Incomplete recovery Intervals, are they really correct



jeff828

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May 2, 2004
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Have a question on the so called intervals that you do lets say 1min on 30sec off or 2min on 1min off. I know I have been told these will help my body learn how to recover faster. So it makes sence that if you get to the top of a hill & can recover faster than the guy next to you, you will be able to attack him or go with someone who has recovered also just as fast.

Is it correct to say that the deeper you go anaerobic the longer it takes to recover? I have done this myself to see the outcome. Try it, go to threshold for 5min then soft pedal & see how fast your HR drops, then go 20 beats above for 5min, then soft pedal, tell me which one takes longer for your HR to drop & legs to recover.

If so lets look at a situation where 2 riders go up a hill and at the top 1 of them had to go 95% of there max and the other only went 75%, which one would recover faster and be ready to attack, it should be the 75% rider. So it doesnt look the the 75% guy did more of those incomplete recovery intervals, (what does he have to recover from, he stayed aerobic) it just looks like he had a bigger aerobic motor so he didnt have to go anaerobic.

So wouldnt it be better to try & build bigger aerobic power rather than do incomplete recovery intervals. If I had boonen on my wheel and I hammered up one of the cobble climbs, at the top I would have dug pretty deep & he would just look over at me gasping and just ride away.


So no matter how much the 95% rider did incomplete recovery intervals the guy who stays more aerobic or doent have to dig as deep will recover faster and be ready to go again.

Is my way of thinking totally off the wall? :eek:
 
jeff828 said:
Have a question on the so called intervals that you do lets say 1min on 30sec off or 2min on 1min off. I know I have been told these will help my body learn how to recover faster. So it makes sence that if you get to the top of a hill & can recover faster than the guy next to you, you will be able to attack him or go with someone who has recovered also just as fast.

Is it correct to say that the deeper you go anaerobic the longer it takes to recover? I have done this myself to see the outcome. Try it, go to threshold for 5min then soft pedal & see how fast your HR drops, then go 20 beats above for 5min, then soft pedal, tell me which one takes longer for your HR to drop & legs to recover.

If so lets look at a situation where 2 riders go up a hill and at the top 1 of them had to go 95% of there max and the other only went 75%, which one would recover faster and be ready to attack, it should be the 75% rider. So it doesnt look the the 75% guy did more of those incomplete recovery intervals, (what does he have to recover from, he stayed aerobic) it just looks like he had a bigger aerobic motor so he didnt have to go anaerobic.

So wouldnt it be better to try & build bigger aerobic power rather than do incomplete recovery intervals. If I had boonen on my wheel and I hammered up one of the cobble climbs, at the top I would have dug pretty deep & he would just look over at me gasping and just ride away.


So no matter how much the 95% rider did incomplete recovery intervals the guy who stays more aerobic or doent have to dig as deep will recover faster and be ready to go again.

Is my way of thinking totally off the wall? :eek:
You raise some...interesting points. Basically in a race there are times where you go anaerobic no matter how fit you are aerobically. Even lance would have gone anaerobic WAY before the finish line. Take hill attacks for example or starting up a breakaway, even closing a breakaway will probably send you anaerobic if the competition is strong. So you need to learn to recover as much as possible so that when the counter attack goes off you can make it.

It teaches you to suffer "controllably" and to recover quick which should generally raise your lactate threshold if you do these intervals above your LT.
 
jeff828 said:
Have a question on the so called intervals that you do lets say 1min on 30sec off or 2min on 1min off. I know I have been told these will help my body learn how to recover faster. So it makes sence that if you get to the top of a hill & can recover faster than the guy next to you, you will be able to attack him or go with someone who has recovered also just as fast.

Is it correct to say that the deeper you go anaerobic the longer it takes to recover? I have done this myself to see the outcome. Try it, go to threshold for 5min then soft pedal & see how fast your HR drops, then go 20 beats above for 5min, then soft pedal, tell me which one takes longer for your HR to drop & legs to recover.

If so lets look at a situation where 2 riders go up a hill and at the top 1 of them had to go 95% of there max and the other only went 75%, which one would recover faster and be ready to attack, it should be the 75% rider. So it doesnt look the the 75% guy did more of those incomplete recovery intervals, (what does he have to recover from, he stayed aerobic) it just looks like he had a bigger aerobic motor so he didnt have to go anaerobic.

So wouldnt it be better to try & build bigger aerobic power rather than do incomplete recovery intervals. If I had boonen on my wheel and I hammered up one of the cobble climbs, at the top I would have dug pretty deep & he would just look over at me gasping and just ride away.


So no matter how much the 95% rider did incomplete recovery intervals the guy who stays more aerobic or doent have to dig as deep will recover faster and be ready to go again.

Is my way of thinking totally off the wall? :eek:
I think you're on the right track. Did you read the recent "1 minute interval" thread or whatever it was called? The long and the short of it is that after several short intervals with incomplete recovery, the intervals become primarily aerobic. So it's not really training your anaerobic system, but not really training v02max or threshold since the intervals are so short. IMHO, you're much better off doing 1-2 minute intervals with long recoveries...and doing v02max/threshold work separate. Exceptions are microintervals.
 
whoawhoa said:
I think you're on the right track. Did you read the recent "1 minute interval" thread or whatever it was called? The long and the short of it is that after several short intervals with incomplete recovery, the intervals become primarily aerobic. So it's not really training your anaerobic system, but not really training v02max or threshold since the intervals are so short. IMHO, you're much better off doing 1-2 minute intervals with long recoveries...and doing v02max/threshold work separate. Exceptions are microintervals.

Basically just think if we had lances or one of the other pros aerobic capacity to ride 29-30mph for an hour by yourself (at threshold) we would be "reacting" to most all the accellerations in our catagory (3-4) aerobicly, now wouldnt that be the bomb :D

Would we get that tired? These guys can ride at a higher speed than my catagory averages. (example lance did 38mi TT in the TDF in 1:12ish & that was at threshold)
 
That is a good question.

I'd say that training should be from general to specific.

I guess during specific preparation, one aims at training at race pace. In cycling, race pace is fluctuating a lot. That's makes cycling (road) a bit distinctive, in cyclic endurance sports. Cross country skyers and in a certain way, marathon swimmers experiment the same, but maybe not to the same extent.

I should begin mixed type training soon.
 
SolarEnergy said:
That is a good question.

I'd say that training should be from general to specific.

I guess during specific preparation, one aims at training at race pace. In cycling, race pace is fluctuating a lot. That's makes cycling (road) a bit distinctive, in cyclic endurance sports. ...
I should begin mixed type training soon.

IOW, do both types of training. The aerobic engine stuff before and during the time you do the incomplete recovery intervals.

In most bike races you have to be good at 4 or 5 different abilities so train them all. And you CAN train them all in the same 7-10 day periods. Recovering from one aspect of fitness while you train another. Generally, CNS stuff when you're freshest.