Variable length recovery

[u/maleck13]

I am wondering how outdoor intervals are done in this community . I do most of my intervals outside but sometimes struggle with terrain. I am getting better at holding power on a downhill but it can get tricky sometimes.
So my question. Say I have an 8min recovery but the next section of terrain is 16min away , can I maintain most of the benefit by increasing power during that rest interval (say upper zone 2 rather than zone 1) or it doesn’t work that way?
I do hill repeats sometimes but that can be quite tedious and limiting and even then my 20min climb would still prob take 10mins to descend . Perhaps overthinking it but would like to maximise quality and enjoyment .

[u/gedrap]

Not an issue unless this is some sort of race specificity session and you're struggling with pace changing from high to moderate and high again without full recovery. But for most workouts, that's totally fine, and I'd file this under mildly unrealistic expectations created by indoor riding.

[u/xdxdxdxd000]

Depending on the length of the interval and the target of the session extending your recovery between reps isn't an issue. If you are doing 30/15s, yeah it's an issue, but if you're doing longer reps, say 20' tempo, it's not a problem. And for VO2max intervals, if they are short (i.e. descending length intervals) and you are supposed to start them partially recovered, it's an issue, but if they are longer starting them fresh is fine/optimal. Also you can choose to preload your vo2max reps by doing a bit higher power for a short amount of time leading up to it, if you find that your recovery was forced to be too long.

[u/maleck13 → u/xdxdxdxd000]

Thanks. Mostly for these intervals it is threshold so between 10-18mins . For vo2 I will just do hill reps but for longer intervals fitting into a loop is a nice way to do them

[u/xdxdxdxd000 → u/maleck13]

Should be fine, threshold is mostly about just spending a lot of total time in that zone

[u/Lumpy_Ad_7821]

The intervals are the important part. Some workouts might design the recovery to be part of the workout, like VO2 work. But for the most part just focus on the intervals.

[u/muchreally]

Find a hill, about the length of the interval - ride up / ride down. Rinse & repeat until you have done your set, ride home...

[u/maleck13 → u/muchreally]

Sure but as said this gets pretty tedious vs a good loop

[u/mikekchar → u/maleck13]

But hill repeats are bad ass. And you are bad ass if you do them. Doubly so if it's raining.

... Just psyching myself up for tomorrow's wet hill repeats...

[u/maleck13 → u/mikekchar]

🤣 I do use hill repeats for shorter stuff or just use indoor trainer . For me though longer 10min plus stuff going up and down the same hill starts to get in my head negatively vs hitting 4/5 different drags / climbs in a route

[u/AStruggling8]

My coach told me it doesn’t matter as long as it’s not something like 30/30s or 30/15s!

[u/Helicase21]

I'll adjust recovery duration to minimize the likelihood of getting stopped at a light or busy intersection during my actual effort

[u/FignonsRegret]

It depends on the workout. If you’re focusing on low intensity stuff, you want to maintain the prescribed wattage for the prescribed time. Higher intensity work is more focused on overall time in zone and interval quality.

I may have misunderstood, but couldn’t you descend for a bit of your rest and repeat the same section? Same goes for while descending. Time for your interval so safely brake and turn around to start your interval again.