Well, I hope your weekend of racing went better than mine! Suggestions on my Facebook page that it might be necessary to hire a Voodoo practitioner pretty much sum up my season to date quite well!
But hey… enough about me! Hopefully, your weekend of racing looked more like this…
…and right about now you should be plum tuckered out, and ready 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.
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.
My apologies, but no Workout of The day today (unless things improve a bit in the morning….)
I crashed pretty hard racing Saturday night, and now have two (essentially…) useless hands, which has taken my already impaired typing ability to a new low.
I’m hoping that the miracle of modern painkillers will allow me to bounce back in short order, so stay tuned.
Saturday! TIme to race, and boy, we’re in the thick of it! Lots of racing this weekend, including the Superprestige at Ruddervoorde, and the Providence Cyclocross festival, which you can watch live here.
What we’re interested in is you, though, and what you’re doing today… and you know what? I’m hoping that you too are going to…
Go Race!
Yup.
That’s your workout today.
Not racing today? Search back through some of the workouts in the archives and find something that looks like fun and have at it!
…unless you’re racing tomorrow, in which case you should do some Can Openers.
SO, ok… you’re racing today. Panic stricken, you can’t figure out what the heck to do as a warm up for the race.
Gotcha’ covered.
Hop on your trainer, and have yourself a go at…
TheRSWO – TheRock Stupid Warmup & 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 minute effort at or just below your 2×20 output level.
Repeat The entire sequence (Usually minus a 2nd 5 minute effort.)
First of all, thanks for all the interest in theNew Facebook Page! Much appreciated, and nice to make your acquaintance. Welcome!
That out of the way, hey… it’s Wednesday.
You know what? That means its…
Skills Day!
1 – warm up for 10 minutes.
2 – Stretch out after you’re warm.
Pay special attention to all the muscles used in those movements you make hopping on and off the bike that are different from what you usually do (We’ve talked about stretching on here in the past, check out the search function if you want/need some more info.)
3 – Dismount/remount skills for 5-10-15 minutes (depends how rusty/crappy you are. Do more of these, less of everything else if you need to.)
– Start at literally a walking pace, and slowly increase speed until you can mount and dismount the bike smoothly and perfectly at full speed. Do not jump on and off the bike, you are looking to smoothly slide yourself on and off.
Do just the most basic dismount/remount as per above until you have it down cold, smooth as silk.
When you’re perfect (hah!) throw some barriers into the mix.
– Again, start at a super, super slow speed.
– Approach the barrier, dismount smooth as silk.
– Step over the barrier, paying attention to how you lift the bike, and how you place your feet.
– Remount. Smoooooth….
– Start with a single barrier, move to a double, and keep going slow until you have things wired. Then, speed things up until you aren’t smooth, back it down 1 notch, and make keep it there.
Smooooooth.
(If you don’t have barriers, anything will do. Use a log, put a stick on the ground – whatever.)
4 – Figure eight drill.
Set up 2 cones or 2 rocks or two – somethings, whatever – on the side of a slightly sloping hill. One up hill, one down, about 5-8 meters apart.
Ride in a figure eight pattern around the cones…
– first pedaling the entire time.
No coasting.
Pedal the corners & the downhill.
Practice using the brakes while still pedaling. This is one of those secret techniques that – once you figure it out – makes a huge difference. When you stop pedaling you lose traction, so don’t stop. You can break and pedal at the same time, sometimes.
Experiment with this, it’s a game-changer.
– Mind blown? Cool. Now you go around those corners – uphill and downhill with the inside foot out.
Having trouble making the turn at the top of the figure 8? Put your foot down and push off with it to make the turn.
Don’t be afraid to use the foot that’s unclipped to push off or “paddle” around a turn.
This can be another game changer, so work on it, eh?
– Alternate both of these styles around the figure-eight.
Experiment.
Try different speeds, different lines, different angles.
See when/how/why each style works, and figure out how they can work for you.
6 – Recover for a few minutes, then Finish the night with two interval efforts on relatively easy terrain, but make sure to include the figure – 8 in it.
– “Easy” as in a loop on grass with some tight-ish turns on it, or some pretty buffed double-track.
– Go hard, and work on accelerations, and your exits from turns & technical features.
Every time you slow down entering a turn, get on the gas on the way out of it, ass out of the saddle, working hard.
– 6-8 minutes full gas, rest for 2 minutes, then go again.
– Start each effort with, well… with a start. Like you’re in a race.
Spin down for a few minutes, then head home and finish up your day.
Well, I did it. I broke down and set up a Facebook page for the blog, ’cause in this new-fangled social media landscape that makes a certain type of sense.
…and ’cause I got laid off and had some time on my hands.
So, hey – check it out. Say “Hi”, post – up your questions, comments, criticisms, witticisms, cat pictures, what-have you… let’s get interactive-ical.
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..."
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