waterrockets 

I have been down to one sprint workout every 3-5 weeks, and my 5s power continues to climb. Today I hit a new personal best 5s and max, and I haven't done sprints since mid-march. Even this morning was just a 6s sprint to get the test in.

I feel like I get enough NMP stress from my infrequent 1m WRI™ intervals, since they start out very near full sprint power. It seems like everyone moves from volume toward intensity a bit as the season gets going, but I think I may just skip that part.

I guess it's good to do field sprints to practice form, but I think I can get that out of training races. It's just kind of absurd how much my training has changed this year, since I used to do sprints and 1m intervals every week, no matter what. Now I rarely do either, and I'm still getting faster at those durations.

Lithuania

sprints are your strong suit right? If so than yes. Work on your weaker points instead. I agree that you will get enough practice out of training races.

ericcox

In my completely unqualified opinion, I would say that your WRI™ (which I have begun to use) should be enough. Besides, who needs a sprint when you're destroying your opponents with attack after attack?

waterrockets 

Yeah, I like to think that I'm turning into more of an all-rounder, but I still look like a sprinter on paper. My biggest improvement has been in 5m and FTP:

Scummer

How about loosing some weight,eh?

substructure

I think so. Let the rest of us catch up a bit.

merckx89

I've been the exact opposite. My 5sec has not risen since I started riding, now matter how many sprint workout I do. Can't get past that certain max wattage, though I can hold it for longer and longer. With a sprint like that already, I would say don't worry about it, focus on the other things. I gave up on my sprint already.

Lithuania

What type of stuff have you done to specifically target improving your sprint?

kukusz

I had the same problem, so I worked on sprint form and started doing some weights, it started helping. I could barely squeak out 1000 Watt for 5s for several months, and now that has been going up since adding some weights and still working on spinning out to 160 rpm or so.

jcbenten

Based on your writeup of your win, I wouldn't change a freakin thing. Unless you want to climb like Contador.

merckx89

5-10 sprints one or two days a week. My 5 sec has stagnated at 1250ish while my max was reached in the first week I had the powertap at 1300 and have not been able to hit it since. It's just I can now hold my 5sec for almost 20 before I start to lose real power. (20 sec of like 1000). The sprints seemed to help my 1 minute power more than my sprint. And I've never been a power sprinter in other sports, so I guess It's just going to stay there.

Lithuania

it sounds like you really havent done much to improve your sprint. You might want to try some strength training and high cadence drills and see if you get results from that.

merckx89

No access to weights, and cadence drills are done once every two weeks or so. I've never had a problem with them because I came from junior racing last year. I could sprint up to the same speed then, I just can't push the bigger gear that fast. 130-150 RPM feels fine to me.

jrennie

IMO with those number you should never loose a race, especially in texas . If you can hold that kind of power then weight shouldn't be an issue and you should win climbing races too. If not then tactical drills might be your next thing to work on.

wfrogge

Looking at the big picture...... If you increased your 5s sprint power what would that buy you overall in a race?

powerdan

+1 what wfrogge said. If you're killing the sprints everywhere, you could probably give it up. If you're top 5 or top 10 guy, why not work on it more, and get better.

IMO, bike racing frequently rewards success at specific things like climbing, sprinting. We all can't motor like a stud TTer, and be all around strong for a hard race or the breakaways, so if you're good at something specific, why not get really really good at it and win some races that way?

cmh

Just imagine how high your 5s power would be if you just sat on the couch watching golf!

Seriously, I would keep doing about what you are doing now until you start to hit a plateau. Then mix it up and do more of the intensity. I suspect you are right that your WRI 1' intervals are doing a good job of improving your sprint. The great thing about having a power meter is you will know when you hit a plateau. Those of us w/out a meter have to guess.

Lithuania

I dont do any weight training either. I just do big gear workouts at low cadence. My sprint wattage has increased 300w since last fall and that was without doing any sprints in offseason workouts so I assume you can increase your sprint without busting them out every week

jrennie

While some people are built for a specific discipline I totally advocate training your weaknesses in addition to your strengths. I had absolutely no fast twitch/sprint power last season and was lucky to crack 1000w, after some(and not a lot) of sprint work I can consistently get over 1300(5s) and close to 1500 at max. I'm still not a sprinter but having that quick acceleration is a valuable tool for making separation to initiate a break or bridge to the break.

UT_Dude

Yeah, the sprints here are all drawn out anyways (10-20s), so I wouldn't worry about the 5s power so much. Just keep doing what you're doing.

powerdan

I agree work on your weaknesses but I think most racers work on them too much. I forget where I read it but there was a story about how Cipo had a losing streak in the late 90s/ early 00s cause he worked on making it over the climbs too much and lost speed to rivals like Zabel. Most of us are limited genetically. If you're really good at something, exploit others with it.

Voodoo76

A good direction is stretching your sprint. I can't put it into Power Training terms (cuz im too old) but in my own experience going from Match Sprint training to attempting to 3K had some amazing impact on my Road results.

I would suggest from where you are at this point, continuing your 1m intervals at very high cadence will impact both your top speed and your tactical ability in a real world sprint.

edit, I agree with work on your strenghts as this is what will win you races.

rog

Shut up, please... ;-)

kukusz

Can you detail what you are doing for your sprint work?

jrennie

Nope, my workouts aren't free like WRI™

j/k there are tons of threads on here for sprint drill/pyramids and the aforementioned WRI™