Couple of quick questions about intervals and training

Jamey

1) What do people mean when they refer to a ride as "tempo?" Is it slightly under your max effort?

2) What happens when you're in the middle of doing a high-intensity interval and you get to a red light or have to stop for traffic? ...If I was doing a 2 x 20 interval ride and I got a red light bang in the middle of each interval, would I have to mark the ride down as a 4 x 10 interval ride instead or could I still legitimately refer to it as a 2 x 20 one?

3) Another 2 x 20 question... What sort of effort do you put in? Should you go as hard as you can for twenty minutes? If so, does that mean the second interval will always be slower than the first?

4) Training for hills... Is it better to do the entire hill in one go (even if it's incredibly slow) or do it at speed but stop a couple of times to rest?

5) Sweet Spot training... Can someone explain it in very simple terms and with the fewest number of words possible, please? I've looked at the links others have posted and they mean el zilcho to me as I don't understand a lot of the sports science terminology.

Alex_Simmons/RST

Jamey wrote:

1) What do people mean when they refer to a ride as "tempo?" Is it slightly under your max effort?

About the maximal effort pace you could sustain for say 2hrs or so. That doesn't mean you have to ride at tempo for 2hrs of course. Typically done in blocks of 30-120 minutes

Jamey wrote:

2) What happens when you're in the middle of doing a high-intensity interval and you get to a red light or have to stop for traffic? ...If I was doing a 2 x 20 interval ride and I got a red light bang in the middle of each interval, would I have to mark the ride down as a 4 x 10 interval ride instead or could I still legitimately refer to it as a 2 x 20 one?

You stop at lights and go again when they're green. Short interruptions aren't that big a deal while doing such efforts but it is better to find a way to reduce interruptions as much as possible.

As long as you do long enough contiguous blocks (of say 10-min) then just add up the time in level for your notes.

Jamey wrote:

3) Another 2 x 20 question... What sort of effort do you put in? Should you go as hard as you can for twenty minutes? If so, does that mean the second interval will always be slower than the first?

Depends on what you want to achieve. For general aerobic work, I'd say do most of your 20-min efforts at around 90-95% power of your best best 20-min effort. That makes them doable on a regular basis.

But there comes a time when you have to increase the power.

Jamey wrote:

4) Training for hills... Is it better to do the entire hill in one go (even if it's incredibly slow) or do it at speed but stop a couple of times to rest?

Depends on what you want to achieve. Both can be good workouts.

Jamey wrote:

5) Sweet Spot training... Can someone explain it in very simple terms and with the fewest number of words possible, please? I've looked at the links others have posted and they mean el zilcho to me as I don't understand a lot of the sports science terminology.

Defines the type of training that gives the most bang for buck (i.e. available training time) in terms of overall fitness development.

SST is ridden at intensity levels anywhere from solid endurance pace to time trial pace and workouts typically last 1-3 hours. That's it.

Tempo is bang in the middle of the "sweet spot".

There are some good articles on SST, look up two done by Frank Overton. They are hardly jammed full of mumbo jumbo and are full of suggestions on what type of rides SST includes.

Jamey

Thank you Alex.