"Sprinting" on a bicycle page

[d2mini]

Anyone sprint on a bike? What do you think would be the optimal way to do it?
After my mountain bike ride today I ended up on this one mile paved loop and decided to wing it and did a 30 second all out sprint, with a 2 minute "rest" where I was still pedaling but at a casual rate. I repeated this a few times, but I had already put in a grueling 4 miles of technical trails, at noon, in the Houston heat so I was spent after that.

[Mike Gager]

bike sprints are what i plan on doing, just havent done it yet. i will probably try tabata sprints (20 seconds full out, 10 seconds rest for 8 times)

like you ill find a flat spot to do them. gearing and speed i will have to figure out though, a slower speed will probably be safer

[kaylakala]

I had to. I'm still too heavy to run and it hurts my legs too much.

[Hedonist]

I have done stationary bike sprints. They really kicked my butt.

Anything that makes your tongue hang out is a sprint. (Well, chocolate and bacon don't count.)

[bergen]

I'm definitely doing this when my Specialized Langster Steel shows up next week. There are long even bikepaths along the ocean here in Reykjavík which are perfect for it.

[d2mini]

i will probably try tabata sprints (20 seconds full out, 10 seconds rest for 8 times)

Thanks!
Any one else have a thought on best sprint time/rest time?

[PatrickF]

It depends on your goals. Track sprinters often train something like this: roll around for a minute, 15s all out sprint, 30 minutes rest for 10 repetitions (takes half a day).

If you want to get better at sprinting longer rest is better. Tabata intervals aren't real sprints (the intensity is too low), but they still are useful as they combine a lot of useful training aspects into a very short time-frame.

[jfreaksho]

How could Tabata intervals have too low of an intensity? Isn't the whole purpose to go as hard as you possibly can for those 20 seconds?

[d2mini]

It depends on your goals. Track sprinters often train something like this: roll around for a minute, 15s all out sprint, 30 minutes rest for 10 repetitions (takes half a day).

If you want to get better at sprinting longer rest is better. Tabata intervals aren't real sprints (the intensity is too low), but they still are useful as they combine a lot of useful training aspects into a very short time-frame.

My goal would be to get fit/lean in the most productive and efficient way possible.
I'm not training for a sport or anything.
This would be in addition to strength training.

[dwkdnvr]

How could Tabata intervals have too low of an intensity? Isn't the whole purpose to go as hard as you possibly can for those 20 seconds?

He's talking about a regimen to actually make you functionally better at sprinting. In the context of a sport - be it track or cycling - a true maximal-effort sprint is usually around 10s. So, from that perspective an effort you can sustain for 20s is going to be lower intensity.

This isn't necessarily important when using sprints as a general-purpose conditioning tool. In that case you aren't actually trying to improve your sprinting ability, you're simply trying to exhaust your body. The 'claim' in the Tabata paper was that 20/10 was better at simultaneously exhausting the aerobic and anaerobic pathways than any other split that they tried (though I don't know that they tried very many). Shorter work intervals stressed the anaerobic more than the aerobic, while longer work intervals stressed the aerobic more.