The Workout Of The Day for Tuesday, 11.27.12. “A Twist.”

•November 26, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

As I write this, I’m about to head off to the season-ending party for the Seattle Cyclocross series.

Yup. It’s pretty much all over here, end of season, sadface.

That just ain’t so for many of you, though… so we’re going to keep plugging away with the workouts – as long as there is interest.

I will put some posts up soon with some thoughts on what you should be doing in your offseason, and related topics; look for them soon, and if you have any questions on that or related topics, please feel free to ask away, here or on the Facebook page.

But enough of that.

You’re here, you’re looking for a workout, and it’s Tuesday.

That means we’re doing a Tuesday standard, but with a twist…

 

Hehehe… a “twist”, get it?

 

(Sorry… loopy from painkillers…)

 

Today, it’s the…

2×20 With Happy Ending…

– 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. 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. 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.

But hey… that’s not all.

This is the Happy Ending version.

What does that mean?

Immediately after your 2nd twenty minute interval, you’re going to begin a series of five, ten-second “sprint” efforts, with 50 seconds of recovery between them.

It looks like this…

After 2nd 20 minute interval…

-spin for 1 minute.

sprint for ten seconds, starting at the one minute mark on your watch.

-spin until you hit the 2 minute mark on your watch

sprint for ten seconds

-spin until you hit the 3 minute mark on your watch

sprint for ten seconds

Etc., etc., continuing until you hit the five minute mark, and give the last little bit of your energy in one final 10 second sprint.

Ouch.

Have fun!

M

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The Workout Of The Day for Monday, 11.26.12. “Zombified”

•November 25, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Tired?

Since I know that you all rode like this…

yesterday, I bet you are!

Heck, you probably feel a bit like this…

 

…today!

(of course, that might just be me. Or the influence of some TV show I’m watching right now…)

 

Whichever, today should probably be a light day.

Go for a nice, relaxing…

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.

Relax.

Have fun,

M

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The Workout of the day for Sunday, 11.25.12. “Calamity”

•November 24, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Wow, Sunday already?

I’m guessing you can pretty much guess what the workout for today is, eh?

Go Race! 

Most of you probably don’t have too many (if any!) days of racing left this season after this one, so hey – leave it all out there on the course, OK?

Go for it today.

Ride hard, ride fast, and remember, no matter how bad your start might be, no matter what calamity might strike on the course…

don’t give up.

Who knows? you just might be able to channel a little bit of Sven Nys, and go from way the hell off the pace to dropping hammers at the front –

 

 

But only if you don’t give up.

 

Have fun!

 

M

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The Workout Of The Day for Saturday, 11.24.12. “Open Smart.”

•November 24, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

It’s Saturday,and if you’re racing today… well, that’s your workout.

Go Race!

Probably not to many races left for you, so have some fun, and leave it all out on the course.

No holding back, ride like it’s your last race of the season, even if it isn’t.

Not racing today, but racing tomorrow?

At this point in the season, you’re probably just a little bit gassed, and you’re probably pretty darn sharp on your cross skills.

You’ve been riding a lot, and it might just be starting to feel like you’ve been riding forever.

I’ve been hearing feedback from lots of folks that leads me to believe that they just might be overdoing it the day before their races.

So don’t do that, ok?

You want to ride reasonably hard the day before a race, but you don’t want to leave your race efforts out on the roads the day before you need ’em.

Ride smart, ok?

Today, you get open for tomorrow with…

Ignition

You’re going to be doing a series of short, hard sprints midway through a 1 1/2 hour ride, so 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  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.

6 sprints, 10 seconds each.

1 minute between each sprint.

After the last sprint, roll back home spinning easily to recover.

Budget about 20 minutes for the spin/ride back home.

Put your feet up, relax, and get ready for the next day’s race.

Have fun,

M

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The Workout of the day for Friday, 11.23.12. “Let ‘yer dang pants out…”

•November 23, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

I hope ya’all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, that is. If you don’t/didn’t? That’s cool, too.

I hope you enjoyed your Thursday, and the day off. If you got one.

If you didn’t…

OK, Stopping now.

I just watched Looper…

Can you tell? 🙂

Judging by my Facebook feed, an awful lot of folks are facing a scene that looks a bit like this…

…today.

