Sweet. Your job is to turn every race into a sprint.
Good sustained power?
OK. Get to the front. Drive the pace. Grind everybody else down.
Good recovery?
Nice. Attack. Make everybody respond to you. You’ll be able to recover, I’m betting the rest won’t be able to.
– What advantages do your competition have over you? How can you race to minimize them?
Just the opposite of the above, maybe?
Terrible sprint?
You got it. Make sure it never comes down to a sprint
Bad sustained power?
Get up front and slow things down.
Have trouble with your recovery?
OK. Keep the pace high enough that no one can attack, but low enough that you don’t overcook it and go over your redline.
Getting the picture?
– Will you need to change bikes? Can you gain an advantage while pitting when you don’t – strictly speaking – need to?
Always scope out the pit area. Know where it is, and figure out the best lines in and out if it’s at all tricky.
Over the years, I’ve been in several races where it was faster to go through the pit and change bikes than it was to ride (or run!) the adjacent “normal” part of the course.
Look for opportunities like this.
The pit area is just one of them. Look for that hidden line that no one is using, but will enable you to attack around the group when the timing is right.
Keep it in your back pocket, and use it when it will give you an advantage.
That’s just one example.
What you are trying to avoid is always being in reactive mode at the races.
You know what that looks like, right?
– Lining up for the start with absolutely no idea what’s going to happen.
– Spending the whole race looking at what everyone else is doing, and everything you do is triggered by someone else’s actions.
Passive.
Reactive not proactive.
Does that sound like you?
Take a look around at the race today, and I bet you’ll see that this describes almost everyone on the course.
Well, another weekend of racing is almost upon us, and phew… it’s gonna’ be a double locally, and in many places around the US.
Double weekends are pretty tough, and when you’ve got one, you really need to make sure you dot all the “I’s” and cross all the “T’s” in your preparation. Make sure you rest well, drink lots of fluids, and don’t overdo it in your workouts the week before or the week after.
So, OK… don’t overdo it.
What about the day before the race? How hard do you need to ride to make sure you’re opened up and ready to go?
The very short answer is, it depends.
Some folks can come blasting out of the gate with very little priming of the pump the day before.
Others need to ride pretty darn hard the day before in order to get a good performance on the books on race day.
So, how do yo know which category you belong in?
Short answer is, you need to experiment.
If you’re finding that you consistently perform better on the second day of a 2-race weekend, that’s a sign that you should be riding harder the week before the races. Start with a slight uptick in the intensity of your openers, and see if that makes a difference.
Performing way better the first day of the double?
Might need to back things off a bit, or your general fitness needs some work… hard to say.
Experiment.
So, here’s a couple of different options for your Friday Openers this weekend.
We’ll start with the old standby…
Can Openers –
– 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.
That’s an old standby for a reason; it works pretty darn well for most folks.
But not everybody.
I’ve been having some of my training clients do something different lately, and yup – it’s been up here a couple/few time over the last several weeks.
This has proven to be a pretty good opening routine for folks who need to back down just a little bit on the intensity to avoid the burn out or second day let-down.
It’s…
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.
So, hey… options.
Options are good, right?
Play around with these and see what works for you.
Drop us a line on the Facebook page and let us know what’s what, always interested in the feedback!
looking back, we’ve done another long, hard block of training, and I have absolutely no doubt that some of ya’all are starting to get just a little bit cooked…
So, hey… time to start thinking about your rest and recovery a bit more, and maybe time for a little bit of a break for some of you, especially if you’re planning to ride on through into January or even February.
We will talk more about this in the next couple/few days, OK?
For today, though?
Lots of double race weekends coming up, so nothing super hard today.
in fact, we’re going to make this a relatively easy day, and send you out on 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.
Right off the bat, my apologies for getting this up so late… sometimes life interferes, eh?
I do my best to get these up early enough for people to read them in the morning, US East-Coast time, but a couple of times a season I just can’t get it done for one reason or another… and I had good reason today, trust me 🙂
Anywho, onwards we go.
It’s Wednesday, and that means that it’s…
Skills Day
First, get yourself two turntables and a microphone.
