Howdy folks,
It’s Wednesday, and that means that It’s…
Cyclocross Skills Day!
Brought to you by our good friend, the letter “R” !
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Tonight, we’re going to begin the process of reducing, refining, and replacing our skills in the waning days of the season…
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Huh?
:(
Here’s what I mean by that…
Reduce.
– Every Wednesday, we’ve been working on different, discrete, individual skills. It’s time to focus on the whole, rather than parts, and to shelve the things that aren’t working for you.
We’ve talked about different ways to approach turning, barriers, dismounts, re-mounts… you name it. Identify the approaches, variations, and individual skills that suit you the best, and focus on those. All those skills that you haven’t quite figured out yet? Put them in the closet. You’ll come back to them next season.
Refine.
– We’re at the point in the season where we really need to be putting our “whole package” together. We should be working to hone our existing skill set much, much more than we are working to add new skills.
What you’ve got is what you’ve got, time to tighten up…
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Replace.
– Do you have a great, smooth, perfect Cowboy dismount, but a terrible “step-through?”
You’re done with the step-through. Don’t spend any more time on it. Next season you can come back to it, but now?
Focus on the Cowboy. Nail it. Perfect every time.
Are you railing the corners when you pedal through them, but not so much when you’re foot-out, sliding?
Yup. You’re committed. You’re a pedal-the-corner rider for the duration.
Focus on what’s working. Nail it. Perfect every time.
Here’s the drill for tonight:
– warm up on bike, 10-15 minutes.
– Brief run. 5 minutes.
– Active stretching, as discussed in previous posts.
– Barrier skills, 10 minutes.
Try a couple of different approaches/skills. Figure out what’s working best for you. Ditch what isn’t.
– Technical skills, 15-20 minutes.
Here again, try different approaches to the various obstacles on your course – off cambers, tight turns, wide/fast turns, mud, sand… figure out what’s working for you. Ditch what isn’t.
– 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.
Go until you get 5 perfect starts in a row.
Try starting a couple of different ways; Ass on saddle, ass off saddle. Pedal at 3:00, Pedal at 1:00. 3 cogs down, 2 cogs down.
Figure out how you start best.
Drop what isn’t working, and forget about it until next season.
– Race simulation. 3 x 10 minutes, 2 minute rest between efforts.
Take everything you just practiced, and use only the select approaches and skills that worked for you. Really nail ‘em. Go F-ing fast, and use whatever skills get you there.
Forget about everything else.
– Warm down.
Go Home. Eat. Recover.
Have fun!
M
