January 8, 2025 • 13 mins
OVERVIEW
Should you perform your interval efforts at the beginning or end of your workout? In most cases, doing hard efforts early, when you are freshest, increases power output and time-at-intensity for those intervals. In this episode, Coach Adam Pulford provides the rationale behind this structure and shares the three specific scenarios when he has athletes ride in Zone 2 for most of the ride and execute hard efforts at the end.
TOPICS COVERED
- Why you should do intervals in the first third of your workout.
- How early intervals improve Zone 2 training effect afterward
- Intervals at the end for competition specificity
- Intervals at the end for fatigue resistance training/durability
- Interval timing advice for Time-Crunched Athlete
ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST
LINKS/RESOURCES
- Workout & Interval Structure: Decoding Interval Workouts: How to determine the number and duration of intervals
- The Science of Training Your Durability and Fatigue Resistance: https://youtu.be/8-RRwmlErDI or https://www.buzzsprout.com/813266/episodes/15275108
- Fatigue Resistance Training and Testing: https://youtu.be/556YzqceA9E or https://www.buzzsprout.com/813266/episodes/15507165
- Knowledge is Watt: DURABILITY: THE FOURTH DIMENSION OF ENDURANCE PERFORMANCE:
HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform
GET FREE TRAINING CONTENT
Join our weekly newsletter
CONNECT WITH CTS
Website: trainright.com
Instagram: @cts_trainright
Twitter: @trainright
Facebook: @CTSAthlete
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From the team at CTS.
This is the Time Crunch Cyclistpodcast, our show dedicated to
answering your trainingquestions and providing
actionable advice to help youimprove your performance even if
you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches whomake up the team at CTS.
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
(00:30):
other coaches and experts in thefield to provide you with the
practical ways to get the mostout of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now on to our show.
Now on to our show.
(00:50):
Happy New Year, time Crunchfans.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford.
This is the first podcastrecorded and released in 2025,
and I hope everyone had happyholidays and is finding their
groove here in January, startingthe new year off with more
audience questions submitted byyou, our listeners.
Today's topic deals with workoutstructure, asking when best to
(01:12):
do intervals within a workout.
Here's the specific question,and then I'll get into the best
advice that I have for everyoneout there, including the
listener.
Here it is.
Hello, sir.
My question is this Is it agood choice to combine a zone
two ride with zone fourintervals or tempo intervals at
the end, for example, doing a 75minute strict zone two ride
(01:36):
followed by 30 minute forintervals of tempo or threshold
effort or threshold effort Totalride of two to three hours.
I don't really like one hourtempo interval rides, so I mix
the zone two with tempointervals, but I always do it
after a decent zone two ride.
Maybe in the middle of zone twowould be better, I don't know.
(01:58):
Thank you very much for yourefforts, marat.
Okay, so straight and to thepoint here.
Marat, the majority of the timeit's best to do your warmup,
then do your intervals, thenride volume, called zone two,
endurance or whatever you'redoing afterwards, usually
aerobic, and do that afterwardsfor the best overall effect.
(02:20):
In other words, do yourintervals in the first third or
the middle of your ride for besteffect.
Specifically, I would reallyadvise doing those intervals
early on for zone four.
So we're talking threshold or91% of your FTP or higher, but
personally I do this foranything over zone three tempo,
(02:41):
which is about 80% and higher.
Okay, so, even when you havetwo to three hours total for
your efforts, like Marat here,this is the better scenario, why
Doing intervals when you'remost fresh will give you more
training effect and thereforebetter adaptation.
That means you'll be able tohit higher power numbers or the
(03:04):
prescribed power for longer orfeel better when you're doing
your efforts, usually doing moretotal work when fresh versus at
the lower end of the power ofthe prescribed power or the same
power that you could have donewhen you're fresh, but you have
higher rate of perceived effortor higher heart rates.
So more work when you're morefresh equals better situation.
(03:32):
Riding endurance after your mainset of intervals in mostly in
aerobic intensity doesn'trequire as much glycogen like
harder intensity at zone threeand higher.
So if the goal is for goodintervals and, like I said,
training effect, do them firstwhen you have the most energy.
Combining intervals plusendurance after is the best way
(03:56):
to stress and strain the bodyproperly.