Wait, no… check that…
What we’re doing today is a slight modification of last weeks workout.
Last week, we worked on your worst skill and your best skill.
Today we’re going to work on you worst skill and your best skill from your last race.
Whatever you were great at this past weekend, and whatever you were worst at this past weekend.
What if you were great at everything or, conversely, terrible at everything in your last race?
A – I don’t believe you.
B – Be honest with yourself. There was something in that last race you need to get better at, and something that you can work to maximize as a key weapon in your arsenal, right?
OK, here we go…
– warm up for 10 minutes on the bike, then run for 5-10 minutes easy.
– Stretch out.
– 10-15 minutes drilling your best skill from your last race, whatever that is.*
You’re looking to transform a skill that you’re good at to one that’s an absolute killer, a race winner.
Good at barriers?
Stop being good, make ‘em perfect.
Become so darn good that the opposition can’t ever let you come into a barrier section first.
Good at starts?
Get great at starts.
Work it ’till you know that you’re coming off the line with a 5 bike-length lead in your next race.
You get the idea, right?
Whatever skill you choose, sharpen the heck out of it until it’s an even better weapon than it already was.
– spin for 5 minutes.
– 10-15 minutes drilling your worst technical skill from the last race, whatever that is.*
You’re looking to transform a skill that’s a liability to one that – if not a strength – is at least no longer a weakness.
Stink at barriers?
Stop that. Figure ‘em out.
Become good enough that the opposition can’t ever assume they’re going to drop you going over the planks.
Terrible at starts?
Not anymore, ok?
Work it ’till you know that you’re coming off the line right next to that guy that’s been dropping you all season.
You get the idea, right?
Whatever skill you choose, figure it the heck out. No more avoiding the painful reality of a liability.
– spin for 5 minutes.
– immediately, spend another 5 minutes drilling your best skill again. Really nail it.
– Recover for a few minutes, then Finish the night with two 5- 10 minute race-level interval efforts on relatively easy terrain.
Include a feature that will force you to use both of the skills you worked on tonight.
Spin out when you’re done, and call it a night.
Have fun,
M
* Lots of info on here on ways to hone your skills, with specific drills & suggestions for the various skill elements. Best way to find ‘em is to type “Wednesday” into the search box below the Facebook plugin on the right side of the page, and read through the posts that come up. Feel free to drop me a line if you can’t find a workout for the skill you want to work on…
If you’ve been following along, I promised (threatened?) this workout for today, and here it is, it’s…
OK, wait.
How about some cool racing footage first –
Good?
Good.
On with the regularly scheduled…
3×10 Over-Unders.
Up-front, a word to the wise: If you do this right, it’s going to hurt.
– 3×10 means you are going to do 3 of these, 10 minutes each.
– “Over-under” means that you are going to be working right around the level of your threshold, both above and below.
What is your threshold?
Well, for our purposes, we are going to reference the 2×20 workout we do all the darn time. Whatever wattage, heart rate, or gear ratio you do that workout at is going to serve as your threshold today.
Haven’t done that workout?
OK.
Your threshold will be whatever level you feel like you can hold for an effort of 20 minutes.
Don’t worry about it too much; you’re going to figure it out.
Start by warming up well.
Now that you have an idea of what level you’re going to use as a baseline, you’re going to ride at that level for 5 minutes.
Get a solid idea of the wattage, heart rate, or tempo you are riding at, and get it firmy stuck in your mind. This is important; you are going to bounce above and below this level for the rest of the workout.
After the 5 minute baseline effort, spin easy for 2 minutes. Then begin the first interval…
– Here’s how the first (and second, and third…) over-under interval will work:
Ride for one minute at your baseline level.
At the end of that minute, ride 10 seconds at 25 watts, 10 beats, or 1 gear higher than the baseline level.
After the 10 seconds, ride 20 seconds at 25 watts, 10 beats, or 1 gear lower than the baseline.
After the 20 seconds, you go back to the ten (over,) followed again by the 20 (under,) etc., etc.
Repeat the up/down efforts to the end of the interval.
