Interval training, especially high-intensity interval training (HIIT), has been an annual ‘hot training trend’ for 15 years now, and shows no sign of falling out of favour. HIIT’s hot streak started in 2005, when in a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, exercise scientist Martin Gibala, PhD, reported that two weeks of regular sprint interval training didn’t just make riders better sprinters; it also improved their endurance, by doubling time to fatigue.
Since then, dozens more studies have solidified interval training as the fastest way toimprove nearly all aspects of performance. Yet to this day, when riders come to me for training advice, and I ask if they do intervals, I inevitably get the same answer: “No, not really.”
But here’s the thing: everyone who wants to feel…
