Bike Forums - View Single Post - How do intervals work?

02-14-07, 04:00 PM

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BikeCoachDave

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The adaptations may or may not be different, but many cyclists have trouble either mentally or physically doing longer intervals, especially early in the training or early in the season. Its less painful to do a 6x6 than to do a 2 x 20, though the time in zone is nearly the same. Knowing the intervals end is near is a nice carrot for some. Also, when you ride above, then below, the above a zone, you are forcing your body to deal with all the metabolic changes that take place when this happens in competition. Having a short recovery period can make your body develop efficiency at clearing waste products in the muscles over shorter amounts of time, which is all good. And there may or may not be a good reason to let the heart rate drop to 60% before starting another interval. But I like to do longer recoveries early in the training cycle and shorten them as the macrocycle goes along so that I can enjoy the gradual adaptations and push the body slowly rather than drop straight into 2 x 20s (which hurt

) early on.

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