Tapeworm wrote:For simplicity I prefer either 15 sec on/off or 30sec on/off because it's "neater".
If you could share some more details on how you are doing those 30/30 that would be great. Want to try them this year. Thanks.
Short intervals > long intervals
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If you could share some more details on how you are doing those 30/30 that would be great. Want to try them this year. Thanks.
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HillRPete wrote:Tapeworm wrote:For simplicity I prefer either 15 sec on/off or 30sec on/off because it's "neater".
If you could share some more details on how you are doing those 30/30 that would be great. Want to try them this year. Thanks.
Well, as always - it depends.
For working Vo2max range style of efforts its usually two or three blocks of [6 x 30sec On/off. RI = 4 mins.]
For exceptionally intense blocks I drop it down to 4 x 30 and up the RI, ie: [4 x 30sec on/off. RI= 8 mins or longer]
For longer "race specific" blocks I have run a [30 x 30sec on/off protocol]. That one was... mentally challenging. Power average usually ends up being very close to the average power for that duration (or CP30 or whatever metric floats your boat). One day I'll try a full 60mins... if I'm game. I don't prescribe that which I haven't done myself... so no-one has copped that one yet!
And then there's the under/over style where its 30 sec "high", 30 sec "low", around 105-110% FTP (or close to best 5min power) and 90% FTP (close to 60min power) respectively for 5 cycles (ie: 5 mins). 3 mins RI, repeat up to 6 blocks or so.
Recently, especially for those in mtb and crits, I have been favouring the 15sec on/off and ensuring that during the RI no work is done - means that there is an initial neuromuscular power aspect in getting up to speed again and again. Found this to be very especially effective for mtb single speeders, but seems to translate well to any racing discipline that needs a repeated "kick".
As you can see intervals manipulation can yield an almost infinite number of combinations. The questions that need to be asked are:- 1) what is the stimulus provided, 2) what is the relative load that they "cost" and 3) it is specific or "capacity building" to the demands of racing (specificity)?
"Physiology is all just propaganda and lies... all waiting to be disproven by the next study."
"I'm not a real doctor; But I am a real worm; I am an actual worm." - TMBG
"I'm not a real doctor; But I am a real worm; I am an actual worm." - TMBG
Sometimes I get the feeling that the only relevant number is just how often you reach your max power in a given number of days, and rest/off/recovery matters only in that you need to be able to reach max power again, i.e. repeatedly after 15 seconds etc., plus you need rest days.
People are forgetting the definition of "hard" doesn't depend on interval length, but rather % of CP for a specific duration. Also, forgetting that you don't need to be at 100% of that CP to produce adaptations.
Interesting topic and range of views. I've tended to do longer VO2 Max intervals generally of 3 mins with a long resting interval (guessing that's the RI acronym) in between. I've found this has helped my ability to hang on in short hills in races and feel it has contributed to a rise in my 20-minute power test level (which is the CP20 acroynm I believe).
But where I really struggle is in criteriums, particularly where there is a drag that tends to be where the hammer is put down each lap. Most riders get out of the saddle at that point, but I'd be more of a grinder and stay seated and power it out (thighs and particularly the stomach/lungs just don't want me to stand), sometimes a gap opens but my strength is TTing on the flat, so I close it soon enough. But inevitably, the cost of this approach catches up with me and I get spat out, whereas on a road race I tend to have the power to stay with the group much longer.
So I'm thinking I need to practice much shorter intervals to A) more easily handle critical surges at key moments in the race (i.e. that drag before the final corner on a regular route tends to be where the winning break is made a few laps from home so I need the power to stay with it) and B) to have greater reserves to be able to up my power sufficiently every time there is a surge so that I don't let a gap open and then have to consume power for another 20secs catching back on, and that my reserves aren't depleted to the extent that I don't have enough in the tank to deal with the key surge at a critical moment in the crit (i.e. I feel if I bridged the gap with the break, I have enough steady state power still in reserve to stay with them, but just don't have enough of a burst left in me to bridge across at that key moment).
What types of intervals might work well for training those areas?
But where I really struggle is in criteriums, particularly where there is a drag that tends to be where the hammer is put down each lap. Most riders get out of the saddle at that point, but I'd be more of a grinder and stay seated and power it out (thighs and particularly the stomach/lungs just don't want me to stand), sometimes a gap opens but my strength is TTing on the flat, so I close it soon enough. But inevitably, the cost of this approach catches up with me and I get spat out, whereas on a road race I tend to have the power to stay with the group much longer.
So I'm thinking I need to practice much shorter intervals to A) more easily handle critical surges at key moments in the race (i.e. that drag before the final corner on a regular route tends to be where the winning break is made a few laps from home so I need the power to stay with it) and B) to have greater reserves to be able to up my power sufficiently every time there is a surge so that I don't let a gap open and then have to consume power for another 20secs catching back on, and that my reserves aren't depleted to the extent that I don't have enough in the tank to deal with the key surge at a critical moment in the crit (i.e. I feel if I bridged the gap with the break, I have enough steady state power still in reserve to stay with them, but just don't have enough of a burst left in me to bridge across at that key moment).
What types of intervals might work well for training those areas?
