Originally Posted by bgoetz .
...So I know Dave advocates sprint @ 100% every time which I agree with, what I am wondering is does this mean 100% PE, 100% power, or both. IOW, do I go out and give a full sprint effort, recover 10min and go again, maximizing PE and wattage. OR do I go find a nice hill or overpass and do hill sprints with shorter recovery intervals @ 100% PE, recognizing that the shorter recovery will minimize power output?
It means focus on sprints from full or nearly full recovery as track sprinters do, not sprints from intentional partial recovery hoping to turn it into some form of AWC workout instead of a largely neuromuscular workout. That's if you're working on peak speed and peak power as well as sustainable power over the duration of the actual sprint.
Sure you can take the race specificity view and do sprints after a hard minute interval or something like that to emulate the way you'll hit the sprint fatigued in actual races but IME that's not the best way to improve your actual sprint. Also realize that even with five or ten minutes of easy spinning between sprints each one is increasingly less dependent on phosphocreatine and purely anaerobic processes and each one draws more heavily on aerobic processes. This has been demonstrated with track sprinters in as few as three consecutive sprints with long rest periods between them and is almost certainly true out on the road with some riding around between each sprint. IOW, you'll get some cumulative fatigue between each sprint even with long rest periods.
What I would suggest based on a lot of recent success with a variety of racers that were struggling with sprints is to work both the traditional short intense speed burst sprint and the longer 'drag race' sprints. They're different and both very useful but a lot of folks focus on the peak power, peak jump speed variety which works best when someone else has strung out the race, either though an intentional lead out or by jumping first and you were able to grab their wheel. In those situations a big power/speed burst to jump clear, get separation, and nail the final hundred or so meters to the line is the key.
But in many road racing and crit situations you can do much better and own your own destiny better by launching early and long in a bigger gear but without the massive power/speed peak but instead rising slowly out of the saddle, rocking that bike up to speed and continuing to accelerate all the way to the line. You've got to figure out your ideal range for this move because if your speed plateaus much before the finish line or worse fades as you blow up, you'll have just turned your sprint into a great leadout for someone else. But when you get the distance right such that your cadence and speed continues to ramp all the way in it can be surprisingly difficult for someone to come around at the end. These should be something like 20 to even 30 second sprints and can change your range from 200 meters to up to maybe 400+ meters in good conditions (tailwind, fast roads, flat or slightly descending finishes might stretch it longer, uphills, headwinds, slow roads will shorten that range a bit). Practice some of these in training to figure out your best range but you may be surprised how well you can do when you take control of the race and turn a pure speed sprinter's game into a power rider's game and force others to drag race against you into the line.
But even in this case I'd strongly suggest being very well recovered between each sprint so you can give your all and really focus on the neuromuscular and anaerobic work and not do these part way and try to make them into AWC and lactate tolerance work, save that for another day.
BTW, from a power perspective in your files look for a short and very tall power burst at the start of the short speed sprints, cadence should be fairly high even before you jump as in 90 - 95 rpm, then a very tall power spike that drops off rapidly but your cadence and speed continues to climb for the 8 to 15 seconds or so of short intense speed.
In the long drag race sprint the starting cadence is typically very low as in 70 or less, you rise up and start rocking the bike and spend the first half of the 'sprint' getting on top of the gear and up to speed before you wind it out at the end. The power curve is much broader and not as sharp or as tall a peak and you likely won't hit your highest power numbers in these until the halfway point or later but the power stays relatively high for a good 15 seconds or more. Your cadence and speed should ideally ramp up all the way to the finish. There's lot's of variations on this theme like ramping the speed in controlled steps or controlling a rider from the front by just using enough to hold him on your wheel till you either hit your ideal final burst range or he jumps and you have to go. That's track tactics stuff but if you work on your long controlled game you can use it on the road in some situations as well.
So yeah, I'd still say sprint as fresh as you can when you sprint but there are different kinds of sprints and for many roadies the long sprint can be a very powerful weapon or at least a good tool to have in their tool kits.
-Dave
