Interval training help?

Question

Hi, this is a carry on from my last question.. i was wondering for the interval training.. i was t hinking of going on my windtrainer and doing say 2 miinutes above 190 heartrate ( 204 is my max) then say 3 mins rest then do that another nine times ... so ten times all up.. would b kinda hard tho.. any ideas on what 2 do... and what other training i should do for the rest of the week.. low intensity between 140 and 160 heartrate... because before wen i trained i was always ova 85 percent of max heart rate ( u would kno if u answered my last question ) anyway.. please help me on what i should do thanks =D

Answer 1

Doing this on a trainer is a bit hard to judge if you have already established a baseline - how fast you go at what gear and what heart rate. It's always best to do intervals on the road.

Still, you come up with a reasonable starting point. I think ten reps is a bit ambitious, but is you can pull it off without killing yourself, more power to you!

Keep an eye on your heart rate and speed. The idea is to do the _same_ effort in each interval. When you can't keep the same distance covered over time as you did the previous interval, you've hit the limit. This is why you rarely hear about guys doing more than 5 intervals.

It might be better if you do interval sets.
2 min @ 95% then 2 min rest x 3 = twelve minutes
Allow your HR to completely recover, could be from 5 to 15 min.

Do the above three times, you'll get 9 intervals in.

Long intervals 15 minutes @ 90%, let HR recover to less than 50%, x 3, should equal a solid hour.

Don't forget rest. The next day after a hard interval workout, ride for 60-90 minutes at less than 80% HR. Don't do intervals more than twice a week, and only once if your racing that week. Never do intervals in the two days preceeding a race.

Answer 2

The answer is...it depends. First off, I think intervals are bst done on the road this time of year. Get out there and ride your bike. Trainers are good for some things, but outside is the place to do this.

It really depends on what your goals are. What are you trying to do? are you looking to be a better sprinter? Increase your time trialing ability? Work on that top end? Intervals really need to be designed to target your desires.