Interval sessions
Interval sessions
The thought of intervals may make your legs groan and bring you out in cold sweats, but they are a recurring theme among the pros we spoke to.
Intervals are by no means the sole way of building fitness – and Barker admits he wouldn’t do them were he not a racer – but they ensure you get the most out of your ride, particularly if you have limited time and want to work on your top-end fitness.
So what sessions work best? Barker says: “It’s interesting because if I didn’t race, I would never do intervals!
“But for those that do really want to, I find this to be a good set: three lots of 20 minutes, the first at 80 per cent of your maximum effort, the second 20 minutes at 100 per cent maximum effort [of what you can sustain for 20 minutes] and then the third at 80 per cent again.
“Another good one is five lots of five minutes at maximum effort, with five minutes recovery between each. That hurts, but it also works well.”
Ian Field spends his winter racing cyclo-cross and uses his FTP (functional threshold power) to plan interval sessions and prime his form.
Field says: “I do a fair bit of sweetspot training [just below threshold – long 20-minute blocks like that – and then five-by-five minute efforts in and around threshold [with recovery in between].
“It’s all around that mark for different periods of time and different recovery times – it’s dependent on the races I have coming up and how I’m feeling.”