Do what you gotta do. But I know if Kolie was still around on the forums he’d say that doing these intervals to RPE rather than a specific power is a much higher priority than the hard-start or high-cadence bits. He’d say use resistance/standard mode or do them outside.
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@4ibanez has done 3 weeks recently.
Just wanted to share my take on this, if somebody is interested.
I played around with hard start on/off (30/15s) intervals for some weeks with custom workouts. I have built in descending power intervals, but at the same time I manually adjust the 30sec parts if necessary. I find it easier to manually adjust the intensity with on/off intervals than with classic steady intervals (like 4mins, 5mins, etc…) because of the 15sec resting parts.
What I ended with is a harder version of Rattlesnake:
The 1min parts are @140% FTP, first 30sec parts @135%. The rest will be manually adjusted (according to my heart rate). The last 3-6 intervals are not that hard anymore, still they are enough intensity keep my HR high.
Did this workout at beginning of this week and got RIDICULOUS long time at high percentages of HRmax. If I take 88% HRmax as a reference, I managed to do 39minutes (!!!) in this range. For 90% it´s something like 35minutes. Never had a workout push me there that long. For standard on/off type of intervals (30/15s) I managed to get like 20minutes out of it. For classic 4- or 5minute intervals (4x4, 4x5) often as little as 8-10 minutes. So for me, this custom workout definitely works.
I do not know if keeping HR at high percentages of your max is the golden principle of VO2 workouts and also I do not know if combining hard starts with 30/15s is the best way to train from a physiological point of view. But for me, this definitely works.
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It was hard to quantify gains from the block, as I was still trashed when I attempted a 5 min effort on the first weekend after. I have seen some steady, and very modest FTP improvements since.
If I was racing soon, I would definitely do some of these workouts as a prep. My ability to ride hard and the duration improved rapidly.
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The same observation in my case. Maybe that is why Tim Cusick goes polarized near to the race. My FTP usually goes a little up after vo2 max block but needs 2-3 weeks of FTP work to be pushed a little bit. Currently this is probably only configuration that provides me the FTP gains.
Ever thought about why triathletes often find that their HR is sky-high when they start cycling after swimming first? If not, you should.
Feel free to explain
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Plasma volume decreases during exercise, in proportion to the intensity. This limits LVEDP and thus SV, necessitating an increase in HR to compensate. In triathletes, the intense swim (and often longer run through the transition) thereby alters the HR-exercise intensity relationship during the subsequent cycling portion, at least for many minutes.
“Hard start” intervals could very well do the same thing, meaning that your VO2 isn’t necessarily as high you might expect based on your HR.
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Isn’t this slightly offset by hydration?
No, but it would certainly be exacerbated by being hypohydrated or becoming dehydrated.
My second question is why would hard start intervals be any different here to normal intervals?
Secondly whilst HR is a reactionary measure, surely if you’re gasping for breath you’re definitely near or at maximal uptake anyway. There is still an absolute degree of VO2Max work should be done to RPE as well as HR/Power.
They “could” do the same thing, but no one really knows!? What ist a proven way to get a higher VO2 out of it?
For me, the Intervals are almost all out the whole time - except the last 3-5 bursts. Even If the last bursts are not that productive anymore, I do not think they do any harm.
Here you can find a lot of information on hard start intervals and experimentation
@SpareCycles is also member of this forum
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Because with decreasing power after the hard start, VO2 may be decreasing. That can’t happen if you maintain the power.
I think that’s just it - nobody actually knows whether hard start intervals result in greater improvements, yet they clearly come with risks, i.e., going out too hard and blowing up.
“Gasping for breath” is not an indication that you are at or near VO2max.
Before I created these hard start “programmed” workouts, I did a few workouts in resistance mode based on RPE.
After looking at the resulting power and HR profiles, I created the workouts that are included in the teams page.
Basically, I wanted to create workouts that I could do in erg mode that would be similar to what I’d do based on RPE.
The resulting erg workouts I created not identical to the RPE workouts. The biggest difference is the first interval in erg has a lower power target, and lower RPE (vs. the RPE based workouts). I did this, as if I just rely on RPE I go too hard in the first interval, and the resulting power in subsequent intervals is lower than I’d like.
After doing a few of the first iteration of the hard start workouts, I created a 2nd iteration where the hard start is less hard. I think I prefer these (noted as HS-1 in the team workout library).
Whatever VO2max format you chose, just ride hard💪
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As I was saying…
I created erg versions to protect me against myself 
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Did you lower the starting power enough? Are your breaks short enough that you don’t recover too much?
I mean, we know that constant power intervals can be highly effective…
The problem with constant power intervals for me is that the first interval(s) feels too easy, and the last half of the last few intervals are too hard.
Only in the middle intervals of the workout, and the first half of the later intervals do I feel like the intensity (RPE) is right I.e. hard, but something I can repeat.
The other feature of the hard start workouts I have created for myself is the average power declines with subsequent intervals. Even with this, my HR and RPE increase with subsequent intervals, although at the right amount so things don’t get too hard.