Some Tips and Hints

No doubt there are some team members riding at the front of the bus....they can pretty much skip over this post. But for those of us who are trying to move off the back bench where the bad students sit to at least the middle of the bus....there are some useful tips and hints that I have found personally helpful. Of course, you have to absorb all of this with a certain grain of salt because I am definitely still a middle of the bus wannabe! But if you will indulge me for a moment, here are a few odds and ends.

Want to see a first class dismount/remount video? I have looked at plenty, looking for that secret sauce. This is the best video I found out there:

http://kissena.info/more.php?id=245_0_1_0_M

Check out how smooth and professional this looks. If only that were me....but I hope that practice makes perfect.

Then there is the search for elusive power, so necessary at the start, for getting up those hills and for passing the pesky opponents from other cycling teams! I've been doing a bit of reading and here are some links to some writeups that are helpful.

This is a general article that addresses training during the season:

http://cxmagazine.com/training-for-cyclocross-part-2

I was struck by how much recovery time is scheduled. Don't know about you but I am a bit OCD and have a tendency to crank away every day. Wrong!

If you are looking for a compact but good new book, I'd look at Chris Carmichael's Time Crunched Cyclist. You will find some practical and sensible training schedules. You should substitute"openers" or some other lighter workout on Saturday, then substitute the Sunday intervals with a race and presto!

Here is an "opener" that a friend gave me:

5 min warmup, 8 min tempo, 2 min recovery, 3 min tempo, 4 min recovery, 4 min tempo, 4 min recovery, 1 min power interval (max effort), 2 min recovery, 1 min power interval, 5-10 min recovery. And you're ready for the race the next day!

Finally, if you are looking for some intervals to do, here is a good collection of them. They're on the Cycle Ops site, which is a good read and has tons of solid training tips:

http://www.saris.com/newsletter/SarisSource/February09/February%202009%20-%20Power%20Workout.pdf

That's the sum of my knowledge for now. If you find some good things out there, post them on the blog.