Ending UT2 workouts with AT+ finishes

[DanielJ]

Hi guys,

What do you think about ending steady work with, say, harder 2k finishes?

From a physiological standpoint, does finishing hard ruin or impinge upon the aerobic benefit of the UT2 workout?

[sharp_rower]

Was wondering a similar thing earlier today. I was doing a UT1 workout and had to do a little bit of "catching up" at the end to stay on target, but wondered if I was "allowed" to do that. I don't see why it would hurt. The only two things I can think of are that it might take you slightly longer to recover from the workout, and being consistent throughout a long workout is more effective than having inconsistent splits throughout the piece. Consistency is indicative of control, good technique, and again, wastes less energy.

[Hillclimber]

sharp rower makes a good point about recovery. but there prob isn't much wrong with 100m sprint at the end of easy work. used to do that at the end of any group ride on the bike (more like 400m); runners do it, too. feels good to finish strong. danger is going at it for 2, 3, 4 minutes, which obviates the point of an easy day. just an observstion - will be interesting to hear what others have to say.
Damien

[Edward4492]

I don't think it's possible to "cancel out" the aerobic benefits of the previously logged meters......doesn't make much sense. But you could cancel out the purpose of the work out if your goal was recovery or long steady state with a hard set of intervals coming up the next day. As mentioned, pretty much every serious group ride (bike) ends in a sprint....because every bike race ends in a sprint after long hours on the road, so it's a skill and mind set that needs to be developed.Erg racing is more like a time trial. Watch a pro on a TT bike, not much of a sprint at the end, maybe just a hard final push. A 6-8 minute 2K is the same thing....hard the whole way and a little push at the end if there's anything left. I maintain my pace till the end if I'm doing a long, capped HR type of piece. I do it mainly to make sure I'm 100% for the intervals that are coming up tomorrow or the next day.

[Hillclimber]

I don't think it's possible to "cancel out" the aerobic benefits of the previously logged meters......doesn't make much sense. But you could cancel out the purpose of the work out if your goal was recovery or long steady state with a hard set of intervals coming up the next day. As mentioned, pretty much every serious group ride (bike) ends in a sprint....because every bike race ends in a sprint after long hours on the road, so it's a skill and mind set that needs to be developed.Erg racing is more like a time trial. Watch a pro on a TT bike, not much of a sprint at the end, maybe just a hard final push. A 6-8 minute 2K is the same thing....hard the whole way and a little push at the end if there's anything left. I maintain my pace till the end if I'm doing a long, capped HR type of piece. I do it mainly to make sure I'm 100% for the intervals that are coming up tomorrow or the next day.

good points edward. but still, if there's a town line up ahead . . .

[eonderde]

"Was wondering a similar thing earlier today. I was doing a UT1 workout and had to do a little bit of "catching up" at the end to stay on target, but wondered if I was "allowed" to do that".

There are two sides to this question.
1: of course you are allowed to do that, it does not ruin anything.
however the snack is in the catching up.
Basically this implies you have not been stressing your aerobic capacity enough.
So this catching up and sprint in the end changes the training from one that builds aerobic endurance to something that builds less endurance and more anaerobic power.

so, i would say, not a good thing. you cannot compensate a too low aerobic workout with an anaerobic sprint at the end.
so basically you wasted a training. you achieved too little aerobic benefit and too little anaerobic benefit given the investment in time.