Hi there community. I recently had a high intensity workout and found it helpful to pause the workout for 10 seconds when my legs were absolutely flooded, and that allowed me to complete the workout. I guess my question to members of the forum and any coaches out there (wink) is: is this cheating and how much am I losing in terms of potential gains when I do this?
Are you pausing mid interval?
What was the workout?
I always figure if I didn’t complete the workout as prescribed, I’m not going to get the full benefit. That said, sometimes I just can’t do it, usually due to accumulated fatigue, which is sometimes compounded by lack of motivation. Usually what I do rather than pause the workout is dial down the intensity, sometimes a little, and sometimes a lot to take time to recover before dialing it back up. Other times, I just quit the workout. Tomorrow is another day.
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No.
I look at it this way.
If you were to stop at let’s say 3/4 of the way, you get “X” benefit.
If you pause for 10 sec. and finish the rest of the workout you get “X” benefit plus the remaining time.
You don’t get the full benefit of the workout but really… how much did you really lose.
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Just make sure you mark the post workout survey appropriately and you should be fine.
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What would be the appropriate response to the survey do you think? I responded with Very Hard. I guess my main concern would be that my AI generated FTP might be artificially high. I mean I’m not actually confident that I could hold my current FTP for a solid hour.
Picket guard +3 (two hour version). Yes I did stop mid interval, for 8-10 seconds and that with the ramp back up to the target watt gave me the relief my legs wanted, but my head felt guilty:-)
That is really not the definition of FTP (at least not anymore)….but let’s avoid what the actual definition is because there are plenty of threads about it.
If you are failing your workouts consistently, your FTP is indeed likely too high. If SS intervals feel more like threshold work, your FTP is too high,
If you took an occasional 10” break on a day of high intensity intervals, but are generally completing your workouts OK, your FTP is probably about right.
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Sweet Spot intervals aren’t intervals I usually fail, but the 20 watt jump to the overs was pretty tough to hold repeatedly especially with any leg speed. That jump took me into lower vo2 max range. Thank you for your input and candor.
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I would have said All Out if I had to take a break, but I’m sure some folks will argue for either response. I think the key is just to be consistent with your responses.
On checking your FTP, you could try doing Lamarck, which is 4x10@FTP. That’s a workout some people do to verify test results.
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If your break was during the interval then all out is how I’d answer the survey.
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Mark as all out, let them give you something you can do next time.
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I actually had that same workout last Thursday during my first week of build. I was honestly surprised how high the overs were (lower end of vo2max) considering I haven’t really done any vo2max work yet this year. If you are in a similar boat (limited vo2max), it’s not surprising you might struggle on the overs. But that stuff comes around quickly and that power should come easier next time if you mostly hit the workout. If I had to pause a workout, I’d personally mark it “max effort”. If the next workout looks too easy, you can always pick an alternate to make it harder.
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At the best rate it as very hard or maybe even all out so adaptive can take it into consideration.
Ah so an over/under. Not really what I would consider high intensity so I don’t think your ruining the intervals by taking a quick break but it’s definitely an “all out” effort if you do have to take breaks.