Okay Now, what I mean by thatstress and strain is you warm up
, you do your efforts let's justcall them high aerobic or
anaerobic.
That is stress and that isstrain for sure.
And you're pre-fatigued.
And so when you rideaerobically afterwards those TSS
(04:18):
points in the aerobic system,it won't be the same stress that
you would if you were just towarm up and ride aerobically
internally.
We don't have all the tools torecord how stressful and
strainful that effort will be.
But it will be moreexponentially more after you've
done some hard intervals.
(04:39):
But remember, it's stillaerobic.
You're using oxygen, you'reusing glycogen, you're using fat
as a fuel source.
However, at that lowerintensity it doesn't matter as
much.
So you actually get a littlebit more of that total package
of training when you're doingyour efforts first and then your
aerobic riding after, andthat's what I mean by the best
(05:01):
training effect.
So when is this not the case?
Okay, so something called thespecificity of training is when
you're trying to mimic somethingin training that you'll be
doing at a race or an event.
So if you want to work on, say,sprinting or climbing late in
the race and say that late inthe race is at some point right,
(05:25):
so maybe doing a 10-minute hillclimb at the very end or
working on your sprint whenyou're fatigued, doing some
training sessions to mimic, thatis important.
But in order to maximize youranaerobic system or your
threshold, you want to do themajority of your intervals in a
fresh state to increase yourperformance or improve those
(05:46):
energy systems.
Then you want to work on thesespecifics, like I'm talking
about the specificity oftraining about four to six weeks
out from that main event oryour race.
And when you do that you alsoprobably only want to have one
(06:07):
session per week focused work onthat.
Because, again, if you can domore power when you're more
fresh, you're going to have abetter training outcome, better
training effect.
But when you want thatspecificity of feeling the
effort and producing the effortlate in the game, if you've
never done it before and youknow you got to do it in the
race, you better do it intraining a few times.
(06:29):
You better do it in training afew times.
Now, one caveat here I shouldmention is in a scenario like if
you live in a city, dc forexample and it takes you 40
minutes, maybe longer, 40 to 60minutes to get out to a good
hill or get to a good area to doyour efforts on and you have
(06:49):
time to do this, okay, so for atime crunched athlete, warming
up for 40 to 60 minutes probablynot the scenario.
We'll get there in a second.
But if it takes you that longto get to a good hill climb,
just keep it at the low end ofzone.
Two, don't drive the pace orhit it hard during that longer
warmup time period.
But if it's a good place to doyour efforts, go ahead and do it
(07:11):
.
Okay, sometimes it does take alittle longer to get to a good
interval spot and so even on athree-hour ride you'll spend,
you know, still like the firstthird of the ride getting there.
Then you do your efforts in themiddle of the ride and then you
ride home and if you do that,maybe hit a gel just before you
do your interval set, so youkind of top off on the glycogen.
(07:33):
You have fuel coming into thesystem.
But overall my recommendationis still there, because you
still have to ride 40 to 60minutes home.
So nesting the intervals earlyon in the ride or middle part of
the ride when you've expendedas little energy as you kind of
have to, that's my generaladvice.
Okay, so what's another exampleof when this would not be the
(07:55):
case?
When you're working on fatigueresistance training or testing?
I've done a few episodes onthis, on what we call fatigue
resistance training, and if youhaven't heard those before,
google it, read about it.
I've linked to a couple goodresources on this as well, from
(08:16):
Dr Gabriela Gallo, and check outmy episodes number 201 and
number 207.
So you would just search fortime crunch, cyclist fatigue
resistance and look at 201 and207 to get the full scoop on
what fatigue resistance trainingis.
Okay.
But essentially in sessions likethis there's there's specific
(08:37):
parameters to meet and then testwith efforts at the end after
doing a bunch of work Okay, andtypically doing a max effort at
the end of a ride after you'vedone work like 1,500, 2,000 or
2,500 kilojoules.
Before of mostly aerobic riding, I weave in some hard efforts.
(08:58):
So you do a bunch of work, getthat done and then do a max
effort.
The idea is you take your peakmax effort that you do when
you're fresh, you look at yourpeak max effort you do when
you're fatigued and you try tominimize those.
So again, it's a prettyspecific scenario of testing and
training where you'll doefforts when you're fatigued.
