High Intensity Interval Training

↓ What is interval training for cycling?
↓ Why is interval training good for cycling?
↓ How often should I do interval training for cycling?
↓ How long should cycling intervals be?
↓ How long should I rest in between cycling intervals?
↓ How many intervals should I do for each workout?
↓ What time of year should I do high intensity intervals?
↓ What is Sweet Spot training for cycling?
↓ What is polarized training for cycling?
↓ What kind of intervals do I need to do?
↓ Cycling Interval Training For Beginners

We have a ton of blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos discussing interval training, but we thought it would be helpful to put it all in one place. Our cycling interval training FAQ will answer the most common questions that we get about interval training!

We’ll also link to our other blogs on these topics from this so you can read more detailed posts about your topic of interest.

HIIT Cycling Workouts - Frequently Asked Questions

What is interval training for cycling?

The goal of interval training for cycling is to improve specific aspects of your fitness by accumulating time in a certain power zone, and repeating the effort multiple times. There are many different types of cycling intervals, from 5-minute hill repeats to short 30 second sprints. The primary goals of interval training is to prepare for specific events or train certain energy systems, which you can learn more about here in our “Science of Cycling” blog.

Why is interval training good for cycling?

We often preach the importance of establishing a solid aerobic base, and while this should be a staple of your cycling training, interval training for cycling will give you benefits that you can’t achieve any other way.

Endurance miles help to increase mitochondrial density, muscle capillarization, fat burning capacity, and recovery from hard efforts–all of which will increase your performance when doing interval training.

When interval training is incorporated on top of an already established aerobic base, that’s when the magic happens. Interval training will improve your lactate buffering capacity, stroke volume, and maximal oxygen uptake.

There is also a large mental component to interval training. Putting yourself deep in the red zone will help train mental toughness needed for cycling and build confidence when things get tough in your events.

Related EVOQ Training Pack: Time Crunched Athlete Pack

How often should I do interval training for cycling?

Interval training is only beneficial up to a point, and there is a balance point at which doing more high intensity will not give you any added benefits, but simply cause undue fatigue and increase risk for overtraining.

The frequency of your interval training will vary depending on the time of year, your experience level, and what kind of intervals you are doing. During a normal in-season training block that includes some hard intervals, two interval sessions per week is optimal for maximum adaptations.

During the winter, you may not do as much high intensity. This is especially true if you are going to be doing a strength training program for cycling (which we recommend for all cyclists). The strength training during this time of year will serve as your primary intensity.

This is a great time to incorporate neuromuscular training for cycling. This form of cycling training will help transfer strength gains to the bike and improve your efficiency. These workouts are not as taxing as other high intensity workouts and are more compatible with a winter strength training program.

If you’re in the middle of a big racing block and racing most weekends, you might not be doing very many intervals at all. Racing itself is very taxing and will provide the bulk of your intensity. You may throw in some low-dose interval workouts here and there to keep the legs firing, but the main focus is on cycling recovery and maintaining base fitness.

Related Reading: Top Tips For Cycling Interval Training

How long should cycling intervals be?

There are so many ways to answer this question! It primarily depends on what energy system you want to train. If you want to train your phosphagen system through sprinting, intervals might be between 5-10 seconds.

If your goal is to train your anaerobic capacity, intervals could range from 20 seconds up to 2 minutes.

If you want to train your VO2max, intervals might range between 4-8 minutes.

Longer steady state intervals or over/under workouts that train fatigue resistance and lactate clearance could be between 10-20 minutes.

How long should I rest in between cycling intervals?

This depends on your goals. If your goal is to train your max power or anaerobic capacity, you will want to take very long rest periods to achieve maximum power on each sprint. This could be 3-5 minutes of very easy spinning in between sprints

If you are training VO2max for cycling, typically a 1:1 ratio of work-to-rest is optimal. This gives you enough rest so that you can repeat the efforts, but doesn’t allow you to fully recover so that each interval gets progressively a little bit more challenging.

If you’re doing race specific training to improve fatigue resistance, you might have quite short rest periods, such as 3x12 minute FTP intervals with only 2-3 minutes of rest in between.

Related Reading: Cycling Interval Training Workouts Guide

Related EVOQ Training Pack: VO2Max Training Pack

How many intervals should I do for each workout?

