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Howdy folks,

Ouch.

Just made it into Vegas for Interbike, and I’m exhausted, so  this is going to be quick…

It’s Tuesday. That means it’s…

2×20 Tuesday!

 – Warm up.

– Go as hard as you can for 20 minutes.

– Recover for 2 minutes.

– Go again for another 20 minutes.

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 workout is great on the trainer, and that’s how I usually do ‘em… in fact, I think this workout is probably best when you do it on the trainer, unless you have a really peaceful stretch of rad you can use.

However you wind up doing these, have fun!

M

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Howdy folks,

Most of you are 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.

If you aren’t racing, 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.

Feels like you just raced, eh?

Ouch…

Notes –

Yes, this is f-ing hard.

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

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 The Doppelganger is…

Have fun!

M

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Howdy folks,

Yay! Saturday!

Gotta’ love the weekend, that means it’s…

Race Time!!

…and hey; if you’ve got a race today, that’s your workout. Go Race.

Pretty simple, right?

Racing on Sunday?

You’re doing…

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 at all this weekend?

Ride however you darn feel like it today, and check back later for a nice challenge for tomorrow!

G’night,

M

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Howdy folks,

Welcome to Friday, the gateway to your weekend.

That’s right, you’re Working for the Weekend today.

Ouch.

Seriously, though.

When you’re racing every weekend, it’s something you need to take literally.

What you do on Friday sets the stage for your whole weekend.

Personally, I have a bad habit of letting real-world to-do-list type stuff pile up all week, until suddenly it’s Friday, and I have a giant list of things that need to be done right now. 

…and then before I know it,  It’s 2 in the morning, and there’s no way I’m getting enough sleep to really be ready to race this weekend.

I’m already off the back in the race.

Sub-optimal.

Just something to think about, eh?

Anyways….

If you’re racing on Saturday this weekend, today you’re doing…

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, but racing on Sunday?

You’re doing a…

1-2 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.

1 notch above a recovery ride.

Have Fun!

M

 

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Howdy folks,

On Monday, I mentioned that you should make some notes about the racing this past weekend.

– What worked, what didn’t?

– Where did you feel strong, and where did you feel week?

– Did you run out of gas partway through the race?

– When?

So, a couple of days later, what do you think you need to work on?

What do you think you did well at the race, even if it’s one tiny little thing that you did a bit better than average?

I’ll give you a few seconds to think about these…

OK… got some answers?

Now, write those thoughts down.

You’re going to save that list, and for the next couple/few races, you’re going to add to it, modify it, and refer to it.

Here’s an example of what your list might look like:

Good –

Basic Cowboy dismount.

– Nailed it, perfect every time! made time on everybody getting off the bike.

OK –

Shouldering the bike

– Went OK, not as smooth as I need it to be.

Acceptable –

Basic remount

– bobbled a couple of times, but no real stutter step (yay!)

– Still not as fast as other folks in the race.

Bad –

Start

– Needs work, I’m losing ground on the fast guys in the first part of the race.

Totally sucked –

form over barriers

– Clipped a barrier and landed on my ass. ‘Nuff said…

See how that works?

Ok.

Go back and modify your list if you need to.

.

.

.

.

Now, for the Workout Of The Day.

It’s Wednesday;  that means it’s time for…

Cyclocross Skills Practice.

Warm up well.

Stretch, loosen up, get your game face on.

Look at your list.

Start going down the list, from worst to best.

You’re going to practice everything on that list.

Spend the most time on the things you are the worst at, and next to no time on the stuff you’ve got wired.

Stay at it long enough to make some progress, but not so long you get totally frustrated.

You should have your work cut out for you!

It will look something like this:

Warm up, 10-15 minutes.

Skill #1 – 15 minutes.

Skill #2 – 10 minutes

Skill #3 – 5 minutes

Skill #4 – 5 minutes

If you really need to work on something like Starts, don’t just blast starts out full gas for 15 minutes.

Be smart about this, folks.

The more technical the skill, the more you can work on it. Something like the start is equal parts learning the skill, learning to pump the intensity, and developing your speed and strength.

Learn the skills, then work the engine.

If you stomp on the gas first thing in the night, you’ll be flat and clumsy the rest of the night.
The harder the effort, the later you schedule it in the session, make sense?

Along those lines, Finish up the night with a simulated race session.

Try to use a course that will emphasize the skills you stunk at in the race.

Try to link “bad” skills sections together, and really work on relaxing on the parts that are tough for you.

Don’t forget to have fun, and force yourself to smile the most when you’re screwing up the worst.

Spin out your legs, go home and relax.

– If you didn’t race, you can do the same thing – it’s just not quite as easy.

Make the same list – as best you can – and have at it.

Have fun!

M

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Howdy folks,

It’s Tuesday, and you know what that means, right? It’s…

2×20 Tuesday!

 – Warm up.

– Go as hard as you can for 20 minutes.

– Recover for 2 minutes.

– Go again for another 20 minutes.

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 workout is great on the trainer, and that’s how I usually 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! 🙂

Looking for something a little different to do today?

Feeling like maybe you were missing a little bit of oomph in the race this past weekend?

Well, today have a go at the…

Semi-Classic 

What the heck is that?

In short, you’re going to do 1/2 of the Classic 2×20 – a 1×20 – followed by 10 and then 5 minute 0ver-unders.

Huh?

Here’s how this goes:

– warm up. You don’t need to go crazy warming up, just spin around long enough that you know your legs are ready to go.

– Start by doing one twenty minute interval at your 2×20 pace. Check out the link above if you need to refresh your memory on this.

– Recover for 2-5 minutes.

– Do one 10 minute over/under interval.

– Recover for 2-5 minutes.

– Do one 5 minute over/under interval.

– Spin out your legs, go home, stretch, eat, and etc.

So, what the heck is an over/under interval?

– “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 20 minute interval we just did. Whatever wattage, heart rate, or gear ratio you used for that interval will serve as your threshold baseline.

Get a solid idea of the wattage, heart rate, or tempo you ride the 20 minute interval in, and keep it firmly 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 20 minute baseline effort, spin easy for 2 -5 minutes.

When you are ready, begin the 10 minute Over/under thusly:

– Ride for one minute at your baseline/20 minute intensity 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.

Got it? 1 minute baseline, 10 up, 20 down, 10 up, 20 down. Repeat the up/down efforts to the end of the interval.

– Rest 2-5 minutes.

– Do it again for 5 minutes.

Have Fun!

M

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Howdy folks,

How did the racing go for you this weekend?

Think about it for a bit, and then write down some notes.

Make a list…

What worked, what didn’t.

Where you felt strong, and where you felt week.

Did you run out of gas partway through the race?

When?

Training is good, but training to a plan is better.

You start this planning by analyzing what is and isn’t working for you, and then working to get your weaknesses to the point where they aren’t a total liability, and your strengths to the point where they’re game changers.

So write some of this stuff down.

Then think about it a bit.

Then ask me some questions.

OK?

So, anyways… about today?

Today you’re going for a…

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.

Have fun,

M

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