Intervals?

[willhub]

Hi.

I've heard interval training is a way that can massively improve speed and other things, I've been looking into it and thinking of doing it, I'm wanting to have a go at an interval session tomorrow.

I have being reading up on them but confused. I get the basic idea, x amount of x on and off, miles? mins?, one article said don't push as hard as you can, or I assume at close to your threshold if you wont be able to complete the full amount of intervals so back the speed off abit?

I was thinking of doing 3 minutes on and then 3 minutes off to recover then 3 minutes on again and so on 5 times but I am unsure if this will be enough, if the intervals on and off are too long or what?

Anyone got any recommendations or interval formats I could try? My most important aim here is to improve for TT's, I think I have the endurance as I'm capable of doing 100+ rides easilly.

I have a 10 miles flat TT on Thursday, I cycle 24 miles to it and the same back, I know doing intervals in the meantime will not improve my performance in that TT in anyway but roughly how long when doing intervals does it take to see an improvements? weeks? months?

I also read you should only do 2 sessions of intervals a week?

Thanks
Will.

 

[Will1985]

An interval session for time trialling should last as long as you expect to ride. You'll find better advice on correct interval sessions on TTF.

You say you have been doing 3 min intervals with a 3 min recovery - the idea is that each rep will begin before you have returned to the starting level of fatigue/lactate. If you can do a 24 min 10 for example, you'll want to be doing 8x3 mins. You can play around with the times if you want but I think 3 mins recovery for a 3 min effort is a bit too much. Pyramid sessions are fun

For testing, the coaches on TTF recommend longer interval sessions such as 2x10 or 2x15 mins. These are not necessarily balls-out either.

Do you treat your ride to the TT as a warm up? Gentle first 10, ramp it up a bit for 5, relax for a few and then do some sprint efforts before a gentle final 2-3 miles...(would be my routine).

 

[Ben M]

For HIIT (high intensity interval training):

Workouts should last no longer than twenty minutes, twenty five if you are an absolute God, and less when you first start out.

Overall, you will spend more time at a low intensity than at a high intensity, because your body takes time to recover between intervals.

During high intensity intervals, you need to be going as fast as you can physically muster, as such these intervals are relatively short (I'll give some good times to start with at the end).

During the recovery intervals, you want to be at around 40-60% of your maximum (generally at the start of the workout 60%, by the end, 40% or less)

If at the end you don't need to sit down to recover, feel like you are going to throw up and wonder why you ever decided to do this in the first place, then you aren't working hard enough.

Interval wise, after warming up, I used to do 1 min low intensity, 30 sec high intensity, twelve times, so an 18 min workout.
If you find that that's a little too easy, then try 45 sec high, 74 sec low.

HIIT is a really good way of building fitness, but it does really hurt. What it also does (allegedly) is boost your metabolism for the rest of the day. So it's good for weight loss as well.

Good luck with the TT.

 

[bianchi1]

i was given some advice once by rider who could do sub 21 min for a 10 mile tt. Find a good long hill ( in your case one that takes 3 min to ride up working hard ) then ride up it like a loon. Turn around at the top and roll down spinning gently then ride up HARD again. Repeat as much as you can. After a couple of weeks find a slightly longer hill.

I know that this is not as highly scientific as some of the answers as you will get on here but its easy to do/organise, not as boring as intervals on the flat looking at a stopwatch and it works. If you time yourself up the hill you will suddenly find yourself getting up tens of seconds quicker than last week. Hurts like hell tho!

 

[Ben M]

i was given some advice once by rider who could do sub 21 min for a 10 mile tt. Find a good long hill ( in your case one that takes 3 min to ride up working hard ) then ride up it like a loon. Turn around at the top and roll down spinning gently then ride up HARD again. Repeat as much as you can. After a couple of weeks find a slightly longer hill.

I know that this is not as highly scientific as some of the answers as you will get on here but its easy to do/organise, not as boring as intervals on the flat looking at a stopwatch and it works. If you time yourself up the hill you will suddenly find yourself getting up tens of seconds quicker than last week. Hurts like hell tho!