For aerobically focused workouts, between 20-45 minutes of total interval time is a good ballpark number. This will ensure that all intervals are high-quality and give you full benefits of the workouts. This could look like 4x8 minute intervals, 3x12s and so on. If you are not reaching the recommended time in zone, it could cause a performance plateau and you should consider increasing interval duration.

For anaerobic workouts, you should be going ALL OUT. You probably will be destroyed after 5 or 6. This type of training is not for everyone and can be very taxing. Read our blog about anaerobic training for cycling here.

What time of year should I do high intensity intervals?

It was often thought that high intensity should only be incorporated close to your first races of the year or else you would “peak too soon.” However, some form of interval training should be incorporated year-round in order to get faster in cycling. This doesn’t necessarily mean you will be going full-bore in November, but even at this time of year, mixing in moderately challenging workouts can help prepare you for harder workouts later on so you aren’t covered in cobwebs come February.

When should you start doing the real hard stuff, like VO2max, FTP work, and over/unders? It doesn’t take too many of these workouts to reach race-fitness. If you want to be in great shape for your first race of the year, it’s a good idea to begin these 6-8 weeks out from your first event.

We recommend completing your winter gym training block and scaling gym work down to a maintenance level before rigorously hitting the high intensity build phase.

Related Reading: Block Periodization Training

What is Sweet Spot training for cycling?

One approach to cycling training that has gained popularity in recent years is the “Sweet Spot” approach. Sweet Spot training consists of riding just below FTP (~88-95% FTP) for extended periods of time.

Claims of Sweet Spot Training For Cycling:

Raises TSS to a greater extent than endurance rides
Might be more useful for “time-crunched” athletes
Can improve FTP better than endurance miles

While Sweet Spot training does increase TSS to a greater extent than endurance rides, this does not necessarily translate to better performance. Remember that TSS is just an arbitrary metric that is designed to give you an estimation of training load. It is not infallible.

Of more importance is how you achieve a certain TSS. You could go out and ride as hard as you can for 3 hours a day to get a high TSS, but is this the best way to train? Certainly not!

For time-crunched cyclists, Sweet Spot is claimed to be useful because athletes can “get more out of” their time on the bike. However, evidence remains inconclusive that riding for extended periods of time is more beneficial than endurance riding.

Regardless, Sweet Spot training might be useful at certain times of the year and you can read our post about Sweet Spot training for cycling to draw your own conclusions.

What is polarized training for cycling?

The polarized approach to training has gained significant backing in recent years and there is much scientific and anecdotal research to confirm the effectiveness of polarized training.

Polarized training is where approximately 80% of training sessions are performed at low intensity (Zone 1 and 2), and 20% of sessions are performed at or above FTP. Tempo or Sweet Spot training is usually avoided.

Claims of Polarized Training For Cycling:

Low intensity training (Zone 2) can build large amounts of fitness with less fatigue, which maintains freshness and allows athletes to push further in interval sessions and also prevents overtraining or burnout
Quality of intervals is more important than quantity, this allows an athlete to really push their limits
Polarized training is more specific to the demands of racing than Sweet Spot

We won’t go into much more detail here, but you should read our comprehensive guide to polarized training for cycling to learn more.

What kind of intervals do I need to do?

We’d be happy to answer this question for you with a FREE Power File Analysis. One of our expert cycling coaches will review your training data and give you an in-depth review of your training and provide you with training recommendations. Yes, FREE. No obligations.

Cycling Interval Training For Beginners

If you are in your first year or two of cycling training, you might not need to worry about incorporating interval training yet. Your main focus should be on establishing an aerobic base and riding consistently.

Your biggest gains will come from riding 5-6 days per week and increasing mileage. After you’ve established a good base of fitness, you will want to further your progress by incorporating intervals.

Related Reading: Cycling Training Plan For Beginners

I have more questions!!!

We’ve got you covered, check out our blog, YouTube channel and podcast. You’ll find what you are looking for.

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If you are interested in speaking with one of our coaches about how we can take you to the next level with a custom cycling training program, we would love to hear from you. View our training programs or contact us directly

Contact the author: Landry@evoq.bike

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High Intensity Interval Training Cycling Questions Answered