Taylor-2 VO2 Max - problems out of intervals

I did Taylor -2 yesterday and I had some questions about technique. I’m running on a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine (dumb trainer) and a stock Specialized Tarmac Elite.

I find ramping up quickly for the VO2 max intervals is fine…it’s coming out of them into the recoveries that’s the problem.

I’m going up and down four gears to accomplish this and hitting my power targets.

When I drop the gears I find that I will suddenly get a surge ahead (sudden lack of resistance spin) on the pedals that the flywheel hasn’t slowed down and then a “hit” at the engagement, causing a slight pain in my outer knee.

Is there a technique to suddenly drop (because the intervals are only 30 seconds with 30 seconds rest) and come out of the interval? Do I suddenly back off, slow pedal and change gears and then let the flywheel slow down and pick up the rest period?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Bill

Sometimes when coming off of high power (high flywheel speed) intervals to a recover valley I will slightly drag the rear brake to slow the wheel down and allow the easier gear to catch. Obviously this only works on a wheel on trainer. However, for that brief moment after you drop the gears you just have to anticipate it and not pedal so hard when you hit the shifter. Not hitting the recovery power level for a couple seconds won’t affect the workout and it is definitely worth avoiding the jarring knee snap.

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I’ve a “dumb” wheel-on trainer (Magura something or other), for intervals like those in Taylor I try and get a balance between the resistance from the trainer and being in a cog on the cassette so I can just swap between big and small rings at the front. I usually have to adjust my cadence as well depending on the difference between the peaks and the valleys.

Use the warm-up intervals to get everything adjusted.

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Have just been searching the forum for info on how to do Taylor-type workouts on a dumb trainer and hadn’t even considered this idea Bob, great shout.