Intervals. We’re not talking the gap between the peloton, the yellow jersey group and the lunatic solo breakaway rider here – the intervals we’re interested in are those training sessions that hurt but make you fitter, faster.
‘Intervals are simply a way to break up training sessions into hard and easy periods,’ says coach Ric Stern (cyclecoach.com). ‘By making the hard work harder and the easy work easier you manipulate the intensity and can put in harder efforts to gain better physiological adaptations. Hard, easy, repeat. Hopefully don’t throw up!’
The ideal place to perform intervals is indoors on a turbo trainer, where there are no junctions, potholes or traffic, but outdoors is fine if you can find a suitable stretch of road or loop,
