I have just completed a sprint session in triathlon, well failed but 4 hours sleep will do that (god bless 2 year olds) and I’m sitting sweating wondering why I’m doing a crit race preparing for an age group just compete against yourself triathlon plan.
Now I understand for the top 1% the bike race is following attacks or doing those attacks but for most of us bums we’re competing against the demon inside and previous times only… so why the sprints?
Would it be possible or wise to just swap those workouts for something more suited to my bike plan of sit at 90% ftp for the 40km and if so what should I do. If someone launches an attack on me I’m going to enjoy watching this savage human do that, I ain’t following no one’s wheel.
They were peppered through the Full distance Tri base plan I did last year, too.
It’s non-specific. But…
There are supposedly some generalised benefits to do Sprint Intensity training (SITs). Don’t ask me whether they are shown to apply to Triathletes, training status etc.
I think they’re in the plan just to make the endurance rides a bit more interesting.
?Nerve potentiation? ?Movement patterns?
Think of them, perhaps, like doing Strides during an easy run - ingraining good movement patterns without any real effort or physiological toll.
@foldingbikebass already gave you some awesome advice here if you want to stick with the sprint workouts – but if not, there’s no harm in subbing in something else either.
Using TrainNow could be a good tool to find a replacement workout, or you could search our Workout Library to look for something more specific.
Hope this helps, and feel free to let us know if you have any other questions!
There’s a wealth of evidence indicating value in training all systems, aerobic and anaerobic to build general bike fitness, but it’s not the only way. So don’t think you need to avoid them, race specificity can come much later in your training.