TRX and Cycling Tour de France WOD 4: Tempo

The Ardennes hasn't seen the carnage visited upon it yesterday since the Battle of the Bulge. Bloody bodies everywhere, destroyed machines flying through the air, ambulances. That was yesterday.

Today the Tour resumes it's more normal first week pattern of smooth roads, early breakaway, TV time for lower-tier riders and non-GC contender teams and the bunch keeping the break on a leash until it's time to let the beartrap snap shut and unleash a fussilade of sprinting artillery in the finale.

You won't come close to tasting that effort in your training, but you can dream and practice the skills that underpin this scenario. Both the breakaway and the chasing peloton play a carefully-timed game of cat and mouse that revolves around hard tempo riding--just on the cusp of when the riders hit their lactic thresholds. Hard, but not hard enough to make them go anaerobic. It's a skill every cyclist must have in his/her arsenal and that's what today's WOD is about:

First, to warm up hit the DRILLit.TV: GET TURNED ON: TRX/CYCLING MORNING/PRE-RIDE ROUTINE.

Next, get your ass to a mellow hill or protracted flat where you can cruise for 20+ minutes without having to stop. Barring that, find a route that requires minimal stops.

The WOD:
2 x 20 minutes @ tempo
Then (because you don't want to shatter into a gazillion Schleck pieces every time you smack into the pavement):
10-1 L-Pull-ups and Clapping Push-ups

Then a very easy, high cadence spin back home.

Live Alive.

DRILLit.