Interval training

squigs

I have now discovered interval training! down the gym as well as on my turbo trainer. Wow, what a difference. Really feeling the stamina increasing. 2 minutes of riding, 30 seconds of beasting, then repeat.
Anyone have any hints or tips?

Pokerface

squigs wrote:

Anyone have any hints or tips?

Do 30 of them.

SBezza

Do them for longer, ie 2 mins rest followed by 5 mins beasting :twisted: , you just won't get 30 done of them

I doubt such short intervals will help much with stamina though, the duration of the complete session will help with stamina.

rick_chasey

No pain, no gain...

Berk Bonebonce

"Down the gym" and "on the turbo trainer"? Are you scared of the traffic or something?

squigs

Berk Bonebonce wrote:

"Down the gym" and "on the turbo trainer"? Are you scared of the traffic or something?

Turbo trainer, then ride (on road) to work, then interval training at work, then work, then ride (on road) home. Then ride (on road) on Sunday for 40-60 miles. So no, not scared of traffic.
My Interval training also includes weights, rowing and cross trainer.

Dmak

I was looking into this earlier in the week. 'Apparently' an exercise to rest ratio of 2:1 is most effective.

Hilly rides with man gears are a loose form of interval training. Even cycling through London with all the bloody red lights is kind of similar.

If you have a heart rate monitor you can use this instead of a timer. Beast it for 1-2 minutes, slowdown/rest until your heartbeat falls to a specific rate and BEAST again. Someone somewhere suggested 145 but I can imagine this being a personal thing.

SBezza

Dmak wrote:

Someone somewhere suggested 145 but I can imagine this being a personal thing.

Most certainly is, 145 bpm is no where near beasting it to me, plus with an interval as short as 1-2 mins HR is next to useless. You have to go via RPE or power if you have a power meter.

Dmak

SBezza wrote:

Dmak wrote:

Someone somewhere suggested 145 but I can imagine this being a personal thing.

Most certainly is, 145 bpm is no where near beasting it to me, plus with an interval as short as 1-2 mins HR is next to useless. You have to go via RPE or power if you have a power meter.

By 145 I mean the lower rate, at which point you beast again. 145 bpm would be the approximate heart rate of a 75 year old man beasting it!

SBezza

Dmak wrote:

SBezza wrote:

Dmak wrote:

Someone somewhere suggested 145 but I can imagine this being a personal thing.

Most certainly is, 145 bpm is no where near beasting it to me, plus with an interval as short as 1-2 mins HR is next to useless. You have to go via RPE or power if you have a power meter.

By 145 I mean the lower rate, at which point you beast again. 145 bpm would be the approximate heart rate of a 75 year old man beasting it!

Again this is far to individual, a really fit person might drop below this quite easily in a 2 min rest interval, where as an unfit person might not even be ready to go again after 2 mins.

It is impossible to say a particular HR, as we are all too different for this to be sound advice. You could state percentage of HRMax, but even this relies on someone actually knowing their true HRMax.

Again with a 1-2 min interval, my HR might just get above 145 bpm, and after 2 mins rest would be well below this. For any interval shorter than about 10 mins HR is pointless to measure with, it doesn't react quick enough to base a short duration interval on.

ShutUpLegs

Stick a few hill repeats in there and the jobs a good 'un

Dmak

SBezza wrote:

Dmak wrote:

SBezza wrote:

Dmak wrote:

Someone somewhere suggested 145 but I can imagine this being a personal thing.

Most certainly is, 145 bpm is no where near beasting it to me, plus with an interval as short as 1-2 mins HR is next to useless. You have to go via RPE or power if you have a power meter.

By 145 I mean the lower rate, at which point you beast again. 145 bpm would be the approximate heart rate of a 75 year old man beasting it!

Again this is far to individual, a really fit person might drop below this quite easily in a 2 min rest interval, where as an unfit person might not even be ready to go again after 2 mins.

It is impossible to say a particular HR, as we are all too different for this to be sound advice. You could state percentage of HRMax, but even this relies on someone actually knowing their true HRMax.

Again with a 1-2 min interval, my HR might just get above 145 bpm, and after 2 mins rest would be well below this. For any interval shorter than about 10 mins HR is pointless to measure with, it doesn't react quick enough to base a short duration interval on.

Blimey! How fit are you? You can beast for 1-2 minutes and barely exceed a heart rate of 145bpm? What sort of beast speed do you get to? What's your MHR? I am so intrigued.

Anonymous

here's a pic of what SBezza is on about from one of my interval sessions, Cardiac Drift. The red line is HR, yellow is power...

I do 10 mins at sweet spot. Note the HR dropping back to around 100-110 after a couple of mins. HR is pretty much useless in inteval training...

SBezza is a top time-triallist BTW... In fact, probably the fastest man I know personally!

Dmak

Oh God not you again!

It is impressive, feeling nosey I looked at a few of Steve's old posts. 18 stone, 3 or 4 years ago. That's some serious commitment there.

BTW what system did you use to record this data?

Anonymous

Dmak wrote:

Oh God not you again!

??

Dmak wrote:

BTW what system did you use to record this data?

Garmin Edge 705/Powertap uploaded to WKO+

Dmak

?? I smoked weed once, rode my bike, shared on here after a near-miss due to a hole in the road and you gave me a hard time for it! I don't smoke it anymore you'll be pleased to know.

I'm tempted to pick up a Powertap wheel and an Edge 500. Just picking up pace after a winter of hibernating. Really worth the money? The roads routes and conditions are so random I feel a power meter would be a great way of tracking progress.

Anonymous

Aaaah! Ok. Good news!

If you are keen on racing or time trialling then yeah, a powermeter is brill (as long as you know how to interpret the data...) however if you are riding sportives/club runs then I wouldn't bother.

I have incredibly limited time to train so the powermeter helps me ensure I'm training at exactly the right level, or I'm wasting my valuable time.

Dmak

I intend to compete in TT's. I say compete but conditioning takes a long time so it'll be for the fun of it and the data this year. I do have a thing for data

At the moment I'm focusing on base miles and fat burning with some high intensity rides. I don't have much fat but I want it all gone. This is a serious hobby now, I love it

SBezza

Dmak wrote:

Blimey! How fit are you? You can beast for 1-2 minutes and barely exceed a heart rate of 145bpm? What sort of beast speed do you get to? What's your MHR? I am so intrigued.

Actually with repeated efforts my HR would go over 145 bpm, but I was trying to show that just because one person the HR info might be correct, for another one, it could be impossible. I don't do intervals as short as 2 mins, I do beasting for 5 mins at a time

I wouldn't know about speed, I work with power, and for intervals just aim for a power and HR and speed are what they end up as.

SBezza

Dmak wrote:

I intend to compete in TT's. I say compete but conditioning takes a long time so it'll be for the fun of it and the data this year. I do have a thing for data

At the moment I'm focusing on base miles and fat burning with some high intensity rides. I don't have much fat but I want it all gone. This is a serious hobby now, I love it

Conditioning doesn't take that long, I am only starting my 3 year of TTing

Also with the fat, your body will only let so much go, and getting rid of too much might prove detrimental, aiming for around 10% bodyfat is realistic, any lower than this and you need a very good nutritionist IMO. Pro's only really get lower than this for target races. There is a chance you could lose power as well, though as you can't measure that you won't always see it.