(09:20):
But that is the point becauseyou're investigating the
fatigued status.
So again, that should make senseof doing your intervals late in
the game.
And why?
Um the the the parts where Iwould say, um, you know very few
(09:43):
times specificity of training,fatigue resistance training, or
you know, you just you have tospend a little bit of time to
get to a good interval um spot.
That's when you do it a littlebit more late in the game.
So now what's my advice forthis?
On the time crunched athleteWell, typically time crunched
athletes don't have a choice onthis.
(10:03):
You have very little time totrain, so it's warm up, do
intervals, cool down and you'redone in 60 to 75 minutes,
sometimes less.
If you need to work on fatigue,resistance or power production
late in the game, like I wentover in the examples of when my
general rule would not apply,then I recommend doing some of
(10:25):
your long rides where you doefforts late in the game.
One of the examples I saidbefore if you're training for
something like a road race andthere's a 10-minute hill climb
at the end of a 75-mile race,then, yeah, doing some specific
targeted work for FTP powerproduction after two and a half
(10:45):
hours of riding something likethat, that's going to really pay
off well from a trainingstandpoint.
But again, you want to do thatfour to six weeks out from the
event and still do FTP trainingwhen you're more fresh so that
you maximize your trainingeffect.
So, even though I'm mentioningthat specificity of training for
(11:07):
late power production in a race, please hear me on this and
please don't do what mostathletes do when they think that
they are training properly forlate power production, which is
they only do their intervalslate in a ride and they think
that that is going to have thebest result.
(11:29):
Because it's not.
It's actually.
It's counterintuitive to some,but always hitting your
intensity late in the ride canactually work against yourself
because you could be gettingmore out of the training
sessions by doing more power ormore power for longer on fresher
legs, getting more trainingeffect and therefore improved
performance in the long run.
So, in summary, the majority ofthe time you want to do your
(11:53):
intervals early on in thetraining session after a good
warmup for best results.
If you have extra time, rideendurance after your main set of
intervals, as this will addmore aerobic strain to the
system and total TSS for the day.
That combination is the bestfor maximal training effect and
best training results.
(12:14):
That's it.
That's our show for today.
If you have a question aboutall things training, nutrition,
recovery or anything elserelated to endurance and cycling
, write into us by going over totrainrightcom backslash podcast
and click on ask a trainingquestion.
Submit your inquiry there andwe'll do our best to answer it
on a future episode.
(12:34):
Thanks again for joining ustoday and don't forget to come
back next week to check out moreactionable training information
.
Thanks, folks.
Thanks for joining us on theTime Crunch Cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even moreactionable training advice, head
over to trainrightcom backslashnewsletter and subscribe to our
(12:56):
free weekly publication.
Each week you'll get in-depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast.
That'll get in-depth trainingcontent that goes beyond what we
cover here on the podcast.
That'll help you take yourtraining to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart, train right.
From the team at CTS.
This is the Time Crunch Cyclistpodcast, our show dedicated to
answering your trainingquestions and providing
actionable advice to help youimprove your performance even if
you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches whomake up the team at CTS.
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
(00:30):
other coaches and experts in thefield to provide you with the
practical ways to get the mostout of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now on to our show.
Now on to our show.
(00:50):
Happy New Year, time Crunchfans.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford.
This is the first podcastrecorded and released in 2025,
and I hope everyone had happyholidays and is finding their
groove here in January, startingthe new year off with more
audience questions submitted byyou, our listeners.
Today's topic deals with workoutstructure, asking when best to
(01:12):
do intervals within a workout.
Here's the specific question,and then I'll get into the best
advice that I have for everyoneout there, including the
listener.
Here it is.
Hello, sir.
My question is this Is it agood choice to combine a zone
two ride with zone fourintervals or tempo intervals at
the end, for example, doing a 75minute strict zone two ride
(01:36):
followed by 30 minute forintervals of tempo or threshold
effort or threshold effort Totalride of two to three hours.
I don't really like one hourtempo interval rides, so I mix
the zone two with tempointervals, but I always do it
after a decent zone two ride.
Maybe in the middle of zone twowould be better, I don't know.
(01:58):
Thank you very much for yourefforts, marat.
Okay, so straight and to thepoint here.
