Road Bike Racing - Doing "Sprintervals" when you're not a sprinter

Ok, so many of you guys have probably seen my jokes about crits. Oh yes, I love them. Well actually I do (mental) but my body doesn't (physical). I have some "spinterval" workouts on my calendar this month as part of a bunch of things to help me get better at surges and so forth.

Here is the workout:

6-8 second sprint at CP0.2 with 1 minute recovery. Repeat this 2 more times then do 5' at CP6.
Rest 8 minutes then repeat the above thing 2 more times.

I have no problem doing steady efforts at CP6 for that length of time, but when I have to do some hard sprints before hand...oh boy! I did these for the first time last week and I could only barely get into the CP6 zone for the first rep and then I was in CP12 for the next two.

The question is what should I try next time I do these? What is the critical part of the workout? Or is that dependent on the individual? For me, I have a hard time with speed surges and following accelerations if that helps at all.

If I have a hard time getting into CP6 with the 3 sprints in front of it, what should I try instead?
(1) try CP6, but for 3-4 minutes instead of 5
(2) do 2 sprints in front of the CP6 instead of 3 sprints
(3) instead of riding for 5 minutes at CP6, do the same except at CP12
(4) take more than 1 minute recovery between sprints
(5) take more than 8 minute recovery between each set
(6) say screw it and go have a cold one

I have a couple of the SPrinterals DVDs and I must say they kicked my ass the first time I tried each of them...and probably the second time too...but you quickly get used to it and or get in better shape because of it. Very good videos, I just hate being ont he trainer in the first place so I don't use them as much as I should.

It sounds like when you stress your legs with sprints, they don't have the ability to turn around and stress your aerobic system until the lactic acid gets out.

While doing the sprints before an interval will duplicate the situation well, it may not be the most efficient training. I would still try the workout you planned and see how it goes. It may also be a great way to monitor improvement as you correct this situation.

What I would concentrate on is sprint workouts. This simple workout will build peak power, and better prepare your legs to do work after a sprint. Three things will come of this:
Your legs will be more used to sprinting, and better able to do work after the sprints.
In an actual race, the sprints won't get faster with you, so you won't need to sprint as hard every time for the same (or better) results.
Your time to exhaustion at a given power output will increase.The workouts I'm talking about are 15s explosive, with a full recovery. Some from a near standing start, some from a rolling start, some from a training partner's leadout. You should feel like puking after eight of them, and maybe only seven. Stop the workout when your sprints lose quality, as the teardown is complete. Then you can go ride some aerobic miles (you'll feel MUCH better in 10 minutes).

Another good sprint workout is a pyramid, but it gets a little aerobic and shouldn't be the foundation of your sprint development. Do 5s on, 5s off, 10s on, 10s off, 15/15, 20/20, 25/25, 30/30, 25/25, 20/20, 15/15, 10/10, and 5/5. Each sprint should be as explosive as you can be

It sounds like when you stress your legs with sprints, they don't have the ability to turn around and stress your aerobic system until the lactic acid gets out.

While doing the sprints before an interval will duplicate the situation well, it may not be the most efficient training. I would still try the workout you planned and see how it goes. It may also be a great way to monitor improvement as you correct this situation.

What I would concentrate on is sprint workouts. This simple workout will build peak power, and better prepare your legs to do work after a sprint. Three things will come of this:
Your legs will be more used to sprinting, and better able to do work after the sprints.
In an actual race, the sprints won't get faster with you, so you won't need to sprint as hard every time for the same (or better) results.
Your time to exhaustion at a given power output will increase.The workouts I'm talking about are 15s explosive, with a full recovery. Some from a near standing start, some from a rolling start, some from a training partner's leadout. You should feel like puking after eight of them, and maybe only seven. Stop the workout when your sprints lose quality, as the teardown is complete. Then you can go ride some aerobic miles (you'll feel MUCH better in 10 minutes).

A little off topic but what consititutes a full recovery between 15sec sprints? I dont think Ive ever understood this.



Another good sprint workout is a pyramid, but it gets a little aerobic and shouldn't be the foundation of your sprint development. Do 5s on, 5s off, 10s on, 10s off, 15/15, 20/20, 25/25, 30/30, 25/25, 20/20, 15/15, 10/10, and 5/5. Each sprint should be as explosive as you can be

What makes a pyramid more aerobic then other workout you mentioned?

A little off topic but what consititutes a full recovery between 15sec sprints? I dont think Ive ever understood this.

For me, it's about 1.5-2 minutes of easy spinning. The HR doesn't react much during the sprint, but in the 15s or so after it, I'm breathing heavy. Some workouts, I actually spin pretty easy for 10 minutes until my speed creeps back up to 18-20 at the natural cruising effort -- then the sprints are a little higher quality, but I don't always have time for that.


What makes a pyramid more aerobic then other workout you mentioned?

Your HR doesn't have time to recover, so you're eventually limited much like you are in the last 1/3 of an interval, when you're power is limited by your aerobic system.

got it

thanks

A little off topic but what consititutes a full recovery between 15sec sprints? I dont think Ive ever understood this.



What makes a pyramid more aerobic then other workout you mentioned?
As waterrockets mentioned, if recovery between anaerobic intervals is neglected, the intervals will quickly become more aerobic than anaerobic. Sufficient time must be allowed for anaerobic capacity to be replenished. Don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but I think one is about 90% recovered after 2-3 minutes, and fully recovered after 4-5 minutes.

This is one reason why some advocate not shortening the rest periods too much during anaerobic intervals. Even though it is more akin to race situations, where recovery may be limited, the goal of the workout is ideally to train your anaerobic capacity. With limited rest between workouts, the intervals may hurt, but they will be much less anaerobic than one might suspect.

That totally makes sense to me now grebletie. Thank you.

A little off topic but what consititutes a full recovery between 15sec sprints? I dont think Ive ever understood this.





The CTS system prescribes 5 minutes rest between sprints. Theory, as I understand it, is that it takes that long to recharge the ATP system.

elevate your cadence. You need to flush the legs faster. Normal sprint workout gives you 5 mins rest, but in a crit (and in this workout) you don't have that option. To speed blood flow both in and out of your legs (to clear anaerobic byproducts) spin a higher cadence.