Tempo Intervals?

Gav888

Hi,

Just a quicky, should tempo (Heart Rate Zone 3) sessions on the turbo be done as long intervals, such as 3 x 20, 2 x 30 or 2 x 40 minutes long with say 5 minutes rest, or non stop for an hour or longer?

My understanding is that zone 2 is none stop zone 2 for the duration, say 1 hour plus, and zone 4 is intervals such as 2 x 20, im just not sure about zone 3.

Cheers

nmcgann

Continuous sessions - I mostly do a straight hour of tempo on the turbo. On the road it's more like 2h.

hopper1

nmcgann wrote:

Continuous sessions - I mostly do a straight hour of tempo on the turbo. On the road it's more like 2h.

+1

2 x 20's etc, are done at FTP.

phreak

I tend to do an hour non stop as well.

Bronzie

nmcgann wrote:

Continuous sessions - I mostly do a straight hour of tempo on the turbo. On the road it's more like 2h.

Tediously boring on the turbo though (I did an hour last night) - it doesn't hurt to split it up a bit and mix some other intervals in with it (ie 30 min L3 / 3x5 L5 / 15 min L3)

Gav888

Cheers guys, thats what ive been training for but a few articles ive read recently confused me a bit.

Im currently at 1 hour of tempo on the turbo working towards 2 hours by the end of the year!! :shock:

phreak

Suppose the other thing is that it differs based on your goals. I'm doing the Maratona in the summer so figure an hour at tempo would be similar to an hour climbing some of the climbs.

amaferanga

I often split an hour tempo session into four 15min segments (no breaks or anything though). I do the first and third at a steady speed/cadence at around 80-84% HRmax (tempo for me is about 77 - 87% HRmax based on my LT HR) and yo-yo my HR for the second and fourth segment between 80 and 87% HRmax by varying cadence. The hour passes quicker than if I sit at constant HR/cadence/speed.