Which type of pain do you prefer?

[tonyzackery]

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

I definitely would rather "hurt less, for longer".
Y'all know me and my propensity for popping 'profen when it's Vo2max training time.
Those indoor TTs over the winter demonstrated that I can handle the long threshold stuff pretty well, provided I pace myself properly. The L5 work, while extremely effective for its application, is masochistic in nature - for me anyway...

 

[Piotr]

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.

I'm somewhat like you in that regard. 1 minute tests don't bother me as much as some seem to vilify them. I never felt like puking afterwards (yes, I do them all out). I absolutely loathe 20 min indoor tests. I seem to bail early with every try, so I haven't done one of those for a long time now and would actually rather do a true 1 hr FTP indoors. Perhaps because there's more sensible pacing involved, while in a 20 min test you pretty much get up to speed within a couple of minutes and try to hold what you believe you should be able to. Outdoors is different. I actually look forward to ~20 minute hillclimbs.

 

[graywulf]

Hey. I prefer fewer and longer intervals, rather than more and shorter. I need time to hit a rhythm.

 

[Denny418]

Okay, now I know the best way to torture each one of you should I ever need to pry loose some crucial information.