Which type of pain do you prefer?

[Denny418]

It was true during my running days, and it's true now for my cycling: I'd rather hurt real bad for a shorter time than hurt moderately bad for a longer time. For example, I have three different types of hard workouts. An 11-mile sweet-spot "interval" where I'm hurting, but the hurt is under control. I hate that workout the most.

Then I have a workout where I do four 2-mile intervals, close to my max. I don't hate that quite as bad.

Then I have a workout where I do eight 1/2-mile intervals as hard as I can. I actually look forward to that one.

I'm curious how many of you are like me in that regard, and how many prefer to hurt less, for longer.

 

[doctorSpoc]

It was true during my running days, and it's true now for my cycling: I'd rather hurt real bad for a shorter time than hurt moderately bad for a longer time. For example, I have three different types of hard workouts. An 11-mile sweet-spot "interval" where I'm hurting, but the hurt is under control. I hate that workout the most.

Then I have a workout where I do four 2-mile intervals, close to my max. I don't hate that quite as bad.

Then I have a workout where I do eight 1/2-mile intervals as hard as I can. I actually look forward to that one.

I'm curious how many of you are like me in that regard, and how many prefer to hurt less, for longer.

it depends how you do them... you didn't say what kind of recovery between intervals, which is important..

the 11 miler likely takes about 17mins.. it should hurt but it really depends on how hard you do it... it's SST so you'd probably be better off ratcheting it down a peg and doing two of them instead of one... but it can hurt pretty bad if you blitz one of them... but like i said your're better off reducing intensity and doing two with 5-10mins recovery between..

the 2 miler... likely takes about 5mins... this one really depends on the recovery between.. this is the sort of distance you are going to do for VO2max training (3-5mins with 2-3mins recovery) and these for me, are the most painful.. if you're doing 5-10mins recovery they will be much less painful and much less effective as well...

the 1/2 miler likely takes just over a minute and is about the distance to work Anaerobic capacity.. these for me are not that painful... serious pain usually starts to come on at about 2mins so these shouldn't be that painful.. for me these are the easiest of the three... these you can do with lots of recovery since you are working anaerobic capacity.. 3-5min recovery should be enough...

 

[alienator]

Broken bone pain. Definitely.

 

[frenchyge]

I prefer 20-min threshold intervals to 5-min VO2max intervals. Steady burning/grinding in my legs doesn't bother me as much as light-headed oxygen debt or nausea.

 

[swampy1970]

the 11 miler likely takes about 17mins.. it should hurt but it really depends on how hard you do it... it's SST so you'd probably be better off ratcheting it down a peg and doing two of them instead of one...

doctorSpoc = Chris Boardman?

 

[roadhouse]

the kind you dish out.

 

[bubsy]

l love to get all the pain l can bundled into 1 workout
if time is ever an issue l'll start off about 40min from a super steep 2-3min climb at 80% and work through all the pain barriers and finish at close to 140% for the last min or so, by far the most fun type of workout for me.
The days that l don't like so much is when l'm trying to get 80-100min of L4 in one session, it's ok for the first week or two but eventually l have to break it down to a morning session and afternoon session or take a break and move on to a different pain barrier that goes by the name of L5 for a week or 2 then switch back to L4,
by this time some type of adaption has usually ocurred and l start all over again
but at another level

 

[limerickman]

I prefer the pain of having accumulated a lot of miles on a single training spin, preferable.
6+ hours, at an average speed of 20mph, kinda pain.

Haven't done interval training for years.

 

[roadhouse]

I prefer the pain of having accumulated a lot of miles on a single training spin, preferable.
6+ hours, at an average speed of 20mph, kinda pain.

Haven't done interval training for years.

weak.

 

[roadhouse]

i was kidding. i appreciate that kind of riding the most as well.

 

[roadhouse]

one of these days i'll get it all in one post but what i meant by that last one was that kind of time in the saddle i appreciate, the 20 average would be null and void.

 

[Denny418]

Broken bone pain. Definitely.

Alien, there would seem to be several people in this forum who would love to accommodate you on that!

 

[alienator]

Alien, there would seem to be several people in this forum who would love to accommodate you on that!

That's just proof that there's no accounting for taste.

 

[doctorSpoc]

doctorSpoc = Chris Boardman?

doh! guess i forgot to do the miles to km conversion on that one... ah but for Christ sake... it's 2009 why are people still using that archaic unit of measure... lol

 

[frost]

the 1/2 miler likely takes just over a minute and is about the distance to work Anaerobic capacity.. these for me are not that painful... serious pain usually starts to come on at about 2mins so these shouldn't be that painful.. for me these are the easiest of the three... these you can do with lots of recovery since you are working anaerobic capacity.. 3-5min recovery should be enough...

This underlines how different we are. For me the minute is most cruel and unusual punishment so much that I have come to think that kilo riding is really not sport but some twisted form of masochism .

But what is true in "you get better at what you train for" is also true in "you get used to what you do".

 

[jhuskey]

The pain that comes from reading internet forums.

 

[doctorSpoc]

This underlines how different we are. For me the minute is most cruel and unusual punishment so much that I have come to think that kilo riding is really not sport but some twisted form of masochism .

But what is true in "you get better at what you train for" is also true in "you get used to what you do".

everyone picks their poison i guess... i hear ya... but again.. as i say, it really depends on how you do these...

in my comparisons i'm talking about training at these durations... not racing... i can imagine that racing a kilo is very, very painful.. like the 400m is on the track. but when doing an AC workout.. you won't likely be doing them as hard as if you were racing over that distance... it's just not necessary to get the desired effect.. and you're doing a set of 6 or something, so you pick an intensity that is doable over six efforts... for me anyway, the way i do an AC workout i don't find them that painful...

when training VO2max the whole idea is to over tax your system... that's the workout.. so and so these by very nature if you are doing them right are painful.. they are over 2mins (usually 3-5mins) as hard as you can possibly do them and you do incomplete recovery so as you go as well, they become harder and harder to complete and more and more painful..

for SST training the whole idea is to get as much volume at around threshold, usually sub threshold... so they kind of turn into a slow, long burn, but you can ratchet down and still be in zone and still get pretty much the same workout/adaptation... so for me it's a pretty forgiving workout painwise, you can manage your pain and on a given day take more or less just depending on how you feel.. but your pain is kinda stretched out for longer so for some these can be pretty bad too.. a real mental thing... but as i say racing at this distance is another story completely though and can be very painful to race..

i'd differentiate between racing and training... for training there is no comparison for me, VO2max workouts are just brutally painful.. THE worst and they are designed to be so, but for racing i'd actually say the 20-30min effort for me is the worst.. i'd rather get it over with sooner than later...

 

[swampy1970]

Fixed for 'unit correctness'

the 17.7km likely takes about 17mins..

doctorspoc = cancellara?

 

[doctorSpoc]

Fixed for 'unit correctness'



doctorspoc = cancellara?

??

i did this by mistake... 17mins for 11km (not miles).. doctorSpoc = doctorSpoc = worn out Master 40+ racer...

 

[swampy1970]

??

i did this by mistake... 17mins for 11km (not miles).. doctorSpoc = doctorSpoc = worn out Master 40+ racer...

I was joking... hence the change to km and picking a rider whose country used km's as a unit of measurement.