Unexpected

A bit of time on the bike this morning out with the Front Runner tri team.

The session this morning was an interesting one and a slightly deceptive one too. The main set was 10 x 2 minutes done at around 100% FTP or slightly above, there was 1 minute rest between intervals. It was a set that on paper seemed fairly straight forward, perhaps almost a little bit easy. A few members of the team certainly questioned whether it was too short.

The concern about the duration of the session was a legitimate one. If care isn't taken it is very easy for 2 minute intervals to be cruised through. The problem of course is that 2 minutes isn't very long, if you aren't mindful in your training by the time you are up to speed the effort is nearly done and it is time for your recovery. To do 2 minute interval well you need to be pushing the intensity straight away and holding it right through the 2 minutes. If you do the session in this way you quickly start to see why the session has a bit of a sting in the tail.

The real trick to this session is the short recovery. 60 seconds seems like a while on the first few efforts, but it quickly becomes not very long at all. If you have done the session correctly then by the end of it you find that 60 seconds really isn't much recovery. You might ease back on the intensity, but you find that in the 60 seconds your body doesn't recover much before you are pushing it back up again. In this way the session starts to feel a lot like a 30 minute sub-threshold effort, which is more or less the point.

The session is a good lesson that there are lots of ways to skin a cat. When it comes to FTP Threshold work there are numerous ways to do the session and most of them are correct. In fact this variation is a good thing as it allows you to push the body in slightly different ways each time, forcing a larger range of physiological adaptions. This variety also helps keep the training fresh and hold off boredom and mental fatigue.

I will admit 10 x 2 minutes isn't the best threshold session to do all the time, there are more effective sessions for pushing FTP out there. However, used as part of a well planned and considered program it be a piece of the puzzle that helps create a complete picture of an athlete.