Ouch.

Might want to get a bit of a ride in to burn some of that off, eh?

Yup.

So, hey… a Cyclocross Workout Of The Day is just what you need!

Onwards…

If you’re racing on Saturday this weekend?

Can Openers for you!

– 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 the race.

Racing on Sunday this weekend?

Cool.

You get to do some Spin-Ups today!

– 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, and get ready for the weekend.

Enjoy!

M

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The Workout Of The Day for Thanksgiving, 11.22.12. “Gobble”

•November 22, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

It’s Thanksgiving, and the workout today is pretty simple.

Enjoy the holiday!

If that means going for a ride, so be it.

If that means being with family, and eating until you burst? Enjoy, and look forward to burning off the excess payload this weekend.

If you live in the Seattle area, and you’re planning on a ride today, I strongly suggest you take part in the annual Northwest Harvest ride that local rider Mick Walsh has been organizing for a whole bunch of years –

http://blog.seattlepi.com/velocity/2010/11/16/upcoming-7th-annual-thanksgiving-day-ride/

This is a great tradition, and a great way to pay something forward to some folks who could really use a hand up.

Heck, even if you can’t make the ride, think about sending a few shekels their way… why not?

Whatever you do, enjoy the day, and talk to you again tomorrow,

M

Posted in Cyclocross, The Workout Of The Day

The Workout Of The Day for Wednesday, 11.21.12. “All about speed”

•November 21, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

It’s Wednesday, and that – of course – means it’s…

Cyclocross Skills Day!

Today’s workout is all about speed.

Go fast.

Explode out of corners, accelerate up climbs, get out of the saddle and punch it every time you remount your bike after an obstacle.

Leg speed should be high tonight. No slogging a big gear, get the pedals turning over quickly, and get up to speed as quickly and as emphatically as you can.

– warm up on bike, 10-15 minutes.

– Brief run. 5 minutes.

– Active stretching, as discussed in previous posts.

– Barrier skills, 10 minutes.

Every time you remount your bike, immediately get out of the saddle and sprint up to speed.

You are remounting with your hands on your hoods, right? If not, you should be. Every time you get back on the bike, butt comes off saddle, and you give ‘er gas. Hard to do this when you’re planted on the tops…

(OK. Maybe Frankie can.)

Begin slowly, and gradually up the tempo until you’re going too darn fast, then take it down a notch.

This is your race speed. Just one notch below your absolute max.

You should always be able to do things one notch faster in practice then you ever have to do them in a race.

When you try to get that extra tiny little bit of speed out of the technical sections in a race, you tend to wind up flat on your face.

Falling is always slow.

Get things perfect at race speed, and then move on to…

– Technical skills, 15-20 minutes.

– off cambers, tight turns, wide/fast turns, mud, sand…  whatever you’ve got to work with on your training circuit, have at it.

Remember, speed is everything tonight.

Come out of corners faster than you went into them.

Sprint through the sand & the mud.

Go fast.

– Starts

Full-gas starts from standing, foot on the ground. Just like the beginning of a race.

Each start effort should include a second effort: after you’ve gotten up to speed and settled into the saddle, get your ass back up off of it and hit the gas again. Second effort is the focus!

Go until you get 5 perfect starts in a row.

– Race simulation. 3 x 10 minutes, 2 minute rest between efforts.

Explode out of the corners.

Attack up the climbs.

Go fast.

Got it?

– Warm down.

Go Home. Eat. Recover.

Have fun!

M

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The CYclocross Workout Of The Day for Tuesday, 11.20.12. “McTwist”

•November 19, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

Yep.

It’s Two by Twenty Tuesday!

If you don’t know what I mean by that, go check out the Classic 2×20 .

Heck, if you’re racing well into January or even February?

That’s your workout today.

Enjoy!

If you didn’t click that link, it probably means your season is rapidly drawing to a close.

Just got a couple/few weeks left?

Kinda starting to get that feeling?

You know the one where you find yourself thinking that it might just be nice to get this whole cyclocross thing put away in the closet until next year?

If that sounds like you, today you’re doing…

3×10 McTwists – 

This starts out pretty simply.

Warm up well, and then dive into the first interval as if you were doing a Classic 2×20.

Same everything, just half as long.

