Interval training - help!

il_principe

I know there's a training section over in road, but wanted to get one thoughts from the commuter hive mind.

I'm starting to use the Turbo a fair bit this winter, and rather than aimlessly spinning away I want to use the Edge 800 to setup some interval training based on % of MaxHR. Does anyone have any suggestions for good 40 min or so sessions? Ideally I'm looking to up my cadence (I tend to average around 80), go harder for longer before my legs burn (i.e anaerobic threshold I think) and speed. Not too worried about endurance as I'll build this up on solo weekend rides.

There's so much written on this subject that I'm having a tough time working out what's best for me. Ultimately I just want to be able to cycle long distances faster and climb quicker.

Thanks!

jonginge

2x20. About an hour session with warmup, cooldown.

Warm up
20mins at between 80-90% MHR depending how hard you want to make the session. (HR will drift a bit upwards during the session even at constant power)
5 mins spinning
20mins at between 80-90% MHR
cool down

Hard sessions so probably only a couple a week

londonlivvy

IP, as you say, there are lots of different options. I hired a coach last year to prepare me for the Marmotte for exactly that reason. It might be worth getting one.

But for what it's worth, two of the turbo sessions I did most often were :
Long Intervals
5min warm up with two 30 sec hard pushes at 100 RPM
10 min 150 (3 min recovery at 130)
10 min 150 (3 min recovery)
10 min 150 (3 min recovery)
5 min warm down

Pyramid Intervals
5-10 min warm up (HR 130-140)
1 Min 150-155 HR
1 Min recovery 130
2 min 150
2 min recovery
3 min 150
3 min recovery
4 min 150
4 min recovery
5 min 150
5 min recovery
4 min 150
4 min recovery (and so on through 3, 2, 1)
10 min warm down (130)
stretch

I also did hill repeats of say 10 repeats of sawyers hill aiming at cadence of 60-70 with HR of 150-160.

I did occasionally do threshold stuff at 160-170 but not that often.

He (coach) was also quite keen on the trademarked jonginge hard laps of RP.

And (bit controversial this) he also advised swimming once a week and core strength twice a week to prevent injury. It worked for me.

il_principe

Thanks both, I shall experiment. Wondering if it's too early in the year to be doing turbo intervals at all?

My sister is putting together some core exercises for me to do in the evenings, so have that covered.

cjcp

3x20's good, too.

cjcp

Also, do 10m and 25m TTs on the turbo.

Twostage

Go to the taxc website. They have downloadable sessions targeted at different needs i.e. aerobic, power, climbing etc. You can print them out and attach them to your handlebars. They tell you what gearing, cadence, resistance settings for each part i.e. 1 minute big cog front, 17 cog back, resistance 3 etc.
One of my favourites lasts just 24 minutes and mixes speed, high resistance and alternate leg. HR is usually approaching max at the end.

Wrath Rob

If you have a specific target in mind, e.g. the Marmotte/Etape etc then you can work out a proper training plan like Livvy's. If like me you just want to get fitter for a winter racing series, stuff the turbo and come out on the KW Tuesday night training ride. Want a general threshold work out? Go in the fast group and hang on to the back wheel. Want an interval work out? Go in the slower group and take turns on the front. That plus some hill repeats for a 2nd session in the week coupled with the commuting and a long, slow ride at the weekend will sort you out.

mrc1

Il Principe wrote:

Thanks both, I shall experiment. Wondering if it's too early in the year to be doing turbo intervals at all?

This largely depends when the event/race/trip you are targeting is (or if you are just looking for a general improvement), what part of your riding you are looking to improve and what you define as intervals.

2x20s are perfect at this time of year as they fall firmly in the endurance section and will address your underlying fitness. While still technically an interval you can't really go wrong with doing these all year (I was doing them from November onwards for RAAM training). The main thing is focusing on a consistent effort throughout the twenty mins - the temptation is to go out to hard early so peg it back a bit and let the pain as the lactic accumulates build gradually. 85-90%MHR average is probably about the maximum that you could maintain for 20s so that's a decent guide to warn you if you are pushing too hard - just remember that your heart rate lags by a few minutes. Try to keep the break between intervals to no more than 5 minutes as the idea is that the second interval is almost a continuation of the first.

When calculating your heart rate make sure you have done a test yourself to establish your maximum as the guesstimate from Garmin is really unreliable.

If you only have 40 mins then you are possibly better off doing a 1x30 or 1x25 with 5/10 mins of warm up and warm down. You may have to slightly reduce the effort level by 5% or so to do this.

That being said if you are looking to improve performance on short climbs (2-5 mins) or for little bursts then you are better off doing shorter intervals (I build these up over a couple of months starting from 3x3 mins building to 5x5 minutes - these sessions kill you so only do them once a week or so) in addition to 2x20 style sessions. There's quite a bit of disagreement about "peaking" from these intervals but it does seem to be pretty widely accepted that you can't maintain a peak for very long. Therefore rather than hitting these hard now you might want to consider doing a session of shorter intervals every couple of weeks (if you are commuting then you can just do a few bursts of a couple of minutes to tick this box) to maintain your existing capacity, then ramping them up (in line with what I said above) from about 2 months out from your target.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Rob

greg66_tri_v2.0

FWIW...

I would get myself over to Amazon and get a training book - something by Joe Friel or Chris Carmichael. Sit down, read it, and work out a training programme. In particular, look to build something that has recovery blocks in it.

From what I recall, if you are looking at doing HR based training you will need to do some type of structured drill first to establish your HR zones. Have a bucket ready for that one.

Or for more ££, get a coach, as Livvy suggests. Be careful and take a recommendation though. One of my mates had a coach a few years ago who told her to do ten x 15 minute climbs at >6% in 53x13. Never understood what the purpose of that was, other than to cause pain.

Or for more ££ still get a power meter and a coach. You will need to work out your power at lactate threshold (I think that's the term - it's the max power you can hold at a consistent level for an hour. Get the bucket out for that too).

ETA: I would regard club runs as a supplement to a structured training programme, not as a replacement for it.

Uuummmm. Happy memories. Not.

il_principe

Wrath Rob wrote:

If you have a specific target in mind, e.g. the Marmotte/Etape etc then you can work out a proper training plan like Livvy's. If like me you just want to get fitter for a winter racing series, stuff the turbo and come out on the KW Tuesday night training ride. Want a general threshold work out? Go in the fast group and hang on to the back wheel. Want an interval work out? Go in the slower group and take turns on the front. That plus some hill repeats for a 2nd session in the week coupled with the commuting and a long, slow ride at the weekend will sort you out.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm not sure I'm up for riding in a bunch, in the dark, with people I don't know; sounds like a recipe for a smash! TBH I prefer to do my training rides solo.