That's quite interesting actually, it's exactly the same as something that I'd been thinking of trying, I'll definitely try that some time in that case. Probably with a short stop at the top, so that I could increase the intensity on the way up.

 

[willhub]

Thanks guys for the quick replys, I'd like to do the hill ones but I want some interval training I can do close to home, like on my doorstep and the nearest hills are about 25 miles away...

Some of this is going in my head and quickly out it's hard to understand. So should I just do something like 2mins on at a fastish pace like 22-23mph then do something like a 30-40 second recovery and go again.

Or this HIIT and do 40 seconds on and 80 seconds off, or even 40 seconds off too?

There is this one "hill" near me, it's called brayton barf, the thing is it's not massively steep, it's a shorts drag then flattish, then it starts getting steepish then you go up one steepish section, it then levels out slightly and you go round the corner and it's the steepest bit, I reckon it would only take about a min maybe less to get up and it's a dead end at the top and the surface ain't the best.

 

[Ben M]

It depends whether you want to do interval training to increase general fitness, and lose weight. Or if you really want to go for it and do HIIT, which increases your anaerobic threshold, as well as increasing fitness and losing weight.

I think that HIIT would be more beneficial for TTing.

 

[bianchi1]

To be honest it's not got a lot to do about pace, more about heart rate. Your intervals for strength should be around 90% max heart rate +. Hills are just a good way of forcing you to work hard. If you have no hills get something to measure your heart rate and interval to that.

Where do you live that's so flat?

 

[jimboalee]

i was given some advice once by rider who could do sub 21 min for a 10 mile tt. Find a good long hill ( in your case one that takes 3 min to ride up working hard ) then ride up it like a loon. Turn around at the top and roll down spinning gently then ride up HARD again. Repeat as much as you can. After a couple of weeks find a slightly longer hill.

I know that this is not as highly scientific as some of the answers as you will get on here but its easy to do/organise, not as boring as intervals on the flat looking at a stopwatch and it works. If you time yourself up the hill you will suddenly find yourself getting up tens of seconds quicker than last week. Hurts like hell tho!

Good advice.

I did circuits of Barr Beacon, Nth Birmingham.
A five minute 12%, 5 minute 'Balls out' top gear 2% descent and then a flat 1 1/2 mile back to the bottom of the hill.

 

[willhub]

To be honest it's not got a lot to do about pace, more about heart rate. Your intervals for strength should be around 90% max heart rate +. Hills are just a good way of forcing you to work hard. If you have no hills get something to measure your heart rate and interval to that.

Where do you live that's so flat?

Selby, no hills for 20ish miles, maybe 15 if I go to leeds but I don't fancy the roads around there. I have a HRM just I haven't got it yet I left it in Manchester, going to pick it up.

In the meantime I shall do intervals without a HRM, should I just push as hard as possible then back it off every so slightly? I notice my Garmin has interval training built into it.

My enthusiasm about TT's has all but gone now, I thought I was a little better than I was I have to admit, then I look at a 50mile TT, people of all ages including woman getting averaged in the 26mph range, I cant imagine doing 26mph for more than a couple of mile I really need to improve I feel like a snail.

 

[willhub]

Ok, well until I have got my HRM I have decided to do this method of intervals, I've being mmming and ring for ages.

I've got it keyed into my garmin, a 1 mile warmup, then at the 1 mile marker I'll start with a sprint for 30 pedal strokes and then push under what I feel is my threshold and gearing down, I'll then do a mile recovery and then another mile repeating for 5 reps.

I'll do that this week but next week I might try 2:1 so 2 miles as above and 1 mile recovery, I think either way I should see some benefits, maybe not in time when I've modified it again when I've got my HRM but it's a start.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Triathlon-Lactate-Threshold:-Interval-Training-for-the-Bike&id=237717

Got it from there, I'll modify the route every time aswell I think so I'm not doing the same thing.