h2o_polo_boi

Well what i really meant is as long as i'm getting faster, i'll be happy

h2o_polo_boi

I am looking for specific workouts. Not planning. Friel's book focused mainly on year round planning and does not include specific workouts that can be utilized in a commute. I only get to commute/ride to school 3 days out of the week so I want to make the best out of it. As for the HRM, it's a hassle for me and it really serves me no benefit because my commute is 30 minutes at most each way. Also, stopping for traffic really throws the heart rate off. If there's anything I learned from Friel is how to use "perceived exertion" and I don't need a heart rate monitor for that.

LIUser22

i do interval sprints in the saddle because those are the muscles you use during normal riding. I also do a few out of saddle sprints but not usually in intervals.

Pendergast

Here's a good article about Billat's 30-30 intervals and how to determine precisely what pace to do them at. Saw in another article that it's recommended to only do them once a week although this article suggests that doing them twice a week can produce dramatic gains for some people.

https://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0896.htm

Duke of Kent

Do you mean sprints? Or do you mean intervals longer than 15s or so?

If you're actually sprinting, you need to get out of the saddle, at least for the initial jump. Otherwise you aren't training the muscles used during normal SPRINTING.

If you're doing intervals, both standing and sitting are good, as "normal riding" is not just confined to riding with your ass planted on the seat.

Here's how you can tell the difference between a sprint and an aerobic/VO2 interval: You can't breathe during the former, and can during the latter. Neuromuscular power vs. mostly aerobic power.

And if you can breath during that ~10s, you aren't going hard enough.

waterrockets 

+1 in an a race, an interval effort is commonly needed to respond to an attack. On a hill, this could mean you're out of the saddle for 15 or 30s. I always start my 1- and 2-minute intervals out of the saddle until I reach cruising velocity.