Intervals on the flat

[Imtb]

I do all my intervals (MTB) - 4min, 15min, 20min on hills. My limiter was hills and I feel that I have definitely got stronger on the hills - but how will this affect my riding on flat sections. Will training on hills help me on the flats - should I be doing intervals on flat sections as well. I notice in a 20 minute interval, as soon as the road becomes a little flatter, I really have to go something to keep up my power and assume my heart rate goes up as well.

[Reg Lizard]

If you can climb hills, why worry about flats

[Imtb]

Perhaps one needs more speed on the flat and training on hills doesn't necessarily improve speed - I assume.

[Li Mu Bai]

Hills definitely makes you stronger, trick is what intervals are you doing on hills? On-Off 3mins sprint up, with 3mins recovery down, repeated 10 times - boring and gets you close to puking, but does wonders for speed and strength. Gets the heart rate going bezerk too

[Spinnekop]

Motorpacing.  That is what flats are built for.

 

The cement trucks on the R21 works well. 

[Reg Lizard]

If you can climb hills, you only need to be a good wheelsucker on the flats

[Imtb]

If you can climb hills' date=' you only need to be a good wheelsucker on the flats[/quote']

 

Thanks Reg but in mountain biking one doesn't get as many opportunities to do that - alot of the time you are riding on your own unless you have a partner

[Imtb]

trick is what intervals are you doing on hills? On-Off 3mins sprint up' date=' with 3mins recovery down, repeated 10 times -[/quote']

 

I am more concerned with riding a fast pace on the flats for an extended period of time rather than short spurts of 2 to 3 minutes. Sure that can help close gaps or get a quick breakaway but it won't help sustaining a fast pace

[Reg Lizard]

Sorry man, took it for granted that it was road related. In that case you require a very strong nylon string with a hook.

[Imtb]

Sorry man' date=' took it for granted that it was road related. In that case you require a very strong nylon string with a hook.[/quote']

 

 

[Li Mu Bai]

Well, as you say the flats in mtb are short, thus you need power and good peddaling technique to get the most out of them. Several of last years races had long 'farm road sections' where pure power at driving your big blade at a cadence of 85+ makes all the diference.

Supra Max intervals also work well - 15min warm up, then 15, 1min intervals at 90-95% effort (easiest is on a hill where you really have to work) 3-4mins recovery between intervals, and then cooldown.

Crater Cruise allows for wheelsucking - long stretches of flat road.

[BikeMax]

From a fitness perspective, training on the hills and riding on the flats is not an issue - your cardiovascular system only knows what it has to "service" so to speak in 02 terms. From a "specificity" perspective, riding flats will require muscles to fire in different patterns and will also often require different "torque"  So from a training perspective you will likely get a better quality session on a climb but might also want to do some threshold work on the flats/rollers to ensure you are able to make th most of your fitness increases.

For what it's worth, I geenerally find that if I have increased my FTP via lots of hill intervals, that i also find that pretty soon my flat riding is a fair bit better too.

 

[Imtb]

Thanks Peter, I was hoping that would be the case