Marat, the majority of the timeit's best to do your warmup,
then do your intervals, thenride volume, called zone two,
endurance or whatever you'redoing afterwards, usually
aerobic, and do that afterwardsfor the best overall effect.
(02:20):
In other words, do yourintervals in the first third or
the middle of your ride for besteffect.
Specifically, I would reallyadvise doing those intervals
early on for zone four.
So we're talking threshold or91% of your FTP or higher, but
personally I do this foranything over zone three tempo,
(02:41):
which is about 80% and higher.
Okay, so, even when you havetwo to three hours total for
your efforts, like Marat here,this is the better scenario, why
Doing intervals when you'remost fresh will give you more
training effect and thereforebetter adaptation.
That means you'll be able tohit higher power numbers or the
(03:04):
prescribed power for longer orfeel better when you're doing
your efforts, usually doing moretotal work when fresh versus at
the lower end of the power ofthe prescribed power or the same
power that you could have donewhen you're fresh, but you have
higher rate of perceived effortor higher heart rates.
So more work when you're morefresh equals better situation.
(03:32):
Riding endurance after your mainset of intervals in mostly in
aerobic intensity doesn'trequire as much glycogen like
harder intensity at zone threeand higher.
So if the goal is for goodintervals and, like I said,
training effect, do them firstwhen you have the most energy.
Combining intervals plusendurance after is the best way
(03:56):
to stress and strain the bodyproperly.
Okay Now, what I mean by thatstress and strain is you warm up
, you do your efforts let's justcall them high aerobic or
anaerobic.
That is stress and that isstrain for sure.
And you're pre-fatigued.
And so when you rideaerobically afterwards those TSS
(04:18):
points in the aerobic system,it won't be the same stress that
you would if you were just towarm up and ride aerobically
internally.
We don't have all the tools torecord how stressful and
strainful that effort will be.
But it will be moreexponentially more after you've
done some hard intervals.
(04:39):
But remember, it's stillaerobic.
You're using oxygen, you'reusing glycogen, you're using fat
as a fuel source.
However, at that lowerintensity it doesn't matter as
much.
So you actually get a littlebit more of that total package
of training when you're doingyour efforts first and then your
aerobic riding after, andthat's what I mean by the best
(05:01):
training effect.
So when is this not the case?
Okay, so something called thespecificity of training is when
you're trying to mimic somethingin training that you'll be
doing at a race or an event.
So if you want to work on, say,sprinting or climbing late in
the race and say that late inthe race is at some point right,
(05:25):
so maybe doing a 10-minute hillclimb at the very end or
working on your sprint whenyou're fatigued, doing some
training sessions to mimic, thatis important.
But in order to maximize youranaerobic system or your
threshold, you want to do themajority of your intervals in a
fresh state to increase yourperformance or improve those
(05:46):
energy systems.
Then you want to work on thesespecifics, like I'm talking
about the specificity oftraining about four to six weeks
out from that main event oryour race.
And when you do that you alsoprobably only want to have one
(06:07):
session per week focused work onthat.
Because, again, if you can domore power when you're more
fresh, you're going to have abetter training outcome, better
training effect.
But when you want thatspecificity of feeling the
effort and producing the effortlate in the game, if you've
never done it before and youknow you got to do it in the
race, you better do it intraining a few times.
(06:29):
You better do it in training afew times.
Now, one caveat here I shouldmention is in a scenario like if
you live in a city, dc forexample and it takes you 40
minutes, maybe longer, 40 to 60minutes to get out to a good
hill or get to a good area to doyour efforts on and you have
(06:49):
time to do this, okay, so for atime crunched athlete, warming
up for 40 to 60 minutes probablynot the scenario.
We'll get there in a second.
But if it takes you that longto get to a good hill climb,
just keep it at the low end ofzone.
Two, don't drive the pace orhit it hard during that longer
warmup time period.
But if it's a good place to doyour efforts, go ahead and do it
(07:11):
.
Okay, sometimes it does take alittle longer to get to a good
interval spot and so even on athree-hour ride you'll spend,
you know, still like the firstthird of the ride getting there.
Then you do your efforts in themiddle of the ride and then you
ride home and if you do that,maybe hit a gel just before you
do your interval set, so youkind of top off on the glycogen.
(07:33):
You have fuel coming into thesystem.
