The sprints in Birling should be all-out efforts, aim to hold the highest power that you can through each of the sprints and repeat it each sprint. It takes some trial and error to figure out what those numbers are if this is new, I did a series of these before starting SSBII… each one took everything I had out of me, rest, and repeat.
Also you can check Coach Chad’s comments here:
From my experience:
- I wouldn’t do that after sweet spot work. I’m not a coach, but I feel like fresh legs are what’s needed to get the most out of workouts like this.
- The last seconds of EACH sprint had me yelling out in agony.
- By the 3rd sprint, I probably could puke (thanks chad for the timely text relating to exactly that)
- Done right, these workouts really put the hurt on you.
Regarding rest periods, it’s been mentioned many times on the podcast that the watts “usually” aren’t as important there and you should focus on keeping things moving. Usually nothing to be gained from pushing higher watts during those rest periods (other than obviously when you’re asked to hold high watts between VO2 efforts etc)