How hard to do an interval

Someone asked me what power settings were prescribed by Dave for my workout.

In the book there are ranges assigned for SMSP, MSP Zone 2, etc that are a % of your MSPO.
But the real key is to do the intervals at the highest power setting at which you can complete the entire workout. See this post for more details.

So it's better not a set # but rather find it by trial/error. Sometimes I over shoot sometimes I undershoot. But it's usually feels easier to start with and then gets harder as the workout proceeds

If you want some #'s to see how you stack up to the rest of the world go to Hunter Allen's site. And read the power profiling article. I often find myself wanting to go through the testing to find out what my #s are. But on the flip side there is something wrong with this dependency on some testing telling me where I stack up. In these days of power trainer you hear plenty of people throwing their #s around. My FT is 4.6W/Kg, etc. Or you need to have at least 5.0W/Kg to get on the podium. yada yada.

The next time I get spit out the back of some pack, I'll yell to them to wait for me because my FT says that I should be dropping them.

#s are meaningless except to yourself to track your progress.

Getting back to my intervals. For example: 2sets of 8reps of 2 on 2off with 4 mins between each set. I did them at 300W on my Taxc Flow which is a meaningless # to anyone but myself. The real world accuracy of the Tacx is questionable. But what is important is that the unit is calibrated every time I ride and I believe in its repeatablility. So from day to day and year to year the numbers can be compared to each other.

The first few were very doable and I could have easily upped the power on them. But wisely I kept the same power setting. It was a real struggle to complete the last ones of the first set. In fact I bogged down on the last one. After the 5 minutes rest I started the 2nd set.

It was tough. Really tough. But I did them all except one where I bogged in the last 20seconds.

In looking at past logs I'm pleased to see that I did 2 x 7 x 2on 2off at 290W and some at 300W last year. My Tacx inputs your body weight when doing the calibration. I'm lighter this year so I'm assuming that the calibration routine factors this in and I can compare the #s from one year/weight to another.

So I'm improving. I did 4mins of additional work this year at the same or higher power.

So back to the original question about what to shoot for as a sport XC racer. The answer is the highest that you can for the entire workout. A better question would be.

How much total work should I be shooting for during a SMSP workout as a Sport XC racer? I'm going to hazard a guess of a goal of working towards(Stair stepping your way to) 25-27mins of total work (SMSP phase).

Typically an expert race (if it's a lap course) has one additional lap. Which might add on 30-45mins of racing. Of that racing maybe 10-15 mins is at SMSP power levels. So a goal for an expert might be to work up to 40-45 minutes.

I dunno, just guessing. That's why I'm not a coach.