Interval Training Frequency

SPOC

I wrote out a long message that got deleted so I'll try again in shorter terms.....

New to interval training, previously just rode 9-10 hours a week commuting, riding at the weekend. Interested now to train with my power meter properly and get the most out of my week. My commute I do in all weathers, Monday to Friday, a steady 18-19mph, almost pan flat at around 160-180 watts, my FTP is 261 at the moment so it doesn't feel taxing at all. I ride a 2.5-3 hour temp ride most weekends or something a bit longer and in a lower zone. Maybe 1.5 hour tempo ride thrown in the week if the weather is really nice.

My plan is to throw in intervals maybe 3 evenings a week. For example, this week I did 3x3 intervals yesterday at 115% of my FTP and may well do 2x20 at 95-100% of FTP tomorrow and some Tabata style all outs of Friday. Is this too intense? Could I do more? I've never felt over trained before but my only exposure to intervals has been hill efforts of busting strava segments as motivation. Now I want to sue the consistency the turbo provides for some repeatability in performance. I will generally be doing these after my daily commute.

I've read a bit about intensity factors but still not 100% sure that I grasp it, or even if that's what I should be focusing on. Anyway, anyone with experience in this area would be great to hear from, hope this isn't too much of a stupid question.

Tom Dean

Theres only one way to find out tbh. It doesn't sound like a lot, but maybe adding three extra sessions straight away would be too much. Maybe this week do one extra session and see how you feel when you get to your weekend rides?

JayKosta

Adjust your training (including intervals) according to your recovery needs, and to your performance changes.

If the interval sessions hurt your 'next day' performance needs, then reduce the amount / intensity of the intervals.

If you are training hard but not making improvements (or are at a long-term plateau), then you might need more rest / recovery time.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA

bigpikle

remember some research done recently that tested groups doing 2 or 3 interval sessions a week, along with general riding on other days. The surprising outcome was that those who only did 2 sessions of intervals performed better and made better gains.

Not sure how this might apply to your/my situations but it does remind me of the old mantra of hard days HARD and easy days EASY and maybe doing 2 days of full-on hard hard intervals that you really do at 100% effort levels, along with easy days the rest of the time will get you more benefit than 3 sessions where you dont recover sufficiently to really hit them full gas. If you're commuting as well I'd suggest 3 sessions might be too much....just a feeling.

My own experience this year has been that I've made good gains following this advice after years of sweetspot, tempo, threshold work day after day and stagnating FTP development.

sloppyschleckonds

Mental fatigue will probably set in quicker than physical.

Racing will probably stimulate you more

whoof

A couple of sessions a week should be fine.
If you do 3 interval session a week on the turbo for say six weeks then I would expect you to either have gone mad or thrown your bike in the canal and taken up bowls by the end of it. Turbo session are good in that you can control all the variables but they are so dull.

Try one turbo session a week and then something a bit more interesting. Try entering an evening club 10 time trial with your normal road bike and sign on in front of 2 or 3 guys who look fast with all the TT kit. Set of at a steady pace and when you are caught let them get a gap of 200m and then try and close it to 50 m (don't catch them, sit on or over take them as it's distracting) or you can hold it at 200m (depending how fast they are going) for a couple of minutes. Sit up, ride steady and wait for the next guy to catch you and repeat.
Alternatively enter a crit and keep attacking.

Stalin

Bigpikle wrote:

remember some research done recently that tested groups doing 2 or 3 interval sessions a week, along with general riding on other days. The surprising outcome was that those who only did 2 sessions of intervals performed better and made better gains.

Not sure how this might apply to your/my situations but it does remind me of the old mantra of hard days HARD and easy days EASY and maybe doing 2 days of full-on hard hard intervals that you really do at 100% effort levels, along with easy days the rest of the time will get you more benefit than 3 sessions where you dont recover sufficiently to really hit them full gas. If you're commuting as well I'd suggest 3 sessions might be too much....just a feeling.

My own experience this year has been that I've made good gains following this advice after years of sweetspot, tempo, threshold work day after day and stagnating FTP development.

Can you post a link to that study?

macmaywill

SPOC wrote:

I wrote out a long message that got deleted so I'll try again in shorter terms.....

New to interval training, previously just rode 9-10 hours a week commuting, riding at the weekend. Interested now to train with my power meter properly and get the most out of my week. My commute I do in all weathers, Monday to Friday, a steady 18-19mph, almost pan flat at around 160-180 watts, my FTP is 261 at the moment so it doesn't feel taxing at all. I ride a 2.5-3 hour temp ride most weekends or something a bit longer and in a lower zone. Maybe 1.5 hour tempo ride thrown in the week if the weather is really nice.

My plan is to throw in intervals maybe 3 evenings a week. For example, this week I did 3x3 intervals yesterday at 115% of my FTP and may well do 2x20 at 95-100% of FTP tomorrow and some Tabata style all outs of Friday. Is this too intense? Could I do more? I've never felt over trained before but my only exposure to intervals has been hill efforts of busting strava segments as motivation. Now I want to sue the consistency the turbo provides for some repeatability in performance. I will generally be doing these after my daily commute.

I've read a bit about intensity factors but still not 100% sure that I grasp it, or even if that's what I should be focusing on. Anyway, anyone with experience in this area would be great to hear from, hope this isn't too much of a stupid question.

For the past 5 months, I've tried the daily interval, once a week interval and two intervals/week. I've noticed most improvement on the 2 days a week intervals