Intervals - The secret

dusty_nz

Likes Dirt
NOTE: You need to know your Heart rate zones. E1 (Endurance), E2 (Tempo), E3 (Threshold) to utilise intervals
NOTE2: I am not a professional cyclist. I am physically and financial enthusiast who enjoys flagellation to achieve outcomes. Xmas 2012 I knew nothing about intervals and had a very narrow view of training. I have since engaged a coach and learnt the following.
NOTE3: Intervals sux massively. It is about the suffering. If at 2 mins of a 8 minute interval you feel like giving up as success is impossible then you have it right. 50% of intervals is learning to sustain suffering.


Thought I will enlighten everyone to the secret training called intervals.

I am sure everyone has heard of Intervals but not many people know how to properly implement or use intervals and why.

Initially intervals were used as a way of increasing the overall power output for a period. eg

Due to your lactate threshold you may only be able to sustain an average power of 150watts over an hour.

If you instead did 30 minutes at 100 watts and 30 minutes worth of intervals at 250 your total power output is at 175.

While the above is just to give you an idea in reality intervals allow you to massively increase your training power output.

You total output is based on three key factors. Heart capacity (Heart Rate), Lung Capacity (VO2) and Leg capacity (Lactate Threshold). To develop any one of these you need to stress it beyond 110% of its current capacity for a sustained period.

Normal training rides are a simple case of going hard. In essence you are riding in Tempo which is not really over stressing your body. Your three body components are all running below their maximum for an extended period. Great for endurance but not with making you go faster.

Intervals are designed to to target a specific component of riding or your body and extensively stressing an individual piece.

For example.
To target your lactate threshold shorter periods of high intensity are used such as 3 sets of E3 max for 8 minutes with 5 minute recovery.
To target your recovery you may use 1 hour of E3 min with cadence changes every 5 mins between 100rpm to 60 rpm.
VO2 max may use a 3 minute E3 max with a VO2 max sprint for the last 30 seconds and a 5 min recovery

To put some real world numbers with these.
I am 40 YO. Resting HR of around 45, Max of 195. With fresh legs I can push to 199 for brief 10 second intervals but that it is known as 110% VO2 max. Will work with 195 today, Yeah, mine is pretty bizarre. Average rider of my age and background would be around 180 max with mid E1 around 125.

Using the std table
E1 = 125 to 145
E2 = 145 to 165
E3 – 165 to 180

For a reasonable fit cyclist your E1 max (145) will be approx 28-30kph on the flat. The mid point of E1 (135) should be around 95% fat burn. Once you know your body you will find you can knock out 150+ km with little food requirements with mid E1. As soon as you push E1 max you will start to notice getting hungry after a few hours.

The midpoint E3 (170) should be your lactate threshold. Eg Should be your average heart rate for a maximum 20 min exertion (approximate)

NOTE: with training your Max HR won’t really change but your efficiency will. Eg more power for the same HR.

WARNING, Don’t skip your warmup, 30 warm up and 30 min cool down. Without this you will hurt the next day. Intervals really stress your body and muscles.

Results
My first interval was 3 x E3 for 4 minutes with 4 minutes recovery. Written 3 x E3@4min with E1@4min
I badly tapered off at the end of the first interval and the remaining 2 had no resemblance of an interval.

3 months later I am now doing 4 x E3max@9min with E1@4min. This is doing three sets of around 175-180+ hr for 9+ minutes.

3 peaks I held 175-180 for 30 minutes (Tawonga Gap) then 175 for 60 minutes (Mt Buffalo). My lactate threshold is now around 180 and I need to adjust my zones to suit.


The rest of the thread I will grow with different intervals and would love to see contributions from other people.
 
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dusty_nz

Likes Dirt
Sample sessions

3 x E3max for 4 minutes with 4 minutes recovery. Written 3 x E3@4min with E1@4min
Now
4 x E3max for 9 minutes with 4 minutes recovery.
What could these reasonably be taken out to?


60 minutes at E3Min swapping between 60rpm and 100rpm every 5 minutes


Any other suggestions?
 
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eyes

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Ha milk!

Be careful with intervals not to burn out, mix it up and only use them when you need.
 

dusty_nz

Likes Dirt
Ha milk!

Be careful with intervals not to burn out, mix it up and only use them when you need.
Yes.