But overall my recommendationis still there, because you
still have to ride 40 to 60minutes home.
So nesting the intervals earlyon in the ride or middle part of
the ride when you've expendedas little energy as you kind of
have to, that's my generaladvice.
Okay, so what's another exampleof when this would not be the
(07:55):
case?
When you're working on fatigueresistance training or testing?
I've done a few episodes onthis, on what we call fatigue
resistance training, and if youhaven't heard those before,
google it, read about it.
I've linked to a couple goodresources on this as well, from
(08:16):
Dr Gabriela Gallo, and check outmy episodes number 201 and
number 207.
So you would just search fortime crunch, cyclist fatigue
resistance and look at 201 and207 to get the full scoop on
what fatigue resistance trainingis.
Okay.
But essentially in sessions likethis there's there's specific
(08:37):
parameters to meet and then testwith efforts at the end after
doing a bunch of work Okay, andtypically doing a max effort at
the end of a ride after you'vedone work like 1,500, 2,000 or
2,500 kilojoules.
Before of mostly aerobic riding, I weave in some hard efforts.
(08:58):
So you do a bunch of work, getthat done and then do a max
effort.
The idea is you take your peakmax effort that you do when
you're fresh, you look at yourpeak max effort you do when
you're fatigued and you try tominimize those.
So again, it's a prettyspecific scenario of testing and
training where you'll doefforts when you're fatigued.
(09:20):
But that is the point becauseyou're investigating the
fatigued status.
So again, that should make senseof doing your intervals late in
the game.
And why?
Um the the the parts where Iwould say, um, you know very few
(09:43):
times specificity of training,fatigue resistance training, or
you know, you just you have tospend a little bit of time to
get to a good interval um spot.
That's when you do it a littlebit more late in the game.
So now what's my advice forthis?
On the time crunched athleteWell, typically time crunched
athletes don't have a choice onthis.
(10:03):
You have very little time totrain, so it's warm up, do
intervals, cool down and you'redone in 60 to 75 minutes,
sometimes less.
If you need to work on fatigue,resistance or power production
late in the game, like I wentover in the examples of when my
general rule would not apply,then I recommend doing some of
(10:25):
your long rides where you doefforts late in the game.
One of the examples I saidbefore if you're training for
something like a road race andthere's a 10-minute hill climb
at the end of a 75-mile race,then, yeah, doing some specific
targeted work for FTP powerproduction after two and a half
(10:45):
hours of riding something likethat, that's going to really pay
off well from a trainingstandpoint.
But again, you want to do thatfour to six weeks out from the
event and still do FTP trainingwhen you're more fresh so that
you maximize your trainingeffect.
So, even though I'm mentioningthat specificity of training for
(11:07):
late power production in a race, please hear me on this and
please don't do what mostathletes do when they think that
they are training properly forlate power production, which is
they only do their intervalslate in a ride and they think
that that is going to have thebest result.
(11:29):
Because it's not.
It's actually.
It's counterintuitive to some,but always hitting your
intensity late in the ride canactually work against yourself
because you could be gettingmore out of the training
sessions by doing more power ormore power for longer on fresher
legs, getting more trainingeffect and therefore improved
performance in the long run.
So, in summary, the majority ofthe time you want to do your
(11:53):
intervals early on in thetraining session after a good
warmup for best results.
If you have extra time, rideendurance after your main set of
intervals, as this will addmore aerobic strain to the
system and total TSS for the day.
That combination is the bestfor maximal training effect and
best training results.
(12:14):
That's it.
That's our show for today.
If you have a question aboutall things training, nutrition,
recovery or anything elserelated to endurance and cycling
, write into us by going over totrainrightcom backslash podcast
and click on ask a trainingquestion.
Submit your inquiry there andwe'll do our best to answer it
on a future episode.
(12:34):
Thanks again for joining ustoday and don't forget to come
back next week to check out moreactionable training information
.
Thanks, folks.
Thanks for joining us on theTime Crunch Cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even moreactionable training advice, head
over to trainrightcom backslashnewsletter and subscribe to our
(12:56):
free weekly publication.
Each week you'll get in-depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast.
That'll get in-depth trainingcontent that goes beyond what we
cover here on the podcast.
That'll help you take yourtraining to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time, train hard,train smart, train right.
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