I am struggling with sessions based around sprints and bursts above FTP. Something like Olancha -4. I struggle to finish these sessions.
I am not a racer and I am not preparing for an event. I just want to be stronger, fitter and have greater endurance whilst maintaining a reasonable average speed. I have built a training plan as an “Enthusiast” rather than something geared to a particular type of event.
I know the answer is to keep trying with the HIT sprint sessions and that these will help with my goals but are there any tips which may help me get through them?
Sprints and bursts above FTP are supposed to be difficult. This often takes you into the Vo2 Max / Anerobic range which is only sustainable for short periods of time. Olancha - are short bursts 150% above FTP with very little rest. Ouch.
The answer is, if you want to focus on greater endurance, use the plan builder and select something along the line of the century or gran fondo plan. Most of your endurance work will need to focus on your aerobic ability and HIIT may not be the best way to build that bigger aerobic engine (Watts Doc #28: Why HIT May Not Make You Faster - Empirical Cycling)
I don’t race either, so most of my rides have very little sprinting, but being able to hold close to FTP for longer amounts of time have made me much faster.
I’d also say most of the endurance-based plans include these type of workouts in the power-build phase after you have developed the base fitness to handle that sort of workout.
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Do not focus on HIT or sprinting without having already done a good long base.
It isn’t advisable since you ll strain yourself. A good sprint will come if you train for it correctly: for instance 4-6 weeks with 2 sessions per week and then after, give a good week or two rest. Still, one gotta have the fibers for that effort.
A major sprinting ability will be achieved in a range of a year, even though it can be faster seen in short term, training only around it will bring you to overtraining.
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