Tips for using Magic Buckets

Training
1

Hi,

I’m looking for tips or recommendations on using Magic Buckets for outdoor training, specifically for structured interval workouts.

During my workouts, I try to follow the recommended interval duration as closely as possible, whenever terrain and traffic allow it. When an interval starts, I can see how long I’ve been holding the interval, but I don’t understand what the time displayed underneath the interval duration represents, as it keeps changing during the effort.

I’m also seeing the following issue during recovery periods. For example, on rolling terrain I may briefly go above TP (about 10–20 W). This starts the interval countdown, but if I drop back below TP shortly afterwards, the recovery time becomes significantly longer than originally suggested.

Is this expected behaviour? My device is a Garmin Edge 830.

Thank you.

2

Why do you follow the interval duration? The beauty of magic buckets is that you do not have to. I usually aim for the proposed power target and go for as long and pause as long as it feels right for me. If I recover at a harder pace, low XSS will fill even faster. Sometimes I do some sprints for warmup to lower the targets.

Start whenever you can/want, stop when you can no more. Try to reach VO2max-state (very hard breathing/moaning, feels like drowning) for as long as possible. On a bad day, challenge level 5 is enough, on a normal day, I go for CL 7/8 and on a good day, I will try to push to lvl 10/breakthrough.