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Do you get annoyed at people doing intervals/sprints?

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Do you get annoyed at people doing intervals/sprints?

Old 08-24-20, 12:00 AM
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ZHVelo
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Do you get annoyed at people doing intervals/sprints?

Got overtaken on my endurance ride yesterday by this cyclist just before my sprint was supposed to start, so obviously I do it and overtake him back, then slow down to my endurance pace again so that he overtakes me again a short time later, and he seemed really pissed off at me for that. He was old, but very strong.
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Old 08-24-20, 01:43 AM
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mattcalifornia
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What's wrong with doing intervals? It's a great training method. I don't see what you're annoyed about -- especially since you changed your speed to a sprint also.
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Old 08-24-20, 02:49 AM
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Originally Posted by mattcalifornia
What's wrong with doing intervals? It's a great training method. I don't see what you're annoyed about -- especially since you changed your speed to a sprint also.
He was annoyed at me for sprinting. Like he looked at me, muttered something and shook his head. Clearly very annoyed.
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Old 08-24-20, 03:11 AM
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Originally Posted by ZHVelo
He was annoyed at me for sprinting. Like he looked at me, muttered something and shook his head. Clearly very annoyed.
Probably thought you were trying to "assert dominance". It's whatever, you do you.
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Old 08-24-20, 05:36 AM
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Look at it from his perspective.
He's riding faster than you, after he passes you, you sprint ahead of him only to slow down again forcing him to pass you again. He couldn't know that you were planning a sprint,
If I were the other cyclist, I would assume you were posing me with a challenge and I would (probably) try and keep up, but I wouldn't be annoyed, just puzzled as to what you were doing.
If I were you, I would have waited until my sprint wouldn't bring me past a faster rider.
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Old 08-24-20, 05:45 AM
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Ignore him, HIIT training is a mainstay of any good training programme. I am a natural sprinter and fastest in my region and I stay that way due to hard interval training - I pretty much know all the seriously competitive cyclists who race and they know me so no issues with what to expect. Sometimes I'll do sprints at specific parts of my route as I go, usually going for PR's/KOM's as a means of extra motivation for the training which I find really helps since I can be lazy, sometimes I'll do the same hill repeatedly - that's more obvious that I'm doing intervals, of course.

We all ride as we want for the goals we set ourselves, be that just riding for exercise, to take in the scenery or to train for racing. It has nothing at all to do with others and they have to accept that we share the roads so if they get all upset because they assume you are competing against them, tough, that's their own insecurity issue that they have to deal with.
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Old 08-24-20, 06:00 AM
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It sounds like you are playing competitive tourist games.
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Old 08-24-20, 06:18 AM
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Sprint workouts mean long periods of low intensity between the efforts. Meaning, it is almost irrelevant how long to wait so long as you recovered enough. Meaning, you could have waited just 30 seconds more and went again with him well clear. Sprints are short enough also you wouldn’t have caught him unless you decided wrongly when to go.

Your fault bud.
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Old 08-24-20, 06:27 AM
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Everyone's got equal right to the road. The OP was getting ready to do a sprint when the other rider invaded his plans. No fault by either.
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Old 08-24-20, 06:43 AM
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I probably would have waited a couple minutes for my sprint(unless I was doing hill intervals) just to avoid a sword measuring contest.

Last edited by noodle soup; 08-24-20 at 06:48 AM.
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Old 08-24-20, 07:08 AM
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I would've turned around or turned off onto a different road.

I'm going with "lame".
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Old 08-24-20, 07:20 AM
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Don't wanna play leapfrog with a stranger? Turn. Take any turn. In the last 12 miles of my yesterday, I got behind a dreadfully fit and youthful couple who were unintentionally goldiblocking, which is what I call one or more riders going too slowly for me to sit behind them, but fast enough that I don't feel like putting out the gas to pass them. So as soon as the opportunity presented itself, I made a left. Like 5 minutes later, there they were again. Another left. Ten minutes more, there they are again. So I had some extra little bits tacked on to my ride. But I never had to pass 'em.
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Old 08-24-20, 07:40 AM
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Originally Posted by burnthesheep
Sprint workouts mean long periods of low intensity between the efforts. Meaning, it is almost irrelevant how long to wait so long as you recovered enough. Meaning, you could have waited just 30 seconds more and went again with him well clear. Sprints are short enough also you wouldn’t have caught him unless you decided wrongly when to go.

Your fault bud.
From my perspective, I don't subscribe to that method all the time for some intervals - I do that when doing repeated full gas hill intervals, sprint, try not to puke, recover, sprint etc but when doing sprint intervals during a ride at specific points I do not slow down too much at all, in fact I try to keep a good pace.

In a race, when you attack or someone else attacks, you don't get the luxury of recovering comfortably after the harder sprint effort, instead you have to dig deep and keep a good pace going either to hang onto a wheel and to put in strong driving efforts yourself working with others or to make a solo break work. I therefore like to combine sprint intervals with a strong average pace. If I see someone ahead I'm not going to slow down or wait for my sprint if it happens to be on a segment I want to go for; I'm working on my average and wanting the segment. Tough ask, but valid training.

If someone I pass wants to use my wheel, fine, I'm ok with it, but I'll completely ignore them and carry on with my own ride. They are more than welcome to race away if they want as well, I'll do my training regardless and I won't sit on their wheel since that kinda defeats the object of my own training - I get twice weekly Group rides for that.

I wave and greet everyone, I won't join a Group uninvited, I won't sit on a wheel uninvited, I don't mind others using my wheel but I am not going to disrupt my training because it might make someone jump to the conclusion that I am challenging them. No way.
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Old 08-24-20, 07:49 AM
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IMO, there are routes that simply aren't conducive to constant passing, increasing the danger for all concerned.

