I only pointed the issue with the study itself. Not saying that intermittent workouts are bad. They definitely have their place.
Iām familiar with Tabatas but Iād never heard of anything like when heās talking about being at a training camp in Mallorca doing them 5 or 6 times a day.
VO2 workout from today. Now, to start off, I had to do it in ERG, which I know isnāt the best. I had planned on doing it on rollers (the Feedback Sports ones so I didnāt fall off) but my Assioma pedals went wonky. The bike I have on my trainer currently is a 1 speed that I just use ERG so I canāt shift. So the workout below is trying to make do. Basically what I did was start high at around 125%, then keep my cadence around 105. When I saw my cadence drop as I tired, I used the keyboard to lower the intensity.
It could have been better Iām sure, but I think it worked. Holy poop that was a tough one. I havenāt had that taste of blood in my mouth since racing CX, and definitely not in an indoor workout. I was gassed after every interval and wanted to puke. Which I guess is the point. I was also able to get >90% max HR (I think). Iāve been using 185 as max HR, which would put 90% at 167bpm. I say āI thinkā because I donāt think Iāve ever been above 175. But I was able to get up to 170-171 for every set, and stay around 168-169 for most of it.
Still need to play around with the starts to get up to 90% HR quicker, but Iām happy with todayās workout.
Looking at your screenshot, and not exactly what your intent was, I would say there is a bit of an issue since you were unable to sustain the power throughout most of the intervals. If you intended to get your heart rate up and hold it there, perhaps there are other ways to do it so you are not fading so much. My instinct would be to either extend the duration of the intervals but reduce the power a little, or reduce the rest periods. If you definitely want that hard kick at the start, you might be better making that more defined, higher than you are currently starting out, for 30 seconds, but then a slightly lower power target that you can sustain throughout the rest of the interval.
Thatās kind of the point, or at least, the power isnāt the point I should say. The idea wasnāt to hold a set power for the interval. It was to go as hard as I can for 3 minutes, so naturally the power drops. The power is kind of irrelevant in that I didnāt really care what it was, as long as my HR was over 167 and my power was above threshold. I plan to experiment with hard starts but I fully expect the power to drop off, and itās ok.
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I understand what you are saying about getting your heart rate up, and your efforts have certainly created a heart rate response that lasts the duration of the interval, but it is difficult to say that you are going as hard as you can for 3 minutes if by the end of it you are nearly down to your FTP.
I hope you arenāt viewing it as criticism of your session and I appreciate the limitations you had with your trainer setup, but raising some points that might be worth consideration when developing the workout and reviewing your performance with it.
???
Where did you get max of 185 from if never been above 175?
Through various calculations. Most put my max HR around 185-186. I know itās not perfect but I donāt know any other way.
Nice list, thanks! Dumb question before I try some of these, on the high wattage initial sprint at like 180%, are you supposed to be out of saddle or seated but really high cadence?
What calculations? The only one you can trust for max HR is to find your max HRā¦go hard, go hard again, repeat! You said youāve done CX, thatās really good at finding max HR in my experience. If during CX races and v02 longer intervals youāve never been above 175ā¦then either not trying or your max HR is not 185! Iād guess under 180.
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The most basic is 220 - age. There are some other that take age and gender and have different multipliers. But all put me around 185.
Looking back at this past CX season, I was surprised that I was wrong. I had 176 and 178 in two races so a bit higher than I thought.
If my max HR is in fact 178, hitting 171 today would be 96%.
That sounds a much better estimate. Iād say max no higher than 180. I usually hit over 95% of max during v02 intervals and I only count time above 95% for mine rather than 90%.
I understand that itās 95% HR that better corresponds to 90% V02 uptake than 90% HR.
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Again, power wasnāt the goal. And to be honest, I wasnāt even paying attention to it. I was just watching my HR and cadence. The intervals were similar to something like Agassiz. I was just going hard, close to all out. Not what power I could hold for 3 minutes, more so giving a set effort (9/10 - 10/10) on a second to second basis. Choosing threshold as a cutoff was kind of arbitrary. Along with cadence. If I was slowing down my cadence, Iād drop power and pick the cadence back up. I just wanted to be huffing and puffing the whole interval, keep a very high HR, and want to die at the end, over and over.
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If that was your intention, then you achieved your goal.
If you truly go as hard as you can for 3 minutes, you should end up around CP, not VO2max. Just Google (or is it google as a verb?) Burnleyās 3 minute test.
I had Richardson last week and did the hard starts out of the saddle. Plan to do the same for Xalibu today
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This thread may be on interest. I created some hard start workouts with the same goal in mind as you have above.
Hereās a recent example:
For the flat part of each interval, I hit the following heart rates:
1st interval: 93% of max
2nd: 95%
3rd: 97%
4th: 97%
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A quick question in regards to getting heart rate over 90% of max: When calculating what that 90% is, are you folks using 90% of heart rate reserve or a simple 90% of actual heart rate max?
Both will create a VO2 stimulus. One possibly greater than the other. But the one you can sustain for much longer and / or manage twice a week will create the greater stimulus.
Remember itās consistently and repeatability that will win out, not the one workout.
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Funnily enough, I found that thread yesterday and have one of the 6x3 planned for Monday. Maybe move up to the 5x4 after that but these are what Iām looking for. Weāll see how they go.