Mix the type of intervals and ensure you mix it with endurance rides with low HR's

Again ensure a nice 30 min warmup and cool down.
 

wilddemon

Likes Dirt
Great thread mate. I'm a bit confused by this;

To target your recovery you may use 1 hour of E3 min with cadence changes every 5 mins between 100rpm to 60 rpm.
So to improve recovery you alter cadence at E3 min - is that 170 in your case?
 

dusty_nz

Likes Dirt
Great thread mate. I'm a bit confused by this;



So to improve recovery you alter cadence at E3 min - is that 170 in your case?
E3 minimum = 165 = E2 Maximum.

Yeah, 30 min warm up. 5 mins at 100 rpm at 165hr, Next 5 minutes at 60rpm at 165hr etc for an hour.

The benefit of this is on long climbs you can keep the pace up by alternating between high and low cadence as it uses different muscle types. After 5 mins of high cadence you will find you low cadence muscles have recovered.
 
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eyes

Likes Bikes and Dirt
...*snip*...
The benefit of this is on long climbs you can keep the pace up by alternating between high and low cadence as it uses different muscle groups. After 5 mins of high cadence you will find you low cadence muscles have recovered.
It DOES NOT use different muscle groups. Back that statement up. If you are in the same body position, you are using the same group.
 

dusty_nz

Likes Dirt
It DOES NOT use different muscle groups. Back that statement up. If you are in the same body position, you are using the same group.
This thread is an attempt to provide constructive information. Please no slamming. Offer constructive corrections instead.

I was lead to believe that it switches between slow twitch and fast twitch muscle types. The effect is noticeable as at 100rpm your power is tapering of and then you cutover to 60rpm and your power output increased again for the same HR and speed. The process repeats again when cutting from 60 to 100rpm.
 

Ozkaban

Likes Dirt
This thread is an attempt to provide constructive information. Please no slamming. Offer constructive corrections instead.

I was lead to believe that it switches between slow twitch and fast twitch muscle types. The effect is noticeable as at 100rpm your power is tapering of and then you cutover to 60rpm and your power output increased again for the same HR and speed. The process repeats again when cutting from 60 to 100rpm.
As far as I know, slow twitch and fast twitch refer to different muscle fibres within the same muscle.
 

driftking

Wheel size expert
There are two more zones
One above as V02 max which is 92-100%
And one below as recovery 50-64%

I think it might be good to also add that threshold is a Better measure though if one does use heart rate it is important to know your max and not guess via any methods.

Once you know your heart rate there are also a few methods for calculating your zones.
The one that is said to be the most accurate is the Karvonen method.

Fast and slow twitch are not separate muscles they are muscle fibres found within the muscle. There are also a few other sub catagories and a intermediate group of fibres.
They derive there energy from different sources.

As for tempo. Your half right, when you say your not workin hard enough to stress the body it's partially correct. When your at tempo you are in the middle between aerobic and anaerobic so your working excessively hard for aerobic adaption and excessively easy for anaerobic. You can still develop adaptions in this area but they are a mixed result so it's actually important for endurance racers To spend time in this zone to develop good race pace. But as specific training goes its not the best bang for your buck because it doesn't target a specific area.
 
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eyes

Likes Bikes and Dirt
This thread is an attempt to provide constructive information. Please no slamming. Offer constructive corrections instead.

I was lead to believe that it switches between slow twitch and fast twitch muscle types. The effect is noticeable as at 100rpm your power is tapering of and then you cutover to 60rpm and your power output increased again for the same HR and speed. The process repeats again when cutting from 60 to 100rpm.
Believe me, that was not slamming. Unfortunately you didn't use any lead in caveat like "I think" or "afaik", so learning for you is do not claim something without backup.

I was constructive, I corrected you. Don't take it to heart.
 

Mywifesirrational

I however am very normal. Trust me.
Good stuff so far and I am a pedantic bastard that picks on everything - to me it was obvious you meant fibre type over muscle groups.

You total output is based on three key factors. Heart capacity (Heart Rate), Lung Capacity (VO2) and Leg capacity (Lactate Threshold). To develop any one of these you need to stress it beyond 110% of its current capacity for a sustained period.
I'll add a little bit to improve this statement:

Heart capacity is commonly referred to as cardiac out (CO), which is heart rate (HR) x stroke volume (SV) per minute, or simply HR x SV = CO.

