Triathlon - Speed vs Endurance vs Intervals

I'm after some training advice/experience about which of these aspects I should focus on to build up my cycling to a more competitive level.
Ie: do I do lots of miles and just go for volumes alone for a while to build up a better base fitness?
Or do I focus on speed, getting the mph up? or a mix?
Or perhaps intervals?

Appreciate any help/experience would be great. Let me know if I need to add more details.

thnx everyone. :thumb:

After you build a good endurance base,increasing speed comes next. What works best for me this time of year is moderate length intervals twice a week. This might consists of three ten minute intervals with ten minutes of recovery in between. In another month of so I will increase the number of interval to 8-10 and shorten the duration to two minutes but at a much quicker pace to get into peak race shape.

Thnx Stan. I'm assuming that your intervals are at max effort - right? What overall miles/times are you covering in these sessions? How different are they to the endurgance base-builders that you mention up front?

Thnx Stan. I'm assuming that your intervals are at max effort - right? What overall miles/times are you covering in these sessions? How different are they to the endurgance base-builders that you mention up front?

I do the intervals around 88-90% of my max HR. I do them on a scheduled moderatly long day (usually Tues and Thur). I ride 15-20 minutes first at an easy pace. Then I do 3 10 minute intervals with 10 minutes easy in between. Then I ride 15-20 minutes home. Overall I'm gone for around 1.5 hours. The important thing is only 1/3rd of the time, or 30 minutes, is hard. I combine those with a longer ride on Sunday (35-50 miles) and that gets my cycling speed up to a competitive level. Occassionally I'll throw in some short, easy rides too

Thnx Stan. Appreciate the info. I'll work on a couple and let you know how I go. I'm well aware of the benefits of interval training and just need some advice about how cyclists are using it.

Knowing at what stage of your training you are at will dictate whether the need to continue building base vs. incorporating intervals. Also what length events you plan on focussing on will help in the discussions.

There is plenty of training concepts discussed online focussing on time trial efforts for TT’s up to the 40km distance. In these topics you will probably find the 2-3*20 min at 95-105% FTP the main staple.

You can use HR as a guide, though especially for shorter efforts the heart lags and therefore isn’t an ideal measure. Also it will vary due to many elements - nutrition / time of day / lack of sleep etc. Speed can also be used to a degree i.e. holding a speed a couple of km/hr faster in the interval than your ideal race pace but also depends on the conditions / road surface etc.

I have found hill repeats (20+ min climbs) helpful for improving TT strength, especially prior to the power meter. It is easier to hold higher power outputs and due to the gradient keep the intensity up compared to efforts on rolling terrain. It is very difficult to keep wattage up in the interval range as soon as the road slopes down! With the PM now at least I can keep an eye on output and work at keeping the power up when the road isn’t trending up…

If you choose to ride the hills on your road bike, still get out on the TT bike for the other sessions as it is important to spend time riding in your TT position.