intervals... short and long

[steve kaspar]

talked to a freind today i havent talked to in a while, and he was asking me my opinion on him trying out a new training plan.
he was saying what he thinks is a waste of time is doing sweet spot training, longer intervals, those long tempo rides with a group of guys... his reason was today, he went out and did a short 25 mile group ride and was basically telling me, once they decided to pick up the pace, all his base miles, sweet spot miles, 20 minute hard training rides, are super slow compared to how they were rotating today..
he said he is just , or at least he thinks he is going to just start doing intervals. 1 minute to 5 minute intervals, very very hard with plenty rest, so he can go all out doing them.. then do a few ez days riding, then intervals again. hard ones same as his previous interval workout. just keep this pattern up. intervals, rest a few days , intervals rest a few day, then a longer endurance ride. he was telling me when they were going 30+ mph today taking turns at the front, none of his current training even comes close to this intensity.. he works weekends, so cant race, but ocasionally gets out either a sat. or sunday. for the group ride.
is doing intervals like he's talking about 2-3 days a week good? i often wondered that too. after the base period. forget all the tempo and sweet spot stuff and just go all out on 1-2-3-4 minute intrvals. lots of them.
thanks for any replies..
steve

 

[frenchyge]

is doing intervals like he's talking about 2-3 days a week good? i often wondered that too. after the base period. forget all the tempo and sweet spot stuff and just go all out on 1-2-3-4 minute intrvals. lots of them.

Is he mainly competing in 1, 2, 3 or 4 min events? Training should be specific to the demands of the competition, right?

Anyway, short intervals done as hard as you can, generally fall into level 6 in the charts shown at the bottom of this link. Take a look at the charts and see if it would be a good idea to ignore those other levels after the base period for a competitive cyclist. Then you can decide whether to set him straight or let him go his own way like your other powerlifting coach friend.

 

[bubsy]

lf he doesn't do much in the way of hard group rides/races then yeah through in some AWC and V02 intervals 30's - 6min from time to time.
l have made the mistake of turning up to early season races without doing any short intervals and dang if l didn't get blown out the back in the first 10min, but focusing on these type of workouts year round if your program doesn't call for them is a waste of training time if one wants to increase aerobic capacity other than 5min peak power.