When doing sets full-on short (15-30") efforts followed by 30" of recovery, is there high neuromuscular demand/fatigue? It would seem so, but I wanted to check here. I feel pretty crushed about 2 hrs later. Did the guys ever talk about turnaround time of neuromuscular fatigue? Thx.
I’m going to repurpose this topic that never got a reply. I did a set of 6 x 10 second intervals (high gear, from a 2-3mph start). They went fine but I’m still a bit fatigued a couple of days later and have a touch of the DOMS - kind of like the first time I did 3x5minute VO2 hard start intervals. It’s crazy comparing 15 minutes vs. 60 seconds of work.
I’m taking this to mean that these high torque intervals are a deficiency for me. I’ll keep going after I fully recover and make these into a little block. The rest of what I’m doing is Z1/2 so polarized but I have a newly restarted group ride on deck for Saturday so probably a lot of SS/threshold.
I’m curious if anyone has ever done a block of neuromuscular work and if they felt they got decent gains or adaptations out of it. Usually when I read about this kind of work it’s an add-on to larger endurance ride. The pros sprinkle it into 5 hour endurance rides.
I tackle this 2 ways:
- I have long off-season where weightlifting is more important than cycling.
- During base, I include 1 30sec max effort after > 2000kc of work, at least once a week. Never done sprints fresh or rested.
According to intervals.icu my 30sec power is in the top 12% for my age group.
Last Jun/July/Aug I did the 10-week FasCat Weight lifting for cyclists off-season plan that includes resistance training and sprint work. From looking at that web page I’m reminded that towards the end of the plan you are doing 4 sets of 4x15(90 off) sprintervals. Then I hired Coach Isaiah and we continued doing sprint work for another month or so (baselining for future use) Since then we haven’t been working short power, or anaerobic capacity. Its all about the base because if you don’t make it to the end with the lead group, you don’t have an opportunity to sprint for the win.
My neuromuscular system appears to have already been in good shape. As this worked spanned two seasons, if I cherry pick intervals.icu data for the 55-59 age group (moving to next group soon) then 5 & 15-sec is top 3% compared to 819 peers, while 30-sec drops to top 13% (haven’t work on it), and more classic rough estimate of anaerobic capacity at 60sec is top 7% (surprising, haven’t worked on it).
I’ve definitely seen an increase in 1 to 90 second power, but its been a game of inches.
Regarding your first question, In January I did six 1000W short 5-10 second sprints during a z2 ride, spaced about 6-8 minutes apart, and that killed my legs for a week. If instead I do hard efforts, more in 600-800W range, then no problems.
Not to piss on your stats, but you have to look at it in w/kg…unless you are telling us that you do almost 2000watts, which while possible I don’t think is likely.
Raw watts on the flats! 1200 and change.
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I do Z6/Z7 work all the time, but not as periodized blocks. Power gains in this zone are fleeting - use it or lose it.
Instead, I do those workouts year round and the goal is repeatability, not increasing max power, Favorite workouts are Striped +7 and Stangate. Despite the way they look, they’re very aerobic in nature due to the length of the intervals, relatively short recovery valleys, and number of intervals.
My max sprint numbers haven’t really changed since I was untrained at 2-ish w/kg. I’m now at double that. Max sprint isn’t much higher but repeatability is so much higher it’s not even close. Like 4X.
As for fatigue, you get used to it.
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Thanks for all the feedback. My fatigue feels like DOMS. That makes me think that if I do more of these workouts, they will get easier and then I’ll be able to do them once every 7-14 days without any DOMS. Whether this type of fitness helps me will remain to be seen.