terrymorse Define intensity. Do you consider an FTP high intensity? And above FTP, there is VO2, anaerobic and neuromuscular. One can do a 20-30 second maximum effort which is technically not sprinting and it will really cook ones legs. Rest 10 minutes and do another.

The next question is did the participants do 5 sessions of "HIIT" efforts and what was the level and number of efforts and what were they doing between efforts - maximum or VO2, resting or riding z2?

It seems like a lot of variables to standardize, control and correlate effectively.

I am not being negative. Just trying to understand how one sequence is better than another and against what goal.