Very Short Intervals: Why?

[Toks]

I've been amazed recently at the number of guys I've spoken to doing these really short intervals ( 1 min on 1 min off etc) on turbo trainers. At least 3 of the people I've spoken to seem to really struggle in the 17's group if the pace increases slightly or if things get even slightly hilly.

Guys, these ride to you drop efforts on the TTs are not very effective at training your aerobic system. The reason you can't keep up when the pace increases slightly or the road starts to go up is essentially because your 'thresholds' are too low. If you want to keep up with the Merek's of this world you need to raise your 'thresholds'. Those very short intervals are anerobic speed work outs. They are part of the persuit rider, kilo specialist or sprinters arsenal.

If you can't even stay with the pace when its moderately fast then, for you, they're an absolute waste of time! If you want to sustain a fast pace for anything longer than five minutes (thats all of us right! then twice weekly efforts close to or @ time trial pace (15mins-40mins) would be a much more effective way to raise your 'threshold'; and long term a lot less fatiguing - you could do them all year round - than the short hard stuff. As I said before the 30sec-2min intervals are essentially anerobic (no oxygen) workouts. Guess what? endurance cycling (90secs>) is an aerobic ( oxygen) sport . Cheers

[Graham O]

Interestig what you are saying tox. I'm very unscientific with my work on the bike at present. I basically just go for it when I am on the bike. However, this only lasts until I am knackered.

What I am finding is that I can maintain a reasonably high pace (20 - 22 ish), but if I try to go harder, this will eventually result in me blowing up in a big way. Usually this happens up the power inclines (i.e. slight inclines where speed doesn't necessarily go down). This is what happenned on Saturday. I basically think that I haven't got the power n my legs yet..

Guess that what you are saying about power threshold applies here. Ay hits and tips...

[Elliot M]

While being an absolute beginner as far as turbo training goes, i guess partly by lack of time for each 30-45 min session and avoiding boredom or actually follow a training guide, i seem to have ended up with a system which might help with this?

I tend go at a approx 70% HRM base pace (either "on the flat" ie seated, fast revs, low resistance; or "climbing" ie standing, slow revs, high resistance) for the session, every 5 mins pushing up to 80-85% or so by increasing the resistance 2 notches while keeping the revs the same - when i can't maintain the effort any longer reducing the resistance down the 2 notches again while doing my best to still keep the revs the same, as if keeping the speed up and not slackening at the point of getting to the top of the hill.

I don't know if it's partly pyschological but I seem to have found an extra gear when going up the short sharp gradients you describe.

[quote]Interestig what you are saying tox. I'm very unscientific with my work on the bike at present. I basically just go for it when I am on the bike. However, this only lasts until I am knackered.

What I am finding is that I can maintain a reasonably high pace (20 - 22 ish), but if I try to go harder, this will eventually result in me blowing up in a big way. Usually this happens up the power inclines (i.e. slight inclines where speed doesn't necessarily go down). This is what happenned on Saturday. I basically think that I haven't got the power n my legs yet..

Guess that what you are saying about power threshold applies here. Ay hits and tips...

[huw williams]

Yes Graham, we've noticed that every time you get on the bike you 'go for it' until your knackered. This has resulted in a very marked improvement in your riding compared to last year but the problem is you'll now hit a plateau and find it hard to improve further unless you adopt something a little more structured such as Toks suggests.

In the CW office at the moment we're all following Michael Hutchinson programmes and basing our riding on what he calls 'FS' sessions (Fast Steady, meaning going hard but not going anaerobic). These sessions are essentially what Toks is talking about, ie riding at or close to your TT pace for predetermined intervals.

As an example one of his training rides intended to raise my threshold look like this.
20mins warm up, 15mins FS, 15mins@recovery pace, 15mins FS, 15mins warm-down.

There are other rides with shorter or longer threshold intervals (such as Toks's 5x5 intervals) but you get the picture

As the summer approaches the amount of time at threshold will increase.
Simon's (Smythe) further along on his schedule because he wanted good form for his early TTs so one of his comparable sessions look like this:

20mins warm up, 40mins FS, 20mins@recovery, 40mins FS 20mins warm-down.

He won the Crawley Wheelers open TT last weekend, his first ever victory so early in the season (and the only rider competing on a fixed gear).

So it works, and the improvements are quantifiable. I'd suggest you try and do at least a couple of midweek rides like this instead of just going hard until you drop. Then we can beat Marek up in a couple of months when he's knackered!

Hope this helps

H

[Toks]

Excellent Huw! I like the look of Simon's FS session I'll have to include that in my training schedual at some point Any word on|Marek's secret training program ...by the way did you end up doing the wheelers reliability ride last sunday

[huw williams]

No, Marek gave us all a pasting on Saturday and I'd already had a hard week. Got a serious case of pillow-suck on Sunday morning so I stayed in bed then went out for the aforementioned FS session mid-afternoon.

Just went out for the same at Lunchtime today and got caught in an almighty blizzard. Complete whiteout up around Biggin Hill and had to stop between intervals because I couldn't see, the snow was hurting that bad because of the strength of the wind. 20 minutes later the sun was out! Amazing!

As for Marek's secret training I reckon he's gene doping, but I can't prove anything.

Good luck against Real tonight

[Graham O]

Thanks for the words of wisdom chaps...I will start to listen eventuallly...

I'm with you Huw, when it comes to getting some revenge on Marek. Alas, I'm not sure that it will happen, but its worth a go..

Its good to be part of the club at the moment, as I think that there is a real interest from a number of riders whom want to start to compete. Thats good to see.

[Marek]

I am off to Switzerland on Thursday, of course I will take a detour to Austria and visit my old mate who has been helping out the Austrian Biathalon team while I am in the region. When I get back I should be faster, I mean thats what I am paying for.

Cheers

Marek....

[Jon H]

At last, the cat's out of the bag.

Marek's secret training regime is Yodelling!