Originally Posted by
Hermes
No. This week I did 4 HIIT sessions. Saturday and today, on the smart trainer I did 2 sets of 4x(20"on 3'off) with complete recovery between sets. My best 20" average power on Saturday was 508 watts and today, it was 484 watts. Legs felt good both days.
One different between Saturday and Sunday was the I did lower cadence today. I find low cadence on the smart trainer much more difficult to produce power for the same level of effort. And I am about 150 watt lower on this type of effort on the trainer than at the track or on the road. YMMV.
This raises the question of how different HIIT sessions can vary in how much fatigue they cause. 20 sec intervals with 3 mins recovery are going to require a lot less recovery than say 3 min VO2 max intervals. For those who are familiar with Sufferfest, a workout like “9 Hammers” or any of their other hardcore HIIT sessions are not something you can repeat the next day. At least not at the prescribed intensity. But shorter micro-intervals are pretty easy to recover from. I often use them as activation sessions the day before a big event.
HIIT is a pretty broad brush when it comes to fatigue and recovery. I find some HIIT sessions pretty easy on recovery and others really do need some R&R the next day!