That’s going to be the meat of this workout; three 10 – minute intervals done at your 2×20 output level.

Here’s the McTwist part.

You’re going to do a 4-5 minute recovery between the ten minute intervals.

At the one minute and two minute marks during the recovery period, you’re going to get out of the saddle and sprint for ten seconds.

So, it goes like this…

Warm up

-1 ten-minute interval at 2×20 pace.

-spin for 1 minute.

sprint for ten seconds

-spin for 1 minute.

sprint for ten seconds

spin for 2-3 minutes.

-1 ten-minute interval at 2×20 pace.

-spin for 1 minute.

sprint for ten seconds

-spin for 1 minute.

sprint for ten seconds

spin for 2-3 minutes.

-1 ten-minute interval at 2×20 pace.

-spin for 1 minute.

sprint for ten seconds

-spin for 1 minute.

sprint for ten seconds

Spin out your legs, and you’re done.

Have fun!

M

 

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The Cyclocross Workout Of The Day for Monday, 11.18.12. “Monday. Blah.”

•November 18, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

It’s…

 

If you’re like me, you probably feel a bit like this…

…today.

So, hey… take it easy.

Go for a…

1 Hour 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.

Relax.

Have fun,

M

Posted in Cyclocross, The Workout Of The Day

The Workout Of The Day for Sunday, 11.18.12. “Ganger.Doppel.”

•November 17, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Howdy folks,

You’re racing today, so the workout is pretty self explanatory, right?

Go Race.

If you haven’t read it yet, you may want to check out the post on warming up I wrote a while back… people seem to like the suggested routines. Give ‘em a try, and let me know if they work for you…

https://crosssports.wordpress.com/2010/09/11/the-workout-of-the-day-for-sunday-9-12-too-damn-warm/

If you aren’t racing tomorrow… well, heck… why not?

Kidding.

No race, you should get some hard riding in today. Do something as much like a race as you can.

Maybe try out…

The Doppelganger –

– Warm up well. If you have time, warm up as you would for a race. It’s good practice, if nothing else.

– After you have warmed up, do five full-gas starts. As always, focus on the second effort in your start, working on getting back on the gas right after you max-out on your initial effort and begin to sit down.

– 20 minutes at your 2×20 pace.

– 2 minute rest.

– 10 minutes of Over/Under intervals

The baseline for this interval is the level of effort/output you just did in the 20 minute effort.

However hard you went in that interval, you are going to try and hold that for the 10 minutes.

Easy, right?

Here’s the rub.

You’re going to sprint for 10 seconds every minute of the interval.

How hard are you going to sprint?

Hard, but not so hard that after you sprint, you can’t sit back down and keep churning away at your 2×20 level.

This takes some practice to figure out.

Don’t get all freaked out if you blow it and can’t hold the effort until the end. You tried, right?

Having said that, don’t wuss out and quit. This is some difficult s***, man. You want to get faster, right?

OK.

Here’s how this works.

Use a stopwatch. Put it on your bars.

Start the stopwatch.

Start the interval with a sprint, out of the saddle pretty hard, but not full gas.

Sprint for 10 seconds.

Back in saddle, drop into your 2×20 zone. Hold this until the minute mark, then –

Sprint again. 10 seconds.

Back in saddle, 2×20 level until 2 minute mark…

Repeat.

Repeat…

Repeat, until you have hit the 10 minute mark.

– 5 minute recovery

– 10 minutes at 2×20 level

– 2 minute recovery

– 10 minute Over/Under Intervals

– SPRINT at the very end of the last interval. 30 seconds, all out.

Really all out, like “I’m sprinting for the Maillot Arc en ciel” all out. You should be at least half-blind at the end of the sprint.

Heck, you should be so gassed when you start the sprint that just upping the tempo a little bit puts you in a box.

You asked for a race simulation, right?

Ouch…

Notes –

Yes, this is f-ing hard. You asked for it…

DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU ARE SKIPPING A RACE TO RECOVER! DUH!

You can always just sub in a 2×20 (or better yet a 3×20…) when you can’t race. That’s a hard damn workout if you do it right, but certainly nothing like the nightmare I just handed to you…

Have fun!

M

Posted in Cyclocross, The Workout Of The Day

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