having fun with intervals

“Having fun with intervals”? Perhaps a better title would be “Hurting yourself with intervals”!?

Today was a hard day. Short ride. High intensity. Intervals.

There are many ways to do intervals. If you always do the same intervals, they become less effective. It’s important to mix things up. The purpose of intervals is to shock the body. Give it the unexpected. Make it work when it doesn’t want to work.

Today I did two sets of intervals on Ishikawa Pass.

Climb 1: Big gear, standing intervals

0:45 hard / 1:15 easy.

In the big ring. Out of the saddle. All out effort.

I often do 0:30 intervals. After 0:30 today, the legs are burning. Screaming at me to sit down. These intervals really hurt. I’m glad when I reach the top of the pass.

Climb2: Descending intervals
2:00 hard / 2:00 easy
1:30 hard / 1:30 easy
1:00 hard / 1:00 easy
0:45 hard / 0:45 easy
0:30 hard / 0:30 easy
0:15 hard / 0:15 easy
0:10 hard / 0:10 easy
0:05 hard / 0:05 easy

These intervals are done in the saddle. A more controlled effort. Go as hard as you can for the entire interval.

On paper, the 2:00 interval looks hardest. However, as the rest intervals become shorter, the work intervals become harder. 0:45 and 0:30 are really tough. At 0:15, 0:10, the difference between the work interval and the rest interval becomes a blur……

Wednesday’s training: Ishikawa Pass x 2 (40 km, 550 m climbing)