It’s looking like Melas is going to be a muddy and possibly snowy affair. So first off our thoughts go out to the Northbrook Garner Bicycle Club and Flatlandia Cycling Team for as painless a course set-up process as possible. When you see these people on Sunday give them a big thanks cause as much as you might not like racing in foul weather, promoting a race in it is about 100x worse.
Categories: Coach's Corner
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Remember online Pre-Reg on BikeReg for BOTH DAYS of this weekend’s races closes TONIGHT. You must register separately for BOTH DAYS.
Mojo is a funny thing. It is, as defined by who the heck knows via the internet, “a magic charm, talisman, or spell”. It’s an ethereal entity that resides within your body and mind. At this point in the season some are not feeling it, or about to lose it, and that is a direct result of a flawed training and racing program.
So get up off the couch, stop feeling sorry for yourself and……get back on the couch. Signs of overtraining include irritability, listlessness, a lack of interest in riding your bike, muscle soreness, muscle fatigue, insomnia and loss of concentration. It also increases the risk of sickness and injury. At the least you’ll not have as much fun doing what you love, and at the worst you’ll bail on it completely.
Photo Courtesy of Corey Brink
A more exacting method of identification is to keep track of your Delta Heart Rate. Take your Resting Heart Rate just after you open your eyes while still laying in bed in the morning. Get up, walk around and do your thing for a minute or so and then take your heart rate again (Standing Heart Rate). The difference between the two is the Delta. Less than 10 is excellent, 10-20 is pretty good, 20+ is a sign that you need a day or two off and 30+ is cause for real concern. We work with a professional marathon mountain bike racer who came to us with a Delta Heart Rate of about 35. It took 3 weeks to bring it down to a reasonable level prior to his being able to begin training for the next season.
If you’re seeing signs of any of the above and haven’t layered recovery into your program don’t panic because it’s a very easy fix. Take a recovery week, forget about cycling for a few days and allow yourself to re-charge:
Monday – off
Tuesday – off
Wednesday – easy 1-1.5 hour ride
Thursday – easy 1-1.5 hour ride
Friday – off
Saturday – easy 1-1.5 hour ride
Sunday – race or 1.5 hour ride with 30 minutes of tempo (zone 3 HR/pwr)
I’m not gonna lie, Sunday is going to feel like a punch to the gut if you decide to race at the end of a recovery week. There is a physiological cost to a sedentary week. It is as necessary as training hard though so take the leap and it will pay off during the last few races of this season.
Big thanks to the South Chicago Wheelmen! Two races in a weekend is more than one club should subject themselves to. See you at Indian Lakes.
Rob Kelley
Categories: Coach's Corner
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Cyclocross racing is made to take you to your limit. You have a power profile (Peak Power at different durations) and it’s important that you take inventory and identify the different efforts that you have in your arsenal.
The start is like a sprint. The entire first lap is a VO2max nightmare. The middle of the race is normally more on the FTP side of things with wicked little ebb and flow situations necessary to either drop or stay with others. The last lap is usually an FTP normalized power/VO2max feeling death march with a possible sprint at the end. Take inventory, know what you have to work with and develop every aspect:
.02 (12 seconds, explosive power): This is your start and finish. Starts are pretty straight forward. The finish is more intricate so know what distance suits you best – usually 150-300 meters. When you get to a race course make note of a stationary object that is your sweet spot distance away from the finish line and key in on it as a place to launch yourself into the final sprint. This type of effort will also get you over short hills and, if necessary, short gaps.
1 minute, lactate clearance: Jam up short hills, close small gaps or go into “cling-on” mode when things really get tough. If you’re feeling awesome then go ahead and let it fly from a kilometer out from the finish.
6 minutes, velocity at VO2MAX: Work this duration out and it goes a long way. The first lap of a race is often as much about who can suffer as it is about who is the strongest. Peg it as long as it takes and things will calm down at some point long enough for you to recover and settle into a group.
