I’m sure several have seen Abrahamsens monster indoor workouts, particularly his 20m intervals labelled as “LT1” at between 340 and 360 watts. I see several of the other Uno-X riders doing similar sessions, albeit at other watts.
My questions is, if this is his true LT1 (i.e. high z2), why do it in intervals and not a continous effort? Or should these sessions rather be seen as Sweet Spot intervals? His HR does drift up a fair bit throughout the session, so I suspect these intervals are a fair bit higher than z2.
Just in case you haven’t seen it, there’s already a topi. discussing this madness and making a challenge out of it. Your answer may already be in there
While I haven’t done 10x20min, I have done both continuous 3h stretches just under my LT1 (270-280W) and broken into shorter intervals (e.g. 4x30min, 3x60min with 5-15min breaks). The shorter intervals are just mentally much easier. While under LT1, these are still quite taxing for the body, as the energy consumption is high. They are not fatiguing in the same sense as long sweetspot intervals (I have also done 1x120min at around 92% of my then-ftp), but that third continuous hour still takes quite a lot from you.
In the last weeks, I did Sweet Spot workouts that split a 30-minute interval into two 15-minute intervals with 15-second breaks in between. Physiologically, they do nothing. Psychologically, they feel very nice.
I don’t see how 10x20 min at LT1 is that big of a deal. If you chose your parents right you can do them at 350 watts. If you are a regular person then the watts are different but the effort is the same.
