canklecat

I can only say what worked for me. For me, intervals didn't make me "faster". It just significantly improved my recovery time. Instead of needing 5 minutes after a hard effort to recocer, I can get it back in 30 seconds just by pedaling a little easier. That's the difference between being dropped and slogging to the next regroup point, or being able to close a gap and regain the draft off the first good wheel I can find.

Over distance I'm "faster" than I used to be, but only because I can recover quicker after climbs and sprints (our short, steep climbs are mostly sprints). I'm not setting many new PRs on Strava segments of .2 to 2 miles. But over the course of 20-30 mile routes that I ride often, my overall average has improved from 14 mph to 18 mph on a good day. Usually closer to 16 mph.

To get consistently faster over distance, I'd need to train differently... which I'm working on this year. That's easier on a club ride since the strongest riders determine the pace. No way to kid myself about how well I'm doing when the group is getting tinier and I'm gasping for breath.

Keep in mind our baselines may be different, so effective training may be different too. I'm 61, coming off a rough year in 2018 with injuries and illness. And my baseline fitness wasn't great before then. I was pretty badly injured in a 2001 wreck that broke my neck and back in six places so I was mostly inactive for more than a decade with a very slow recovery. I was still walking with a cane in 2014, and resumed cycling in 2015 with a 35 lb comfort hybrid (which I still have and use for errands and some casual group rides).

It took me a couple of years just to regain some baseline fitness. When I first resumed cycling in 2015 I couldn't ride 400 yards without stopping and gasping for air and huffing my asthma inhaler. It took me several weeks just to ride 3 miles without stopping. Another two months to ride 10 miles without stopping. A year before I could tackle 50 miles spread out over the course of 12 hours with lots of rest breaks. Anyone who's starting with decent baseline fitness can easily improve on my efforts.

My sports background was mostly amateur boxing in the 1970s-'80s so I still tend to train the same way. I did a few crits and time trials but I was never particularly fast. I did it for fun and because I hated running. I jogged a little and skipped rope for leg work, but didn't run much. I bike commuted about 20 miles a day, 3-5 days a week, plus more on weekends, and some casual pace club rides of 75-250 miles on weekends.

Most boxing training is the original interval training -- 2 or 3 minutes on, 1 minute off, lather, rinse, repeat. But we never did anything approaching Tabata style HIIT intensity. That's good for a certain type of conditioning -- relatively short bursts of hard effort, with a minute's rest. Not so great for stamina over time/distance or maximum effort sprints. Back then most boxing trainers were suspicious of certain types of training, including weight lifting, swimming, wind sprints or hardcore interval training. They didn't see any point in a maximum effort for 10-30 seconds that would leave you gassed out when there was still another minute or two left in the round. They probably didn't see the advantage to HIIT -- shorter, quicker recovery after maximum effort. But boxing is a game, a sport, not a "fight," and it's often the superior tactics that win fights.

Our terrain in North Central Texas is mostly roller coasters. We don't have any serious climbs by world standards, or Rocky Mountain standards. Those rollers are closer to some high intensity interval training techniques, with near-maximum effort for maybe 30-60 seconds, then another 30-60 seconds of relatively flat terrain or downhills, then another short, steep climb. There are a couple of good nearby loops of 2.5 and 5 miles where I can get a reasonable interval session -- same two circuits used by the local pro team. And, yup, they make me look very slow.

I do maximum effort intervals only indoors, once a week at most. Pushing until I'm dizzy and nearly ready to barf can be dangerous outdoors, especially in summer heat. I use a Cycleops trainer for that. Usually I'll do several sets of 30 seconds max effort, 30 seconds easy effort, repeated for up to 5 minutes. Then I'll stand to pedal for 2-5 minutes, followed by the same amount of seated easy pedaling.

During intervals I try to hit 165 bpm or higher, although that's often limited by prescription meds I take including BP meds that I occasionally take for severe headaches. The day of, and after, I take metoprolol and/or lisinopril it's hard to get my heart rate above 140. That makes it tough to use HR as a guide to appropriate effort, so I just go by how I feel during a ride. On good days when my HR is normal, I try to keep my average around 140-145 bpm for a "tempo" ride. I get audible updates every few minutes from Wahoo Fitness or other apps, so if it tells me my HR has averaged over 150 bpm for the past five minutes, I need to be careful if I expect to get home from a 50 mile ride.

You'll need to check your own heart rate to get useful values. For me, the 220 minus my age is pretty close. Doesn't work that well for everyone.

Most trainers say high intensity interval sessions should be fairly short, no more than 30 minutes, and not combined with other workouts that day -- no 20-60 minute FTP sessions on the same day. Some younger guys might do both but at my age I have to be realistic about rest as well as workouts.

After an interval session I'll take a full day off, maybe just doing some stretching and range of motion, light calasthenics like pushups, etc. Then I'll do one or two 40-60 mile rides a week for stamina, usually combined with a club ride. And a couple of 20-30 solo miles on a familiar route to check my overall conditioning. Neck pain from those old injuries usually limit me beyond 30 miles, so longer rides are mostly a grueling test of patience more than a workout. Occasionally, like on Thursday's 70+ mile ride, I feel pretty good and the neck seems to be improving.

I've also been modifying my pedaling style. Usually I spin 90 rpm like clockwork. But the past few weeks I'm using harder gears and consciously staying around 60-70 rpm, using a cadence sensor because it feels unnatural to me. To my surprise, after a couple of weeks of that I improved my times on a couple of familiar 20-30 mile routes by nearly 2 mph. The tricky bit will be seeing if I can repeat that speed increase, or if it was just an unusually good day.

On a good day I can crack the top ten on a tough Strava segment, alongside some of the strongest local men and women. But I couldn't hang with them over distance. If I put in a hard enough effort on a 2-5 mile segment to put up a decent time, I'm gonna be cooked and will need another few minutes to recover, while the genuinely fast riders are chugging along steadily. That's why I don't pay much attention to short Strava segments. Anyone can do that on a good day. Sustaining it over distance is the tough part. And I'm pretty sure some of the local pros aren't publicly logging their best times to Strava -- I've seen them out training here but I never see their names on Strava, although I do see the names of the non-pro club guys and trainers who ride with the younger guys. If they did log their best times to Strava the rest of us mere mortals wouldn't be anywhere near the top ten.

I also use a lot of supplements. Who knows if they're actually doing any good, or if I'm just making expensive urine. I feel like some of them are helping, notably creatine and l-arginine. I'm not really sure about the DHEA, pregnenolone and others but I take 'em anyway on workout days. And prescription thyroid supplement after thyroid cancer last year. I can definitely feel the thyroid med -- if I skip a day I can hardly get out of bed. If I mistakenly take two doses in a day I'm jittery and my heart rate and blood pressure spike. There's a narrow optimal range for that stuff and I get checked often by my GP and endocrinologist, since doses that are too high can lead to osteoporosis and other problems. It's not like a PED where more is better.

Anyway, 'scuse the rambling reply. Check the GCN channel on YouTube for training tips and variations on interval training. GCN videos are well done, entertaining, well edited and no longer than necessary.