12 minute: See CP6, but with twice as much misery and pain! Also consider this as a way to help make an attack stick in the last couple of laps.
CP30 (30 minutes, lactate super threshold): The field is made up of those that have this type of muscular endurance and those that don’t. It is a more useful number in road racing should you find yourself off the front, but still an important one to build for cyclocross as it represents the sustained power that will get you to the end with a little something left.
Use your tools to build a good result. Get a great start, bridge up to the group just ahead, attack at THE critical point of a race, maintain good position……these are all necessary evils in the pursuit of happiness (winning will make you a happier person). Don’t do anything unless it is a direct benefit to you or a teammate. Pulling at the front of a long headwind section with no help from anyone else in your group is like running sideways at a marathon. Have a plan, know what you have going for you and use it to win!
Rob Kelley
Categories: Coach's Corner
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Cyclocross is unique in its’ physical demands. It’s all-out, shut down completely for some twisty turns and then on again at full tilt. The very fast and fun course at Randall Oaks (thanks Main Street Bicycles and crew) was a good example of this.
Chicago Cyclocross Cup (c) Liz Farina Markel/Tipping Point Photography
Recover when you can’t pedal……It seems pretty obvious but takes some discipline when you’re so fried that you can’t even spit correctly. Break the course down in your mind during your warm up laps and remind yourself to back off when the course necessitates during the race. Use those precious moments to breath and collect your thoughts.
Cyclocross takes longer to learn than most endurance sports. There are so many little things to remember and execute and all while you’re almost completely out of your mind. So as with anything that we do – barriers, start, turns, etc. – you’re wise to work on this aspect as well. These are tough! So do them on a day that makes sense to have hard intervals:
Warm up for at least 20 minutes in zones 1-2 heart rate/power
Do as one continuous effort: 10 seconds race pace (120% or more of your FTP power/race pace), then right into a technical section of turns that take 10 seconds to complete x 9 efforts back to back = 1 interval . So each interval is 3 minutes in length (20 seconds x 9).
2 minutes of recovery between intervals.
X3 intervals = 1 set.
Take 5 minutes off between sets.
Warm down with at least a 20 minute spin in zones 1-2 heart rate/power
Two or three sets for a 4/5, four or five sets for a cat 3 and six or seven sets for the 1/2/3 bunch is a good hard day on the bike.
As with pyramid intervals the recovery is as much a focus as the power. Train your mind and body to relax in the technical section. As with most learned skill repetition is your friend. It will become a natural thing to do on race day and that is going to provide you with more power where it’s most beneficial.
Rob Kelley
Categories: Coach's Corner
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One of the Best Descents….Ever
It’s October. If you’re somewhere south this means you’re just getting a jump on next year’s road season. If you reside close to the best amateur CX series in the country , it means you’re getting ready to pull out the winter gloves and buy some thermal insulated boots. Maybe you’re searching for a great coach to help maximize your potential during the next race season. Hopefully you’re not hanging up the spandex for too long while implementing daily donuts into your diet.
Whatever you’re doing you should also be racing cyclocross. Yeah. Cyclocross. That sloppy, wet racing with the funky bikes that look like glorious road bikes but aren’t really glorious road bikes. That weird, chaotic sport where you might have to actually run with your bike (gasp!) or grow a beard. “Why?” You ask. Why should you race cyclocross?
We’re not talking about version 2006 of Paolo Bettini. That guy won the world championship and deserves to do whatever he wants. We’re not talking about the 2007 Paolo Bettini here, either. That guy won the world championship for the second straight time and deserves to do whatever he wants twice-over with a side of full-fat whipped cream.
What we are talking about is the 2008 Paolo Bettini. The man who, having twice won the world championships, appeared to eat all the donuts. And the whipped cream. We’re talking about the one who ate all the cheeseburgers and then retired. That Paolo Bettini went from being at the top of his game to being un-competitive pretty quick. Sure, he had some injuries. On the other hand, once he decided he would retire, he sure didn’t seem very motivated.
