"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - physiology & adaption question

I was thinking about this workout: 1' intervals @ 135% , with 1 rest, 10-15 reps. Then I remembered something Ze wrote about his 5'@105-6%, 1' rest, 5-6 reps protocol--specifically, that you begin to experience the physiological changes after the 3rd or 4th interval.

so, if one were to do the first workout I mentioned (change it to 2', or call them hill repeats) and divide it into two sets of 5, or three sets of 4 with a slightly longer rest interval between sets, would your body still make the physiological changes that the whole 10-15 reps would target? And is there a threshold of reps or time that your body requires to make these workouts more effective?

or am I asking the wrong question?

...just curious.

Depends on wht you're trying to train. Doing those intervals on short rest, you're basically training how quick you can recover.

But unless you're super human, you're not going to be getting your best efforts to train your anerobic systems after a few of those. So you'd likely see more anerobic improvement from doing them in sets, and doing them at a higher output.


And the 5 minutes at 105% FTP, then 1 minute rest isn't analogous. In that set you're trying to pull up FTP. With the one minute intervals you're working on zones above FTP.

different energy systems to go fast for 1' than for 5'

and btw, the 5x5 @105 have 30 sec rest between intervals.... big painful difference.

and btw, the 5x5 @105 have 30 sec rest between intervals.... big painful difference.


= PAIN CAVE. Be ready to suffer.

(edit: see below)

sorry I have been unable to get to a computer all day. I wasn't too clear in my first post. I understand the different systems being targeted by 5' and 1' intervals. That is not my question. merlinextraligh gets to it in the second paragraph...THAT is exactly what I am curious about.


Depends on wht you're trying to train. Doing those intervals on short rest, you're basically training how quick you can recover.

But unless you're super human, you're not going to be getting your best efforts to train your anerobic systems after a few of those. So you'd likely see more anerobic improvement from doing them in sets, and doing them at a higher output.
.

What I mean to ask is the if the total quantity of intervals was divided into sets, rather than one continuous set of 15 or one continuous set of 10--if dividing the total quanity into two or three sets would diminish the overall adaptations in a persons ability recover.

So, 10-15 x 1' @ 135% with 1' recovery as opposed to 2 (5-7 x 1' @ 135%) with 5 min between sets. Is there a difference? If so, what?

thanks guys.

wait a sec...(correction)

This is what was posted in the "targeted workouts" thread. here. (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?621389-Post-your-targeted-workouts)

"Good warmup (that's a given)
5x5 or 6x5, depending on level of fatigue. 60s rest in between intervals. Intensity: 3-8% over FTP."

If you're going for VO2 work, separate them into sets. I can't imagine any other way you would be able to hit the correct intensity all the way through.

...sounds to me that I've been given a "misdirected" workout.

hmmm.