+1 Black wallnut

OP- You established that you were a national class runner and I believe you know what is involved in the preparation of fitness and goals. Cycling is not much different than running. Some of us in the forum need to be in a race or environment where we are tested, while other’s like to ride around and smell the roses and have coffee and pie. It’s all good, as people get from cycling what they need/ want.

You state that climbing is a goal you wish to improve on. Just like running the training needs to address the desired outcome. If you are training for running a marathon a decent portion of your training will be on long distance runs with some longer intervals to improve overall speed. If the outcome is a sub 17’ 5K your intervals will be much more important and intense once you accomplish being able to run 5K. I don’t discount the length of intervals due to being 61 yrs old, but don’t expect to hit the same power numbers or intensity as young and strong guys. Think about it, would you only run for 30 minutes at race pace expecting to do well in a half marathon? The same holds true in cycling. If you want to do a 100 mile ride in 6 hours, training by riding around at a pace that feels good will not prepare you as well as a program that offers some sustained intervals at a pace that exceeds 19-22 mph.

Doing 4 x 10’ intervals will stress the body and system and in time there will be improvements. Cutting the intervals short will not blow up the workout if you went too hard and could not complete the workout. It takes a few times out to get used to meeting the interval parameters. After a while you just dial it in and consider it work to be done. The intensity of the 10’ intervals is important as you do them. What is the workout goal? If for climbing, are you in an overgear? Are the intervals at threshold HR? etc… Also, the total time doing the intervals is something to consider. A total of 40 minutes is short if your hill climb will exceed 1 hr or too long if the improvement you want is more short term due the hills being <1/2 mile and steep.

In my opinion most of the stuff in Bicycle Magazine is generic in that they try to marginalize everything into a “one size fits all” for several reasons in including putting everyone in the same mold. That really helps for the marketing of things being sold in the magazine.

As suggested you might get some good answers in the 50+ Masters Racing and Training Forum.