Motivation is a tricky thing. Nobody is saying you have to race cyclocross with the same discipline, gusto, or intensity that you attack road season. On the other hand, a couple of Sunday CX races a month very well may keep you intrigued enough to avoid eating all the cheeseburgers. Some CX racing worked into your off-season program can keep the bottom from completely falling out from under you.
Categories: Coach's Corner
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Bunny hopping is a huge skill to possess in any cycling sport. This is obvious when it comes to BMX, cyclocross and mountain bike racing. Road racing not so much, but it can save your @$$ when things go haywire. It is a learned skill involving a few important steps with a bit of body English mixed in. Not everyone will be able to perfect their technique to the point of being able to sky over the barriers. We can all learn to hop over roots, rocks, curbs and small barriers (Indian Lakes, Campton CX and Dan Ryan Woods) to save the tubulars and maintain momentum.
Take it in a few steps, and best to practice on a nice soft grass surface:
This is a tough thing to describe and so here is a good video as well:
It’s more of a teeter-totter action, as if you have an invisible fulcrum beneath your bottom bracket. Be careful on the landing to not come down with too much weight on either wheel so that you don’t damage the rim or tire. It takes a bit of finesse which can only be gained through repetition.
Practice the two main steps one at a time. The coil and subsequent unleashing by popping your upper body up to get the front wheel up is one step. The second is un-weighting the back wheel. If you can do those two steps, and neither is very difficult, you have it in you to catch some air sans-lip. Work on each individually, over and over again.
Once each is comfortable put the two steps together. Jump a small stick at first and slowly move up as you become more proficient. The best set up we’ve come up with at TBC is a garden stick as you’d use to prop up wilted plants and two of the plastic course marking stakes that we use on our CCC courses. You can buy these at pretty much any hardware store. Position two marking stakes with the tabs on the side farthest from you. Place the garden stick on the tabs at the appropriate height. If you hit the stick it will harmlessly fall to the ground and you can keep upping the ante tab by tab. It’s a very safe set up that still adds some pressure to your situation.
Good luck, take it slowly and safely and have fun out there!
Rob Kelley
Director of Coaching
Categories: Coach's Corner
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Dan Ryan Woods is right around the corner and with it come some hills. Throw in CamptonCX, Melas, etc and even here in the flat midwest they’re worth some preparation. They might not be too bad on the first go around, but by your last couple of laps they’re gonna hurt! They aren’t very long or incredibly steep. But when you add in the cost of going all out to the base of each hill they become more substantial and will have an effect on the outcome of your race.
As with sprinting on the road you’re wise to simulate the total cost of the effort during your training, and not just the relatively short trip from bottom to top. The training can be done on the road or off road. They are tough, so consider this one of your hard days on the bike.
Warm up for at least 20 minutes in zones 1-2 heart rate/power
This is one interval, and do as one continuous effort: From a standing start ride at 100% effort for 200 meters, just as you would for a race start. Then settle into CP30/ftp HR (this is your best 30 minute power or ftp heart rate) and hold it for 3 minutes to the base of a 200 meter hill (longer if you have access). 100% effort up to the top of the climb.
3 minutes recovery between intervals.
X3 intervals = 1 set.
Take at least 8 minutes off between sets.
Warm down with at least a 20 minute spin in zones 1-2 heart rate/power
Do 1 or 2 sets if you are doing the category 4/5 races, 2 or 3 sets if you’re doing the cat 3 races, and 3 sets for the 1/2/3 bunch.
Peter Kelley
Categories: Coach's Corner
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Cyclocross is upon us! The ChiCrossCup is a demanding series. Save 1 break over Thanksgiving (not including week #2), you’re on it every week. Most of us know how to get on a bike and ride hard. The key though is in retaining mental and physical strength throughout the entire season.
