On the site where i read about the tabata-intervals (www.cbass.com), a professional's (Pat O'Shea) reply was posted too.
He was saying that "short-term intense interval training has very limited application to long-distance events such as marathon running and the Tour de France".
I think it's a joke: the writer of that reply certainly doesn't know much about cycling. I suppose a lot of guys in this forum are doing amateur races, and know that feeling when somebody tries to breakaway and you need to keep up with his pace; or when you want to catch somebody... These situations aren't longer than a few minutes: that's when you need your lt/vo2max to be high.
Eac year, we have a 100km race nearby; this classifies in the endurance event category, mainly. But this race has a lot of hills, and the guys in front are always pushing these hills very hard. In this race, there are at least 15 places where the tempo goes sky-high :-) That's not a "very limited application" of the high intensity training...
On the site where i read about the tabata-intervals (www.cbass.com), a professional's (Pat O'Shea) reply was posted too.
He was saying that "short-term intense interval training has very limited application to long-distance events such as marathon running and the Tour de France".
I think it's a joke: the writer of that reply certainly doesn't know much about cycling. I suppose a lot of guys in this forum are doing amateur races, and know that feeling when somebody tries to breakaway and you need to keep up with his pace; or when you want to catch somebody... These situations aren't longer than a few minutes: that's when you need your lt/vo2max to be high.
Eac year, we have a 100km race nearby; this classifies in the endurance event category, mainly. But this race has a lot of hills, and the guys in front are always pushing these hills very hard. In this race, there are at least 15 places where the tempo goes sky-high :-) That's not a "very limited application" of the high intensity training...
Am i right? :-))
Hi
What he might be trying to say is that in a TDF stage which lasts perhaps 6 hours, if you look at the percentage of time spent anaerobic (equating to the state that you are in when performing ST intervals) then its a very small percentage of total race time (Burke publishes some times in his book Serious Cycling). In this sense ST intervals have only a limited application - however even if this is what he means this is not the same as saying that ST intervals are unimportant. In fact, as you indicate, ST intervals are extremely important. At the end of a 6 hour stage when the peloton is winding up for the final sprint for the line and the sprinters at the front are hitting 40+ mph then a rider's ability at ST intervals will influence performance and will be one factor that will determine who wins the stage (the whole point of the race). Likewise ability at ST intervals will come into play at different times of the race such as sprint points or climbing points. There are key points in a race when a rider will have to "dig deep" and ST interval training is how the rider will develop this ability to sustain an anaerobic state.
