about training.
Today’s kinda/sorta Workout Of The Day is…
Right Now…
If you’ve been riding or racing your road bike or your mountain bike all season, I’m guessing you’ve probably got a fair bit of mileage in the tank right now.
You’re probably pretty fit and fast right now.
Hey… how fit are you right now?
You know what? If you’re hoping to be fast in November, December, January fer chrissakes… you may well be too fit & fast right now.
Heck, if you’ve been hitting it hard, and you’re really committed to cross, you might want to think about taking a little break right now.
Like, Right Now.
Don’t wait too long. Some folks that I work with directly have already taken some time off, or are in the middle of it (right now.)
What do I mean by this?
When was the last time you had a full week without racing or hard riding, and just gave yourself a chance to recover and chill out?
If it’s been a while, now’s the time.
Right now.
Just chill the rest of this week.
No hard training.
Spend some time with your family, your friends (you’ve still got those, right?!)
Re-f**king-lax.
Get some rest in the tank so that you can start training hard.
‘Cause trust me, you’re going to.
………………………….
How’s that for a first workout, eh? “Take some time off.”
Thanks a lot, dude.
All right, fine… here’s something else for you…
Try to get on your cross bike this week.
If not today, make it sometime in the next couple of days.
Just get back on your ride, and take it for a spin.
You probably haven’t ridden it for a while, and now’s the time to start getting your body used to the bike you’re going to spend all winter on.
While you’re at it, make a checklist of the things you’re going to need to fix or want to improve on that bike before you start racing.
Need new tires? Need new brakes? Heck, need a whole new bike?
Start thinking about those things now.
Get yourself ahead of the line that forms when the season gets really close and the suppliers start selling out of the one thing that you desperately need to make your bike rideable.
Hey, what the heck… make a similar checklist for yourself.
What do you need to fix about yourself before the season begins.
That’s where the real gains are to be made…
M
…tomorrow we talk a little bit about a little bit of running. Welcome back!
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 