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!