Okay, so lets hear about those intervals !

edd

We all do interval work of some kind.

So lets hear about them and where they come from and how often you do them.

I have two to kick off this thread:

Micro intervals: heard most do 30 sec on, 30 sec recover etc. Veronique Billat the French scientist came up with 40 sec on, 20 sec recover x 15 as a micro interval set. I put this to music and do these in a spin class format. All up with warm up and cool down 52 min

3 x 3 minute intervals with 90 sec recovery between 1 x 10 min interval and 2 x 1 min intervals with 90 sec recovery between. All up with warm up and 52 min

daveryanwyoming

Interesting set of intervals. What systems are you targeting with each one and where does it fit into your annual and weekly schedules?

Sounds like you've got a mix of microinterval L4(?) work, some VO2 max efforts, a short L4 effort, and a couple of L6 anaerobic tolerance efforts to round it out. Are these just an assortment of interval types you do from time to time or do they happen at certain times of the season(peaking, race prep, etc.)? Do you try to do one or more of these each week? Basically how do you integrate these into your schedule?

-Dave

tmctguer

my FTP is 266 watts. so I do the following 60 minute workout:

5 min warmup
5 min @ 266 watts (100% FTP)
15 min @ 240 watts (90% FTP)
10 min recovery
20 min @ 240 watts (90% FTP)
5 min cooldown

once a week, I do a 1.5 mile 8% grade climb interval:

2 to 3 climbs @ 295 watts (90% of the wattage produced during a recent strong climb of the same hill).

today, just to mix things up after a 2 week layoff due to illness & travel, I did:

2 climbs @ 290 watts
recovery ride home
1 x 10 min @ 240 (90% FTP) on the trainer.

i was targeting a 20 min @ 90% ride but the 2 hillclimbs took a lot out of me.

edd

Hi Dave,

I'm an indoor spin class instructor amoung other things so I have restrictions such as having to keep things interesting for class particpants.

The micro intervals 40/20s are VO2 max intervals performed at 92% of Max HR according to Veronique (no Power meters on the indoor trainer) These are really tuff. I do these once a fortnight. It takes about four intervals to get the HR up there.

The 3 x 3 min are also VO2 max intervals these are a mix of in the saddle
90 to 110 cadence or out of the saddle 70 to 100 cadence work.
10 min is the saddle be more than L4 effort I think
2 x 1 min are anaerobic tolerance efforts. I do these once a week.

These are mainly to keep up the VO2 max and maintain ride fitness from weekend on the road work which is unstructured 90 k rides at the moment, with lots of hill work. Putting a PM on my road bike this month. Will do 10 min 20 min 30 min intervals and hill sprints on the road.

edd

Curious what age you are. If I did 100% FTP after only 5 min warm up I'd get real out of shape real quick, I need a good 15 min staged warm up before I can produce any sustained high effort … am 59.

Miscreant

I am very new to training, as i want to start racing this season for the first time. I'm 18, 19 in february. I only started really training about a month ago.

I do a block of 3(Mon,Tues,Wed) and a block of 2(Fri,Sat) of 2x20 at 245 watts with 2 "rest" days per week. They are mostly active rest days, on one of the days i usually go on an easy 1 hour mountain bike ride with my dad in the trails. The other day i usually just try to commute a bit more by bike, or spin easy for about an hour. I also do a little bit of sprint work on saturday, again when im commuting. I just stand up and sprint for about 15 seconds, than spin easy for about 30. I probabley do that about 12-16 times or until i get to the place i'm going.

When it gets more cooperative outside i'll start working in climbing workouts and VO2 max workouts closer to the season.

edd

Hopefully a coach may jump in and offer some good advice, things to remember are:
1) fitness ( that means performance) is very very very action, activity, velocity specific.
2) You get good at what you do ( specifically) and not at what you don't.

beerco

These are tough and good etc. (I sometimes do them myself), but they are certainly not VO2max intervals. Slightly higher than FTP is the best one could hope for with this protocol. In fact, if you start out at VO2 effort levels you will almost certainly end the session with an average effort below FTP/

You probably don't do this but a lot of spin instructors don't do the class with the class so that they can still speak. I find that in those classes, the instructors never give enough recovery time for hard efforts and the overal or average intensity ends up lower than it would if they did give enough recovery. I.e., you're so wiped out from the first couple of high efforts that subsequent efforts are at a lower intensity.

edd

doing 40/20s not much talking from anyone. This is a fifteen minute block, with HR creep and acumulating oxygen debit, sometime I just moan really loudly … class loves them, they like to see an instructor just hanging it out there.

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0896.htm

edd

not me, I'm so so different, People ask "where did you come from ?" I tell them I fell out of cycling forum !

have a read of "Zone 3 Syndrome" thread good article

tmctguer

I am 50 years old. I know I should warm up more and stretch more.

for this specific workout, I gave up the warmup time for my interval workouts to keep them under 60 minutes so I can finish them and get to work on time.

I have another version of this workout where I have a 15 minute warmup, 15 minute cooldown in between intervals, and 10 minute cool down at the end.

beerco

That's all fine and good but they're still not VO2 max intervals. doing a 30/30 or 40/20, your maximum average power (for the 15min) will never be over what you could do for 15 min straight (not saying that the adaptations will be identical though). There are plenty of studies that show that overall, micro intervals of 30sec or less have the same adaptation as iso-power intervals at the same average power.

That said, if you did 2/3 at vVO2 max per the article (let's approximate to 120% FTP) and 1/3 at 50%, you average out to 96% of FTP. If you have any fast twitch in you, I would imagine that if you had a power meter on your spin bike, you'd find that you go a significantly harder on the first few intervals and significantly lower on the last several with an AP below 96% of FTP even though the PE would be through the roof.

When I do my microintervals, I usually do them as part of a 2x20min on the trainer/rollers to keep things interesting. I do the first 10min at FTP isopower then the second 10 min 30s on/ 30s off at around 200% of FTP on, almost zero off. Wait 5 min then do again.

For VO2 max, I do 6x5min intervals at 115% to 120% of FTP recovering 4 minutes in between. The first two are easy. 4 & 5 are quite difficult. #6 has almost made me puke but I managed to hold it back so far.

frenchyge

I get the impression that the purpose of spin classes is to make it interesting enough that people enjoy getting sweaty. Anything more scientific than that probably detracts from the fun aspect.

Yojimbo_

Back to the original question.

During this winter, I also do 3 days on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off.

The first day of the 3 days is at a spinning class. Can't say what my wattage is, but the class is 2 hours long right now. The instructor is a racer and he varies what we do according to the time of year.

The other days, I mostly do the following. My objective this winter is to raise my FTP by 24 watts to 250:

10 min warmup

Then, depending on how I'm feeling, 2X20, 3X20, 2X25, or 2X30 @ 90-95% FTP, with 5 min between each interval.

5 min cooldown at the end.

If possible, I will trade one of the above for a 2.5 - 3 hour ride outside on the road, but it's winter here where I live and it's pretty tough to get out.

Occasionally I will take an extra rest day when my body tells me it needs one - like it did today.