Rest between sets duration - how important it is?

Training
1

As the title says, how important it is the duration of “rest between sets”?

Let’s take as example a Threshold workout with over-unders, McAdie +4

The workout consists in 4x15-minute sets, with just 3 minutes of recovery between intervals.

While riding outside is pretty hard to find the right training ground to adhere to this kind of schedule, especially if you ride in a hilly region. Last time I did this workout I tackled on a 1000m climb and I (correctly) calculated that I had to descend back a bit after the second set, otherwise I would get to the top and run out of road before the end of the workout.

I can estimate my VAM at certain power pretty easily so it’s not a hard task, but what would it change if instead of the 3 min of recovery that would extend to say 10 or even 20 miuntes. So for example use a climb to do the first 3 sets then go down and head up to another climb. Or simply go for a longish Z2 ride and throw in the 4 sets separately where it is more appropriate, completely careless about the recovery time?

When doing (3 to 6 min) VO2 intervals i usually go up and down the same route for every interval. I know it may sound crazy boring, but I have some good spots with regular 5-7% gradient with not many switchbacks, where I know which gears I need and I can output a constant power, improving the quality of the workout execution. Also, after such short interval you are not covering a very long distance, so I can usually descend back to the start in a very short time, if needed with some time to sip a drink or eat something.

This kind of falls apart for longer intervals such as Treshold or even Sweet Spot, because you are going to cover a lot of km and thus need to descend back much further. Especially with Sweet Spot that sometimes they have 30 seconds of recovery only between very long sets.

I guess it also depends on the workout zone, but is it ok to increase the rest?

My question comes from a practical routing problem, but if we would think about “being on power target”, is it better to increase rest and perform the next set on target, or is it better to “sacrifice power” on the following set, by sticking to the prescribed rest duration, in order to stress the body by hindering his recovery?

Thank you for your answers!

2

For threshold type work, my vote is not very important. Just get the work done. Most often with TR, the rest seems to be most often chosen to fit the workout into your allotted training time. I think a lot of people mistake this an assume it is driven by some sort of science.

For workouts designed with incomplete rest, usually vo2 or anaerobic type work, it is clearly more important and part of the fundamental workout structure.

3

I tend to disagree in this case. A threshold effort after only 3 minutes of rest will feel much more difficult than a threshold effort after 20 minutes of rest. I would think to match the intended workout level that if you increased the rest you would have to either increase the threshold power target a little or the threshold duration. It’s all going to be good work, but might not actually match the intended level and that could bite you if you have to do your next threshold workout inside and it’s much harder than expected.

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4

I saw go with longer rest. I am pretty recovered after 3 min, and seem to think studies show the longer rest than 3 min dont really help that much. Or go really long in between intervals and work on durability.

5

If you are an elite… short recoveries AND hold your power target.

If you are a developing youth, aging age grouper or hobbiest.. (pretty much anyone not at the pointy end) take the recovery and hit the power target.

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6

I would say sacrificing power should always be the last resort. But instead of choosing between these two alternatives I would suggest doing a workout more suited to your available terrain. That might mean doing slightly higher power or fewer, but longer intervals. If you have the time, doing a longer session is also a good alternative.

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7

The length of the rests is part of the intended training stress for the workout. Adding more rest makes it easier than it is designed to be and the workout won’t have the intended effect. It depends on the workout, but I don’t think it’s a huge deal.

8

What you are describing is a trade-off when training outdoors. When you train outdoors, you need to find routes suitable to the workout, but that’s often only possible up to a certain degree. Where I live now, the best I can hope for are roads connecting small villages like pearls on a string. It is pancake flat. The average distance between villages is such that I can spend 10–15 minutes between villages. That means I simply can’t do sweet spot intervals safely.

Assuming you really want to do those workouts outdoors, here is what I would do:

  • Priority no. 1 is safety.
  • Next, I would prioritize hitting my power targets at the expense of rest.
  • Third, I would consider simply doing workouts that are “outdoor native”. In Japan, I was close to two hills where I could do 4ish-minute and 1:30ish-minute hill climb repeats. The rest interval was simply the time it took me to descend. And rather than insisting on 4:00 flat, I’d just climb the hill.
  • Otherwise, consider doing intervals indoors.
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9

I will disagree. Threshold should be a 6 or 7 out of 10 effort level. It’s not a 9 of 10.

The bottom line is that it just doesn’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things especially for longer threshold efforts.

We often debate these nuances but they aren’t game changers. Doing 3 minute rests versus 10 minute rests between 15 minute threshold intervals is not going to materially change your FTP or fitness.

Rest interval manipulation only really factors in in shorter above threshold intervals like 30/30s or some form of over/under intervals.

One could make the claim that it will take some time to get to threshold metabolically. A rider could simply do a 16 or 17 minute interval instead of a 15 minute interval after a longer rest period to net the same time at threshold metabolically. But one or two extra minutes is not going to move the needle either way.

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10

@AmosFasoletti, I think you’ll find this blog post helpful!

But as it’s been mentioned, safety is first and ideally you would want to take workouts outside that work with your terrain. You can always find a different workout for the day by choosing a Workout Alternate that you think will fit best for outdoors. This way you can make sure you are still training the energy systems meant for the day.

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