Through aerobic training the heart gets larger, specifically the left ventricle is able to push out more blood and therefore more O[SUP]2[/SUP] per beat. This is why as you get fitter your HR decreases at rest, but concurrently since you have a higher stroke volume as the HR increases you can provide more oxygen to the working muscle groups, presuming you have enough mitochondira to uptake this oxygen (this is what a lab based VO[SUP]2[/SUP] test measures) and turn it into ATP.

Lung capacity never changes (it does get worse, smoking, damage...), lungs are inert, they do not adapt to training, people often mistake this I think because as you get fitter at a sub maximal pace you'll be briefing easier. CO[SUP]2[/SUP] is the driving force behind increases in respiration rate, more CO[SUP]2[/SUP] in the blood stream the harder you will breath.

Lactate thresh hold is simply the point when a muscle or muscle group is unable to create ATP by using O[SUP]2[/SUP] then must rely on anaerobic methods. Obviously the problem with anaerobic energy pproduction it is short lived and you'll come to a grinding halt unless you slow down. Generally the fitter someone is (more mitochondria), the higher intensity of effort they can go before reaching the lactate or anaerobic threshold.

There is no need to train particularly hard to improve cardiac output, but once someone has a good base of fitness, interval training to improve lactate threshold can be the difference between winning and losing.

I am 40 YO. Resting HR of around 45, Max of 195. With fresh legs I can push to 199 for brief 10 second intervals but that it is known as 110% VO2 max.
It's not uncommon for people to go beyond their predicted max HR, but I would STRONGLY recommend any old buggers on here, expecially if having been sedentary in years gone by to get a symptom limited stress test (ECG while on a bike ergo) in a clinical enviroment, this just ensures that you know it's safe to redline your heart.
 
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Mattydv

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I'd just like to say thanks for continually posting MWI, it's great to get such consistently helpful/educated replies.

:yo:
 

antigee

Likes Bikes
interval selection

from the OP :
"My first interval was 3 x E3 for 4 minutes with 4 minutes recovery. Written 3 x E3@4min with E1@4min
I badly tapered off at the end of the first interval and the remaining 2 had no resemblance of an interval........


...The rest of the thread I will grow with different intervals and would love to see contributions from other people."



Interested in why you chose that as you first interval - seems to me that there are lots of different variations but little explanation of whether they target anything other than lactate freshold eg lactate freshold and recruitment

I've recently used 30second intervals with 20sec recoveries x 5 then allow HR to drop to recovery repeat 3x

no hard data but found could maintain same cadence on hills pushing a bigger gear than i'd expect from past so thought that was a result

I think I'd be concerned that longer intervals would be harder to recover from as are pushing muscles to limit as well as cardio-vascular system?
 

pharmaboy

Eats Squid
I like the data for t max intervals if I were keen to hurt myself

Ie find vo2 power, see how long you can do it for ( 4 to 6 min), then do sets of 60% of the time at that power with 2* recovery. Sets are upto 6 , but that is super hard . The shorter time period (60%) is to enable you to do more sets
 

antigee

Likes Bikes
t max intervals

I like the data for t max intervals if I were keen to hurt myself

Ie find vo2 power, see how long you can do it for ( 4 to 6 min), then do sets of 60% of the time at that power with 2* recovery. Sets are upto 6 , but that is super hard . The shorter time period (60%) is to enable you to do more sets
Thanks pharmaboy like that - here's a quote from one web site that bigs up T max

"The T-Max Interval is effective because it tailors work and rest time, and intensity, to your genetic ability and fitness level, rather than prescribing an arbitrary set of conditions."

- i think that was what i was getting at - a lot of intervals seem arbitrary
 

dusty_nz

Likes Dirt
from the OP :
"My first interval was 3 x E3 for 4 minutes with 4 minutes recovery. Written 3 x E3@4min with E1@4min
I badly tapered off at the end of the first interval and the remaining 2 had no resemblance of an interval........


...The rest of the thread I will grow with different intervals and would love to see contributions from other people."



Interested in why you chose that as you first interval - seems to me that there are lots of different variations but little explanation of whether they target anything other than lactate freshold eg lactate freshold and recruitment

I've recently used 30second intervals with 20sec recoveries x 5 then allow HR to drop to recovery repeat 3x

no hard data but found could maintain same cadence on hills pushing a bigger gear than i'd expect from past so thought that was a result

I think I'd be concerned that longer intervals would be harder to recover from as are pushing muscles to limit as well as cardio-vascular system?
To be honest this is what trainer set me on. I just did what he said and suffered.
I did start with a good base and he had reviewed a number of rides before setting initial targets.
 
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