Rest 5 minutes.
Repeat the first interval.
Rest 5 minutes.
Repeat again (or not…)
Spin around to recover, then go home, relax, and recover.
Notes:
– The ”over” and “under” of the intervals I have given above is approximate. You are looking to go as hard as you can for the “over” while still recovering enough with the “under” to complete the interval. Keep the “under” barely under, though. Don’t go easier on the under to allow yourself a harder “over.” Do these a few times and you’ll get the hang of it – I promise.
– The idea here is to get you better at attacking and responding to attacks in a cross race. You’re motoring along at your limit, all of a sudden someone attacks; what do you do? You follow the darn attack, and look to recover a bit when the tempo drops a smidge. Thanks to your Over/Under work, you can!
What a weekend! That was probably the best set of performances by US riders at a World Cup ever, and here on this side of the pond, people were riding hard & fast as well.
Special congratulations to CrossSports athletes Zach, Natalie & Jeff… great riding, ya’all!
ANYways, after a weekend like that, it’s time to kick back, relax, and spin the legs out a bit. Personally, I’m going to be planted on the trainer tomorrow watching this…
…while I do my…
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.
Relax, if you can. If not, head off to work, school, or whatever the daily drag is for you.
I have had a couple of requests to talk about how the he** to warm up for a race, so here you go…
First of all, don’t overdo it.
I see way, way too many people spending a ridiculous amount of time on their trainers before the race, and frankly, I think a huge number of racers leave their best effort of the day back in the tent on the Gerbil Wheel before the race.
Don’t let this be you.
If you feel like you need to spend more than an hour warming up for your race, frankly you’re doing something wrong.
There’s been a fair bit written about warming up for cycling events, and if you spend any time at all reading through some of the stuff that’s out there, you will no doubt find that the only commonality is that most everyone disagrees.
Until you start reading some of the science, and some of the warm-up protocols suggested by those who have also read the science.
During endurance events of intermediate duration (4-5 min), performance is enhanced by warm-up irrespective of warm-up intensity
Note this interesting bit in the results –
There were no differences in anaerobic power output during the trials, but aerobic power output during the first 1000 m was larger during both EWU (203 W) and HWU (208 W) versus NWU (163 W) trials.
I pretty much never warm up for road races, unless I Know the first few K are going to be pedal to the metal. When people ask how I can get away with this (and they do!) I always respond with “that’s what the first lap/loop/5k is for…”
You can’t get away with this in Cyclocross.
You need to hit that first K, hell that first hundred meters at 100%, with all guns blazing.
Warming up definitely improves your aerobic power output over the first K of a race.
End of story. You need to warm up for Cyclocross.
How much do you need to warm up?
Well, here’s where we get into interesting territory.
The study I linked to above basically showed no difference between the results of warm ups conducted at different levels of intensity and duration. The key was simply to warm up, get the legs turning over.
However you do it, warming up helps.
Nice.
Remember this the next time all hell breaks loose and you can barely get in any kind of a workout before your race. Even a little bit of a warm up helps.
OK, it’s just a study. Heck, it’s just one study.
Frankly, for Cyclocross, I think you need to warm up pretty hard, if for no other reason than that you don’t want the shock of that F-ing start effort to hit your body (and mind!) like a ton of bricks.
What you don’t need to do is warm up for a long time.
After a certain point, all a long warmup does is get you tired. And that ain’t good…
tired?
OK, so what should your warm up look like?
Something like this…
Get on your bike.
Ride at a super easy level for 5 minutes. No pressure on pedals, recovery day light.
5 minutes more at just one notch higher.
2-3 minutes at right around your 20 minute output level.
then
2-3 minutes at one notch/gear easier
30 second race pace effort.
recover for 2 minutes easy…
30 second race pace effort.
recover for 2 minutes…
2 full-gas start efforts, 2 minutes between them.
Spin for 5 minutes.
Go race.
Ok.
That’s kinda’ the “In a perfect world” warm up.
In reality, you need to figure in course preview, getting all your stuff schlepped to where it needs to be, registration, yada, yada…
Ideally, your race day would look like this:
Wake up.
