Originally Posted by
koala logs
There are days I take interval sessions with 15 minutes easy followed immediately by 15 minutes hard, repeat 2x. I'm typically able to push harder during the 2nd 15 minutes hard interval just like what happened with you when you took that phone call.
I can do hard (beyond tempo) sessions much longer than 15 minutes continuously but I don't do it everyday. I only do it twice a week during a training session with 45 minutes to 1 hr 15 minutes harder-than-tempo effort continuously.
You might indeed be able to burn more calories if you did intervals or broke down your hard efforts into shorter periods with easy efforts in between. Another way to burn more calories is simply make long hours of easy effort spinning.
My general thinking here is less interval oriented and more along the lines of a derivative from back in my working days as a runner. I would put in 5 miles early morning (or maybe lunch depending on my work schedule) and then another workout most evenings. That two a day workout (weekdays anyway) seemed to work well for me, although I had nothing to compare to exactly. Now that I am an old man cyclist, maybe try that again.
BTW, on a calories burned per unit of time spent, running is about as good as it gets. But ankle sprains, osteo-arthritis in multiple joints, and spinal stenosis rule that out these days. In fact I became a cyclist as a way to get serious exercise without sprained ankles. Even I cannot sprain an ankle while clipped in.
dave