Stephen Seiler on intervals

He’s on YouTube with new content…

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Haven’t given this a listen yet but I will. I think some of the Seiler research is super interesting but also a little overhyped… But man I would love to just sit down and have a few beers with that guy and geek out on exercise physiology.

I would like less YouTube and more blog posts. Takes ages to watch videos vs reading blog posts. I still have “Short Interval Blocks for Endurance Athletes- Part1” and “2” queued up. Not sure when I will have 15 and 18 mins free for that. I don’t have an indoor trainer btw, only ride outdoors so thats not an option.

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thanks for the link: useful!

+1.

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Conversely, I watched all 3 parts today on the rollers - good info and some potentially useful takeaways for future training. Interesting to see that most of the people doing the shorter intervals weren’t religiously sticking to power targets, but riding more to feel.

That is cool. I didn’t realize that he had his own youtube channel.

I second the idea that videos are often a PITA for me. I’m glad to listen to podcasts for the 10 hours a week I’m on the bike!

I guess with Seiler the charts and graphs will help.

My biggest issue with most youtubers is that they will often take 20 minutes to say what they could have said in 5 minutes.

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You can increase the playback speed.

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You guys are unreal. Renowned sports physiologist posts new content and you’re complaining about the format?

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No, just complaining about most youtubers that don’t know how to get to the point. I’m glad to listen to anything Seiler puts out.

BTW, I just listened to the 3 part series on intervals.

Guys, tell me if I have the conclusion correct - accumulate time @ 90% of HRmax - it doesn’t matter much how you do it.

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That’s what I got, which has two bonuses:

  1. Not having to overthink things (although there’s always the ‘are shorter intervals better for explosive racers and longer ones better for steady staters’ type thoughts)
  2. That heart rate is significantly lower than I’ve often been at during recent VO2 intervals

I like the kick start at high power too, that’s how I used to do intervals in the old non-power days to get the HR up to my rough target.

Thats 3 bonuses actually. Now I don’t have to find time to watch 35m+ of YouTube. Thanks! :slight_smile:

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Did you just add the second graph in the Activity HR page or was it there already? Because it is very useful precisely for that kind of workouts!

This is my problem as well, even my SS intervals get close to 90% HRmax at times, Threshold is usually 1 -2 beats over and vo2 max gets to around 95%. Not sure how to deal with that as although HR is high, RPE is about right.

I added it a month to two ago after someone on these forums suggested it and have used it for this purpose. Hard start on longer intervals gets a lot more time at 90% HR max+ without losing much power:

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still not sold on this by any means, especially when adaptation occur in the dead zones AND he admits in the Velonews podcast that 3 zones was made to simplify everything for us amateurs because everyone is riding too hard. Once we accomplish that, we could then graduate to a seven zone model. That comment shot himself in the foot IMO.

Def make the easy and the hard “VERY HARD”, but doesn’t need to recreate the wheel.

Wrote this on the subject if you’re interested.

Brendan

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Thanks for adding it! And my take on the time above 90% max HR optimization looks like this. It is a variation on 30/15. I am not that fit to do 2:1 work to rest ratio yet but doing only 30/30 felt too easy . Hence I modified it after the first session and added two 1 minute work intervals at the beginning w/ 30 seconds rest and then the usual (35/25).

Compare time above certain HR for the first and modified attempts.

Went back to reference, thought I’d screenshot this for reference. Posted as may be useful to others.

Second part that I was looking for is most of the examples the heart rate recovers to ~85%, so that can be a target if you’re ‘free riding’ and wondering when to go again on the interval, or a confirmation that you’re on the right lines for analysis after the session if using power and more structured intervals.

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I suggested that feature with that exact purpose in mind here:

It got implemented so fast :+1:. Works like a charm as intended and happy to see it works for you as well!

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That and honestly i watched it this morning on the trainer and the pace of presentation was a struggle to stay engaged with. I would have fallen asleep if he was a university professor every class.

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