Back in the day we all pretty much over-trained on a regular basis. You just came to grips with the fact that the end of the year was a fairly horrible slog of races. Now we know better, and the goal is not to make it through but rather excel in the last few races of the season.
Doing tough, anaerobic intervals takes discipline and recovery is the same. When your buddy asks you to do an awesome bandit race on the wrong day for your schedule it’s important that you say no and stick with your overall plan. Since we almost always race on Sunday a typical “on” week should look like this:
Monday – off
Tuesday – strength training with a 30 minute recovery spin afterward, or just a 1 to 1.5 hour recovery ride
Wednesday – skills ride with 30 minutes of tempo
Thursday – hard ride. Bandit race, anaerobic intervals, Vo2max intervals or lactate threshold intervals are a good idea. You want to finish feeling not as spent as after a race, but close.
Friday – off
Saturday – opener ride. 1 hour 15 minutes long with 2 intervals 30 seconds in length at max effort, a couple of starts and 3 to 5 minutes of ftp pace followed by a good warm down (at least 15 minute’s worth).
Sunday – race
It’s OK to flip the Wednesday and Thursday rides around if a hard day on Wednesday works better for you. The main thing is to not have too many tough days. The above schedule represents 2 very hard days per week if you include race day and that’s about all a person can handle without eventually hindering their performance. More on month to month recovery later…..
See you Sunday.
Rob Kelley
Director of Coaching
Categories: Coach's Corner
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The end of the Cross Cup is almost upon us. It’s a sort of sad/relief combination of feelings; sad because this stuff is too darned fun and a relief because we don’t have to think about being ready for battle every week. The one very clear component though is the fact you’ll need to take a break after your season ends.
We call this the “transition period”. It generally lasts from 2 to 4 weeks depending on the extent of in-season training and racing. People that I work with who race bikes for a living are instructed to stay off the bike until they start longingly look at it again. As counter-intuitive as it may sound, you need to give up a good portion of the fitness and form that you’ve worked so hard to achieve. Those who try to remain fit all year will not be as ready as they can be when it counts. Even worse, they are likely to experience physical and/or psychological burn out at some point.
As a coach I expect to have to reel in the new athletes that we work with. It’s rare that someone needs a kick in pants. Endurance athletes are so used to over-training that the first few recovery or transition weeks will completely freak them out! “Trust me, this works” is a common part of conversations related to this topic.
The transition period of your Annual Training Program is defined by a complete lack of structure. If you feel like taking a hike, riding, going for a ski….whatever, just get up and do it. Don’t look at power or heart rate. This is also a great time to eat whatever the heck you want. Keep an eye on your weight so that you don’t dig yourself a giant power to weight ratio hole, but no more than that.
Joe Friel uses a term called “Christmas star”. You’ll run into them over the winter for sure. They’ll be killing it in February to the point that by riding with them you may begin feeling nervous about your own fitness. They may also kill it at the Super Spring Criterium. Wait though, because right when you start feeling awesome again they’ll be wondering why they chose this ridiculous sport….and then for them it’s downhill from there.
Good luck Sunday! Don’t leave an ounce of effort on the table.
Rob Kelley
TRAINING BIBLE COACH
Categories: Coach's Corner
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Whether intentionally or not, the ChiCrossCup has helped us prepare for the potential sand show that Montrose can bring via PsiCross and Melas’s increasing volume of the stuff. If the nice people at Spider Monkey Cycles and Ten27 Cycles decide to exact revenge for having to drill holes in the frozen ground simply to put the stakes down we’re in for way more of the same. Which reminds me, give those folks some extra love out there in Chicago (and Norge this weekend). Putting a race on in the conditions that can come up this time of year is tough!
This article includes a great description of the art of the sand crossing. It’s difficult to put something like body English into words and once again Cyclocross Magazine comes through.
Enjoy the Holidays!
Rob Kelley
TRAINING BIBLE COACH
Categories: Coach's Corner
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