Technically, you could call any riding on the bike an interval. 4 hrs riding in Zone 2 is a long easy interval.

The reason you're getting some pushback is most people associate intervals with shorter efforts of higher intensity which stress the system in order to generate an adaptation/improvement. If you were a runner you could call walking to the post office an easy interval but it is unlikely to make you faster.

Uh, no, not everyone trains using power. I'm still in the dark ages where watts is for light bulbs. Why not train with watt-hours. Seems that would be a better measurement of energy over time. But then that's just me. And I have not idea how to relate 250 watts to anything mechanical, including me.

Carmichael Power Fade Power Intervals. You go out at 100%, and whenever you feel like you're on top of it and get to relax at all - you push harder. Then you do it again. And again. And again... 3x (3x2), with two minutes between intervals, and six minutes between sets.

These suck. And they teach your body to go hard, then recover immediately, then go again and again.

Cheers

100% of what?

If I am doing intervals, then I will do them at the intensity they are supposed to be done at. Proper intensity is the trick to intervals. If you want to go out and just ride that is fine, but if your going to put the effort into doing intervals you might as well do them properly.

Oh, looks like they're called "Peak & Fade Power Intervals".

Anyway, they're supposed to be max watts, but these are pretty easy to do without a power meter. You just accelerate as hard as you can, then try to maintain. That's why they suck, because there's no "get to this level and sustain it." Instead it's "if you can go any faster, GO FASTER." Your power (speed) will fall after the first 40 - 60 seconds, but you keep pushing. And keep your cadence over 90.

Here's the actual description from the book, The Time Crunched Athlete: These intervals start with a big acceleration rather than a gradual increase in intensity. I want you to go all-out right from the beginning and keep your power output as high as possible as the interval progresses. Because of the hard acceleration, your power output will gradually fall after the first 40 - 60 seconds of the effort. That's expected and perfectly normal; just keep pushing.

Cheers

Not sure what you posted here but the link doesn't work for me.

Wheeler - TrainerRoad.com

Just a trainer road profile that explains the interval session that I mentioned....

Sorry you have other problems.. :)

These only work with EPO

I am all about the bicycling "fat burning" 5 week plan. I Think the goal should always be to push hard a couple days and to ride easy the others.

Uh, yeh....heh.

is that your personal data?

I like this kind of interval where your body will decide when to stop and the clock. Will try this next week when I start commuting to work.

Don't know how you draw that conclusion. My 1' is 200% of ftp so that interval would be taxing but not impossible. You'd need a couple of minutes rest after each one though.

The interval mentioned specified 1'@150% followed by 3'@105%. That's not much recovery and averages out to 116% of FTP which would be impossible for most people to keep up for 20' unless you had 100% fast twitch muscles.

Yes... When my ftpwas 301. I'm up to 315 now

very nice. How long did it take you from 301-315?

About 6 weeks with Trainer Road and lots of fat biking.

Because

1. Research shows that training impact on your body goes up with the square of power output. Except when it comes to boosting power output and fit issues an hour at 100% has similar impact to four hours at 50%.

2. It's easier to compare results and work with generalized training plans when the effort is normalized for the athlete's fitness level.

The most popular training stress tracking schemes are essentially the product of time and the square of the quotient of weighted average power divided by what an athlete should be able to sustain for one hour, scaled so that 100 points = a maximum effort 1 hour time trial.

Ex: with a 235W critical power, if I ride a 1 hour time trial at a steady 230W I get 96 points.

About 20-24 MPH riding a road bike on flat ground depending on aerodynamics and rolling resistance.

Hey, I've got that book. Used it 2 seasons ago just to get my fitness level up a little, knowing I have limited time to bike. I'll have to go back at it again, especially now with a HRM and cadence on my bike computer.

Wow Drew, I didn't see that (the whole 3 points of your post) coming. Actually a good answer, getting me to think a little. Oh and the extra tip of 20-24 mph, thanks! It's a nice reference point.

Not if it's on 1' rest. It looks like a threshold workout to me.

Ah, I didn't see the 85% comment. Yeah 3' intervals at 85% are fine if you are in base and riding for several hours. Generally intervals are interpreted to be above FTP though.

I just calculated and I do think 85% is hard. But just because it is kinda hard doesn't mean much. 85% for me is 276 watts. My last race I averaged 278 for an hour, with NP almost = FTP. And I planned on doing 2 races that day. 8x3' at 85% kinda adds up to junk miles for training.

You can't average like that. Like I said, I can do 200% of ftp for only 1' but I can do 100% for an hour. Hell, I can do 400% but for only 5". It doesn't average the way you're thinking.

My point exactly. It's not a real interval.