What intervals do you hate the most?
 

I nominate power intervals, which I'm doing blocks of for this 4 week cycle. 3 minutes on, 3 minutes off, 120rpm 10/10ths perceived effort.

Short enough to be a maximal effort. Long enough to truly hurt, and the high cadence is literally designed to suck.

Which workout do you hate the most?

The interval between one town sign sprint and the next. Only kind of interval I do...

As soon as I saw the title, my first thought was "3 minutes". These seem to be the most painful for me.

Although it also could mean that I'm not doing the 5 min and 20 min ones hard enough.

The 1-minute intervals are the worse for me. Those are 9.5/10 perceived effort while the 3-minute ones are about 9/10 perceived effort. The longest I can hold a maximum-effort 10/10ths is an all-out sprint of 15-25s.

I do 2 min on/4 min off x 5-6 reps. That sucks.

I tend to do intervals about everyday, maybe 6 days a week.
My favorite are V02max ones. 2 min at 440W, 1 min rests.. workouts like that.

The ones I hate the most seem to be 1 hour easy rides..

3' vo2max intervals. If I'm doing them correctly I feel bile creeping up my throat by the fifth or sixth one.

10 seconds full blast - 50 seconds off. Repeat 10 times. Rest for 10 minutes. Do it again. I do these in a huge gear starting from around 5 mph. You really find out which parts of your bike are flexy.

These still hurt the next day.

^ In my program, I do those on full rest, 5 or 10 minutes, and they're not so bad.

I actually kinda like 5x3' intervals, but not doing them 10/10ths.

Merlin - this early in season, what's the thought process behind 5x3's? I thought 3' or shorter were for later in the year.

None. As a matter of fact I just got in from doing LT intervals. I hate rest days much more than any interval session. See my signature.

Things start early down here. First race is Jan 17. So one more week of power intervals, then next week is a recovery week, and then we pretty much have races every weekend for the next several months.


That said, my coach did flip my program around a bit. Last year I was doing steady states (10-20 minute intervals) working on LT at this point. This year we skipped past that and went from tempo to the VO2 work. He says he's had success flipping the LT and V02 blocks to challenge your body after you've been doing the same routine for a long time.

We'll see how it works, but I did feel a lot faster than this time last year on this weekend's group ride.

Merlin, what kind of gear are you in for 3 minutes at 120 rpms?

Yeah, I dread the 1' intervals the most. With a WRI™ profile (every pedal stroke is absolute maximum effort), they just tear the hell out of me. It's like I'm one of those people who cut themselves. Twisted pain.

I don't seem to be able to hold my pace in 20' intervals, but it's more of a concentration thing than hating them. Hill repeats are natural feeling for me (4.5-5')

typically around 39/13 to 39/15. Whatever I can hold the rpm with. Sometimes I end up dropping to a lower gear to keep the cadence up when I'm dying. (I've found that its easier to do on the small chain ring because 39/13 is more than big enough for me, and its easier to bale to a lower gear if you just have to shift the rear)

My typical speed is pretty disappointing doing them. I tell myself its because they're designed be inefficient from a power/ speed point of view to make your heart rate soar; either that or I just suck.

20 min's. My mind wanders.

the blocks of idiots who show up in july during the tour, roughly followed by the blocks of idiots who pop up asking about what our favorite cycling books and movies are, without checking the search forum first.

probably 20 min intervals at the end of the week when my legs aren't as fresh and I can't get my HR up. It sucks being 12 min in and struggling to keep your hr at LT. "Really cranks up the suffermeter" as coach troy would say.

I struggle with all intervals but power intervals just about destroy me.

1x60

Any interval that is indoors on a trainer.

That much rest in between defeats the purpose of what I am working on which is rapid recovery after full out effort. It isn't just to develop strength for sprinting. It gives you a big tactical weapon if you can sprint and then recover quickly to do it again.

^ True. The CTS approach to this is a bit different. Power starts (10-20 second maximal efforts in a big gear from a dead stop) are done with rest, and designed to develop muscle strength.

Speed intervals, (also short efforts, 15-30 seconds, at higher speed and rpm) are done on short rest to develop recovery, such as 15 seconds on, 15 seconds off, or 30 on 30 off.

Your drill essentially mixes the two. While there is some efficiency there, I'm not sure it gets the maximal benefit of either drill. Doing the Power Starts on full rest, allows you to really push your muscles, like doing sets of squats. And doing the speed intervals at higher speed higher rpm, allows you to really push the anerobic side.

I'm not sure you can get the muscle development advantage without more recovery, or the recovery, anerobic adaptation at the low rpm.

Of course, I'm endoctrinated in the CTS way and there ae multiple ways to skin a cat. Anything that pushes you is likely to make you stronger.

1x60s. Especially on rollers.

20 min threshold test is absolute torture for me.