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Some advice re sprint/interval training?

  • 02-04-2012 11:30am
    #1
    colm_gti
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,505 ✭✭✭


    Since joining up with Thinkbike I've made it to every Thursday night hill training session and every Sunday morning touring spin (which is always a testing hill session in itself :pac:), and have been doing my own relatively short spin on Tuesday evenings. However, I feel my Tuesday evening spins could be better used for some sort of sprint/interval training session, and was hoping someone could give me a few ideas for programs to start experimenting with? I picked up a garmin edge over the weekend and that has a 'workout' mode that I could use for such a session. Unfortunately up and overs and chases etc aren't an option as I'll be doing this alone.

    Also, on a side note if anyone knows of any long flat-ish roads without many traffic lights that would be good for doing such a session on that would be great. I was thinking the clontarf-howth cycle lane, but if there are any better areas nearer to D6 I'm all ears


Comments

  • #2
    Lumen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 31,223 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    What are you training for?


  • #3
    colm_gti
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,505 ✭✭✭colm_gti


    Lumen wrote: »
    What are you training for?
    Would like to try my hand at a few open races towards the end of the year with a view to getting a proper licence next year..


  • #4
    Lumen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 31,223 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    Do you have a heart rate monitor?


  • #5
    colm_gti
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,505 ✭✭✭colm_gti


    Lumen wrote: »
    Do you have a heart rate monitor?
    Yeah


  • #6
    Lumen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 31,223 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    Until you start racing you won't really know what your strengths and weaknesses are, but the best training advice I've read on this forum was "ignore nothing".

    You want a healthy mix of long steady rides (3 hours+), threshold work (max pace you can sustain for an hour), VO2Max (max pace you can sustain for 5 minutes) and sprints (<30 seconds maximum attack).

    Interval training is about riding at a targetted pace but for a shorter time than you could do when pushing to the limit, and repeating that effort with easy spinning in between to recover.

    Examples:

    - Threshold intervals: 15-20 minutes on, a couple of minutes easy spinning. x2 or x3.
    - VO2Max intervals: 3 minutes on, 2-3 minutes rest. x3-x8.
    - Sprint intervals: 30 seconds absolutely balls out, enough rest to cover completely. x whatever.

    The first thing is to work out your heart rate zones. This is best done by trial and error - do the intervals and see what you can repeatedly sustain.

    All of this is all much easier to type than to do. It really, really hurts.

    Open races are much harder than club races, and the smaller bunches in club races make them safer. There are several Dublin club leagues running all summer, get stuck in.


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  • #7
    kumate_champ07
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,150 ✭✭✭kumate_champ07


    For 30second max effort you will need 30mins recovery before another sprint, otherwise youre not sprinting, your just cycling a bit faster.

    10second efforts need around 5mins rest between


  • #8
    Lumen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 31,223 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    kumate_champ07 wrote: »
    you're not sprinting, you're just cycling a bit faster

    You're not the first person to tell me that. :pac:


  • #9
    Dubba
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 895 ✭✭✭Dubba


    Great post there Lumen, I'm going to add those intervals to my training.

    Regarding 30sec max sprints, I've only done two sessions of 30sec max sprints X 8 with 3min rest between but found its only possible to go full out for tops 15sec and after 25sec there's no power in the legs even at the start when fully rested. I heard this is normal, I wonder if regular training like this would improve the time duration you could hold a max sprint or increase sprint speed, or both?


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