Quadsweep said:
Why shorten the recovery time between short intervals to less than a 1:1 work to rest ratio?
I see (at least) two types of intervals.
1) Fully loaded. These are long enough (and intense enough) to fully fulfil their job. In the case of a VO2Max interval, it seems that 5minutes is a good duration and 100% of pVO2Max intense enough to elicit aerobic metabolism to operate at its maximal rate.
In this case, the rest interval can be long enough to allow for full recovery between the intervals. No need to cut on recovery time. You did the 5min. The job is done.
2) Partially loaded. There aren't long enough to fulfil their mission. Therefore one needs to cut on recovery time, in order to add additional stress. What I mean is that by playing with the rest interval (making it insufficient to allow for full recovery) the aerobic metabolism hopefully ends up operating at its maximal rate for long enough after few intervals.
Quadsweep said:
How much "less" should the recovery time be than the interval itself ?
Well that's a tricky question. A friend of mine, Ph.D in exercise physiology has made a nice chart on how to calibrate intervals. I'll try to find it, worse case I'll email him and ask for a link.
As a coach what I like to do to avoid getting things done the wrong way, is that I try to recreated a fully loaded interval by splitting it. In the case of a VO2Max interval it could be something like
{(2 x 3min 100% VO2Max - 30-45s off) x 4 } 5min off between the 4
This example is a fairly simple approach to shorter VO2Max intervals. 30-45s off is not enough for full recovery.
or
{(5x1min 105-110% VO2Max - 15sec off) x 4} 5min off between the 4
Same principle here
I could go on and on, with VO2Max or Threshold intervals (same principle).