But, aside from that aspect (which all cyclists and motorists should be aware of), I've no problem either passing someone or being passed, even repeatedly, if our training methods differ on that route.
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Old 08-24-20, 08:08 AM
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There's also the issue of sprinting past unsuspecting riders on a road. I don't know how quickly you're sprinting, but the last thing I want to do is go blazing by some unknown rider who may inadvertently swerve or turn or u-turn or some other silly behavior that puts themselves or me at risk.

Full-on sprints need a relatively-controlled environment.
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Old 08-24-20, 08:17 AM
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Originally Posted by AlgarveCycling
From my perspective, I don't subscribe to that method all the time for some intervals - I do that when doing repeated full gas hill intervals, sprint, try not to puke, recover, sprint etc but when doing sprint intervals during a ride at specific points I do not slow down too much at all, in fact I try to keep a good pace.

In a race, when you attack or someone else attacks, you don't get the luxury of recovering comfortably after the harder sprint effort, instead you have to dig deep and keep a good pace going either to hang onto a wheel and to put in strong driving efforts yourself working with others or to make a solo break work. I therefore like to combine sprint intervals with a strong average pace. If I see someone ahead I'm not going to slow down or wait for my sprint if it happens to be on a segment I want to go for; I'm working on my average and wanting the segment. Tough ask, but valid training.
That's altogether different training, though. Actual sprint training is as he described. It's a max effort with a minimum of 7-8 minutes recovery. You typically want full recovery in between efforts.

What you're talking about isn't working on your sprinting so much as your aerobic fitness. The shorter the recovery, the more aerobic the work. Both have their place and are valid training, but they're training two different things.
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Old 08-24-20, 08:37 AM
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Taking a turn is no option. A) I do the same ride every time, I want to see how I do comparatively and B) long parts of it literally have no real turn, it goes around a lake. And I won't turn off the lake and then have to find my way back, just so someone doesn't get annoyed. And it's no sword fighting contest, he was clearly a stronger rider than me.
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Old 08-24-20, 08:38 AM
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This is why I do my structured training inside. No leapfrogging back and forth, no worry about someone running into my back end when my interval is over.
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Old 08-24-20, 08:46 AM
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Originally Posted by rubiksoval
That's altogether different training, though. Actual sprint training is as he described. It's a max effort with a minimum of 7-8 minutes recovery. You typically want full recovery in between efforts.

What you're talking about isn't working on your sprinting so much as your aerobic fitness. The shorter the recovery, the more aerobic the work. Both have their place and are valid training, but they're training two different things.
I read it as it could be either type of training - both involves sprints albeit at different intensities. If he is doing full gas plus recovery, then yes, sure, he has more control over how and when he chooses to go for each sprint and he may want to do so when the road ahead is clear. Certainly, when I do that type of training I have a clear path and it is generally on repeated runs of the same segment but each to their own. The OP just came across to me as though he could have been doing the training I described that also involves sprints whereby if chance dictates another cyclist is on your route at a coincidental time, then the other cyclist needs to just get on with their own ride and not get worked up over someone else doing theirs.

Regardless, we share the same roads, we should all be able to get on with whatever type of riding or training we want without someone else taking offense or making false assumptions. We overtake all manner of things all the time on our rides, another cyclist, even repeatedly, during training is no big deal. Equally being passed ourselves - let them go, do their thing.
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Old 08-24-20, 08:58 AM
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Originally Posted by rubiksoval
There's also the issue of sprinting past unsuspecting riders on a road. I don't know how quickly you're sprinting, but the last thing I want to do is go blazing by some unknown rider who may inadvertently swerve or turn or u-turn or some other silly behavior that puts themselves or me at risk.

Full-on sprints need a relatively-controlled environment.
True but I checked before and no car was behind and I was in the middle of the road, he was on the cycle lane. He would have had to swerve an awful lot.
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Old 08-24-20, 09:07 AM
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I suspect he was making the mistake of thinking it was about him. You could ignore him, or as you passed him, or when he re-passed you, just say in an apologetic voice, "Intervals".

I play leapfrog with people all the time, largely because I'm large, and therefore fast on the downhills and slow on the uphills. But I really don't want to give up the momentum I gain on the downhills just because they'll pass me again later. I played leapfrog with one woman for 20 miles the other week - she and I were going the same average speed, but with me there's more 'fluctuation around the mean.' I hope she didn't think it was about her!
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Old 08-24-20, 09:12 AM
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i wouldnt worry about it. Not my problem if someone else chooses to get worked up over something as absurd as this - that is his effing problem. People actively seem to be looking for crap to get worked up over these days - even if it is something that has zero effect on their lives. If my intervals bother someone even though I am not cutting them off or causing them to brake suddenly or whatever, they go get ducked.
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Old 08-24-20, 10:54 AM
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Originally Posted by mattcalifornia
what's wrong with doing intervals? It's a great training method. I don't see what you're annoyed about -- especially since you changed your speed to a sprint also.
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Old 08-24-20, 11:10 AM
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There are crotchety old guys that think it's their right to slam on brakes when you get too close to them. Many expect that everyone should behave just like them when they cycle because obviously they do it perfectly with every consideration.

Until you can sit around a table with beers in their hand and yours you'll never be able to get them to understand everyone else is not out for a nice ride or trying to show off their testosterone levels.
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Old 08-24-20, 11:55 AM
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Yesterday morning I was just about to launch into an 8-minute interval when I got passed by a guy going pretty well. I figured that I might catch up to him on the interval but wouldn't be going hard enough for a quick pass. It was going to be awkward more than annoying. So I did a quick U-turn and rode in the other direction for a couple hundred meters before turning back around and starting my interval. That was all it took. No biggie.
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