Interval Training.

FoolishFour

Hi,

I have been adding intervals to my cycling sessions to accelerate my improvementsf and I realised that I have a question.

Lets say I am doing an intervals session within an hour and a half ride - which for arguments sake is 8 x (3 mins hard + 2 mins easy). Obviously, I warm up before the intervals, but how hard do people ride either side of the intervals session. Easy or Medium paced beforehand?? Usually I am too shattered after the session to put much in for the final 20 mins or so - so that is typically pretty easy for me.

What should I be doing??

Thanks,
Rich

Bronzie

Do the intervals at the planned intensity for the session, everything else should be very easy / recovery level or maybe steady endurance level if you are adding the intervals into a longer ride.

Alex_Simmons/RST

FoolishFour wrote:

What should I be doing??

It depends. Some interval sets are performed during a very hard ride, some are performed with very easy or steady riding either side.

Since you are new to intervals, then you'll want to ride at a level that isn't so hard you find you are unable to do the intervals or train as intended the following day(s).

ozzy1000_0

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

FoolishFour wrote:

What should I be doing??

It depends. Some interval sets are performed during a very hard ride, some are performed with very easy or steady riding either side.

Since you are new to intervals, then you'll want to ride at a level that isn't so hard you find you are unable to do the intervals or train as intended the following day(s).

I've also been add-libbing intervals. I'm not training for anything right now, but I'm keen to not let me fittness slip too much and intervals seem like a good way to hang onto stregnth.

sorry to hijack the thread but can i run somthing past? somthing I do on my turbo trainer is to warm up, then hold a steady 25mph for about 15minutes, then sprint to 32-35mph for 40seconds, then back to 25mph 3minutes, then back to 32-35mph and repeat the sprint and 3minute thing 6 times... based on the resistance of my turbo this leaves me absolutely buggered.. I try to ride at 25mphfor another 10-15minutes afterwards but by this point my heart rate is usually climbing and I jib out and warm down.....

does the above sound ok? I know people would say I should rest more inbetween sprints but my logic is that if i do this twice aweek then i'll just get to the point where I can tolerate it and ride the extra bit on the end. then at this point I'll extend the sprints another 10seconds.... any thoughts

FoolishFour

A couple of observations - What other types interval sessions are you doing??

It is difficult to know if you are doing the right thing or not - how difficult does it feel in terms of perceived effort?

Alex_Simmons/RST

ozzy1000_0 wrote:

does the above sound ok?

There are no hard and fast rules, and no real right or wrong.

If you have no real idea of what you are trying to achieve with turbo work, then it's a matter of motivation, so do whatever keeps that up.

If you have particular goals, then some workouts might be more beneficial than others.

smush

sorry to jump on this one and i should really start another topic , but what is interval training all about and what are the benifits of doing it .

kieranb

bascially going hard for a certain period of time, then resting, then repeating. How hard, how long , how long to rest, how many reps and how many sessions vary.

Some reps are constan (eg. 5 reps of 30secs effort) someclimb up and them down etc (eg 10s hard, 10s rest, 20s hard, 20s rest,up to 1.5m hard then back down to 10s rest.)

Bronzie

smush wrote:

what is interval training all about and what are the benifits of doing it .

Riding repeats of short (30sec - 30min) periods at an intensity you could not hold for a longer period to stress (and therefore improve) energy systems that you do not normally stress riding at steady pace.

http://www.peakscoachinggroup.com/Archi ... 20Them.pdf

lef

I did read somewhere (sorry cant remember where) that the rest interval can be as important as the high intensity interval and the effort in the rest interval should be carried out as per the recommended intensity and not just soft pedalling...very tempting to start doing when your arse is hanging out...in order to achieve the greatest physiological improvements.

This raises another question (to me at least),when the workout is too hard to complete should the high intensity interval be shortened to ensure that the full workout can be completed or should the rest interval be lengthened (rather than the intensity lowered) to allow greater recovery before the next interval? Probably depends on the length of the intervals which maybe answers my own question but though Id put it out there all the same!

Herbsman

I would increase the recovery period. It rarely happens if you pace yourself properly though.

JRooke

ozzy1000_0 wrote:

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

FoolishFour wrote:

What should I be doing??

It depends. Some interval sets are performed during a very hard ride, some are performed with very easy or steady riding either side.

Since you are new to intervals, then you'll want to ride at a level that isn't so hard you find you are unable to do the intervals or train as intended the following day(s).

I've also been add-libbing intervals. I'm not training for anything right now, but I'm keen to not let me fittness slip too much and intervals seem like a good way to hang onto stregnth.

sorry to hijack the thread but can i run somthing past? somthing I do on my turbo trainer is to warm up, then hold a steady 25mph for about 15minutes, then sprint to 32-35mph for 40seconds, then back to 25mph 3minutes, then back to 32-35mph and repeat the sprint and 3minute thing 6 times... based on the resistance of my turbo this leaves me absolutely buggered.. I try to ride at 25mphfor another 10-15minutes afterwards but by this point my heart rate is usually climbing and I jib out and warm down.....

does the above sound ok? I know people would say I should rest more inbetween sprints but my logic is that if i do this twice aweek then i'll just get to the point where I can tolerate it and ride the extra bit on the end. then at this point I'll extend the sprints another 10seconds.... any thoughts

Interval training should be about increasing your anaerobic power, lactate threshold and repeatability during short intense efforts, its not really about doing as much as you can to ensure maximum buggery levels afterwards lol. It's unbelievably important to rest between each stint, if 3 minutes feels like enough recovery time then your not putting enough in to your sprint efforts and it isn't interval training. You need to be giving your muscles and energy systems time to rebuild from the stress they've endured as you push them with faster and longer efforts. The idea is the 15/20 mins recovery speeds up the process of repair and regeneration of muscle tissues by stimulating circulation to carry away all the $hit, lactic acid and other metabolic waste, so come race day (or just gettin through a chaingang) becomes much easier. Don't just phuck yourself up for the sake of feeling good about yourself coz your absolutely goosed after a session, it's a huge miss conception of cycling, that if you push real hard you'll get real good.

airbusboy

Has anyone got any interval plans? Which include Length of effort (10's-5mins's etc) and the respective HR % to try and achieve and maintain. Then, recovery time... what is that based upon HR, feeling or time? These things just confuse me.....

Cheers

Herbsman

airbusboy wrote:

Has anyone got any interval plans? Which include Length of effort (10's-5mins's etc) and the respective HR % to try and achieve and maintain. Then, recovery time... what is that based upon HR, feeling or time? These things just confuse me.....

Cheers

http://www.turbotraining.co.uk/turbo_tr ... p?uid=1933

" When I designed the program I decided to not use percentages for heart rate or power output but instead use the subjective terms low, high, very high etc. This decision makes the program more flexible because people have the option to make the program fit into their regular way of calculating power outputs (or heart rates). Percentage of threshold power is one way to calculate your power output, but other people use different methods. Also there is the possibity to ride the program without heart rate monitor or power meter.
Thus, you are the one to decide how hard, hard should be. It doesn’t have to be maximum performance each and every interval day, but interval days should be the toughest days in the week."