Eat breakfast.
Ride for an hour.
Snack, take a nap.
Eat lunch (3 hours before race.)
Course preview
(while mechanic preps bikes, team staff handles everything else.)
Snack, electrolyte drink, change into race clothing.
Warm up.
Race.
Yeah, right.
Oh well, we try.
Get as close to that as you can, and remember – the science shows that any warm up is better than none!
I’ve managed to do really well in races where the only warm up I got was a 1 or 2 lap preview of the course.
If you are forced to choose, always pre-ride rather than warm up.
You get a less than perfect course preview, and a less than perfect warm up, but part of each is better than none of one!
Ok, after all that, are you ready for the reality-based warm up?
Quite frankly, this is what I wind up doing most of the time, and almost always if I wind up stuck on the Gerbil Machine. It’s the –
R.S.W.O. – The Rock Stupid Warm-up and Opener –
First, get everything you need to do before the race done. Sign up, course preview, etc., etc. More questions you probably didn’t even have on the topic of race day routine answered here –
– Ride 30 seconds in this gear, then shift up one cog.
– Ride 30 seconds in this gear, then shift up one cog.
– Repeat until you hit the hardest gear you’ve got, or can handle.
– Ride 30 seconds in that gear, and then shift all the way back down to the Big/big combo.
– Ride 30 seconds in that gear, then immediately shift to hardest gear you can handle.
– Full gas sprint, out of the saddle, for 30 seconds.
Back to big/big combo.
– Spin for two minutes.
Repeat The entire sequence (Usually minus the 2nd “20 minute level” effort.)
Phew.
Enough of that, eh?
Have fun,
M
* If you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about when I say “20 minute level”, check this out…
** The Warm Up routines I describe here are actually pretty hard, and believe it or not, are likely to be too damn hard and too long for non-elite racers. You will need to experiment and figure out what works for you. Don’t be afraid to cut the warm up short, or go easier. You don’t get a prize for winning the damn warm up…
Another weekend is upon us, and for most of us, that means – yup – more racing.
Sweet.
As I write this, it’s dumping rain in my neck of the woods, and it looks like we’re going to have some soggy conditions this week.
Stormy weather…
Nice.
Real cross weather, and the opportunity to finish up the embrocation review I’ve been working on (Wait… did I imply I’m looking forward to the rains of winter? Geezus, I’m going to regret that!)
Anyways, it’s going to be pretty darn crappy out there this weekend, and that usually means that folks will be taking to their trainers for their pre-race warm-ups, and even for their day before opener sessions.
Good time for us to take a look at…
TheRSWO – TheRock Stupid Warm up & Opener:
– Get on trainer. Spin for about 5 minutes.
– Shift into big ring/largest cog combination.
– Ride 30 seconds in this gear, then shift up one cog.
– Ride 30 seconds in this gear, then shift up one cog.
– Repeat until you hit the hardest gear you’ve got, or can handle.
– Ride 30 seconds in that gear, and then shift all the way back down to the Big/big combo.
– Ride 30 seconds in that gear, then immediately shift to hardest gear you can handle.
– Full gas sprint, out of the saddle, for 30 seconds.
Back to big/big combo.
– Spin for two minutes.
– 5-10 minute effort at your 2×20 output level (5 minutes or less as a warm up, 10 minutes as an opener.)
Repeat the entire sequence (Usually minus a 2nd 5-10 minute effort.)
Give yourselves a round of applause. You made it to the end of another week, and the Saturday and Sunday races are almost here!
Nice.
So, remember… what you do today sets the table for your weekend of racing.
Try your darndest to play it smart on your Fridays.
Get to sleep early (Hah! I’m terrible at this!) eat well, drink a metric s**t ton of water…
…stuff like that.
…and, of course, if you’re racing on Saturday, get in a nice healthy set of…
Can Openers –
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 legs, go home and rest. Get ready to race tomorrow.
Not racing tomorrow?
Phew. Nice.
It’s been a hard week, you could probably use a break today.
So, hey… today?
Today go for a…
1-2 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.
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/
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