gsteinb

I crack going all out after 25 seconds.

rkwaki

Agreed.
I start to fade a little at 15 but pop about 25.

shovelhd

I can usually make it to 20 but 25 depends on the day.

shovelhd

So you are 70w down on your peak jump before the first race of the season? I'd say you're right where you should be unless this is your #1 A race.

TheKillerPenguin

Weirdest ****ing winter ever. 25 and crazy snow yesterday, and it'll be in the 50's this afternoon.

Anyway, 4-4.5 more hours today...ATL will be ~120...with one more week in the block to go...kill me...

aaronmcd

Seriously? I haven't come anywhere near my top 1 minute in a race. Top in race is about 70 watts short of pr. PR is completely fresh.

gsteinb

1 minute? pretty sure mine's in a race

shovelhd

My top everything was in a race.

globecanvas

I think this is sort of the crux of improving one's sprint. I have always been able to put out a good 1 minute number, and I used to think that it was done by going all-out for a minute. I have since realized that there is another level beyond what I used to consider all-out

I think many people don't really know what it feels like to sprint. It's all-out plus. There's something out of control and dangerous-feeling about it. If you can hold it for 40-50-60 seconds, it's not really all-out. (In a funny way, I think having a good 1 minute number can be a symptom of not having a good sprint.) This is something I'm planning to work on, when the race season is closer.

globecanvas

Also, my top 1 minute is definitely not in a race, but I have won races with 1 minute efforts that are well below my not-in-a-race PR.

gsteinb

the key is going balls out for about 4 minutes then "all out" for a minute, and then sprinting. 5 minutes. blood coming out of your eyes

TheKillerPenguin

Preach.

I'm not really sure what the purpose of knowing what your freshest 1min max power is beyond bragging, or 5min for that matter. FTP sure, as that's what you base all your training zones off of, but I really don't know what my max fresh 1min or 5min efforts are as they're always done in sets to maximize time in zone. I track progress via general increases in wattage across sets with a focus on repeatability, which is by and large what matters in a race situation.

Wesley36

Can be useful in terms of identifying one's strengths and weaknesses - waterrockets used it.to identify exceptional 1 min power, for example, and has had some success by building his tactics around this

tetonrider

yes, seriously. these usually pop up in a race with a slight uphill finish. has to be the right circumstance, with the rider still contesting the finish.

sometimes i'll see the rider's 30- or 40-second peak from training get pushed out to a minute because they're desperate for that line.

but of course there are no absolutes and there's always an exception. many riders seem to dig a little deeper in a race as people are around, they tend to be a bit more rested, the results are going to be printed, etc.

rkwaki

I did some sprint training last week with changes2008 and I can assure you from a rolling start of about 15 mph to a flat out 15 second sprint my tongue was hanging off the stem after every interval.
15 second sprint, 3 minute recovery, repeat 4 times.
10 minute recovery
Repeat.
Numbers looked good, slight fade on a couple due to terrain but all in all after each 15 seconds it was all I could do to pedal.
Breakfast came up three or four times and I saw stars in the second set.
That my friend is sprint training.

Oh yeah I had a wicked leg session in the morning before that...
Here's how the graph looked:

Ygduf

do you look at a clock, count pedal strokes, or what to do the time?

mattm

i bet you do!

rkwaki

Was trying to respect my new year's resolution...

rkwaki

Only thing on display is time. I run a PC7 on the bars and a Garmin 800 on the stem. The Garmin show just time. I've done this long enough that most times I look down and see the display right around 13 seconds.

globecanvas

Good question, I'm curious to know what others do! I count pedal strokes for sprint intervals, specifically I find it easiest to count 4 groups of 4 revolutions, and I do this 2 1/2 times. I know that sounds bizarre, but (maybe from playing music) 4x4 is a natural number to count to without having to actually concentrate on the numbers.

I also don't hit the lap button before/after. Sometimes it's hard to muster the energy to hit the lap button afterwards in any sort of timely manner, and it's easy to pick out the interval from the file afterwards anyway.

bmcphx

Four repeats of castle house - 12%
Three repeats of valley Vista switchbacks - 7%

The rest of the ride is Z1 spinning. I like it.

mattm

I use the lap button to start the interval, and lap time to know when it's done.

for force reps and done sprint workouts it's just 12 pedal strokes tho. make sure to alternate the counting leg so you don't favor the someone every time.

beatlebee 

Supposed to do a 60 min tempo climb, nothing too hard, but I failed. It turned into 30 min tempo climb and then I packed it in. I take this as a plus as today was the end of a hard two week block.

gsteinb

It's not really that hard to clock. The body just kind shuts down and 15 seconds is pretty intuitive. Sometimes I end up 17 sometimes it's 12.

rkwaki

The body can only go 'all out' for about that range of time.