Sup everyone:
Its my turn for my groups interval workout tommorow morning. I am sort of stumped for something unique and different to do. We are all at a pretty decent level of fitness. What are some suggestions for a fun, but hard interval workout? We have about an 1.5hr of time. Bring on the crazy ideas people!!!
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Ride balls-out for 10-16 miles.
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Stop. Spend 20 minutes eating a complete breakfast (pancakes, coffee, etc.)
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Ride balls-out for the 10-16 miles back home.
S Mcgregor can back me up on this strategy.
Hey, it’s crazy. Nobody said anything about it being be smart…or efficient…or effective.
How about painline training.
Very similar to paceline training except for when you get to the front, keep picking up the pace. Don’t ease up for next guy in line to the front, keep halfwheeling that sucker until you break. Then go to the back, recover, and wait your turn to try to get to the front again.
You are in St Croix, right? How about repeats on the Beast but “easy up” and “hard down”. If you don’t get above 30 mph coming down the repeat does not count.
Do you have access to a closed loop of at least .5-.75 miles in length? If so, try doing a cycling fartlek - after a 15-20 minute paceline style warmup for the group, establish a starting pace for the interval and for a duration of 5 laps, up the tempo 1-mph per lap after which reduce pace to just below the pace at which the interval was started. Time should allow 2-2 (maybe 4) repeats of this interval workout so if fitness level is sufficient, for each succeeding interval, up the starting pace 1-mph - so if the first interval started at 20-mph, start the second at 21 meaning your last lap of that inerval would be at 26-mph and the next interval would start at 22-mph and end at 27-mph (adjust numbers to fit groups abilities)!
From what I’ve read here and Gordo’s forum the craziest bike interval is to try and ride with Bjorn.
you left out #4 - puke afterward
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Yes, I am in St.Croix. Great idea on the Beast…except there is no easy way up and we would never make it to repeat #2 because we would kill each other on the first decent.
Actually, that’s a feature of step #3. But thanks for pointing it out.
Based on HR Zones 1-5
1- recovery effort
2- moderate aerobic effort decent pace
3-race pace up to LT
4-anaerobic effort
5-max effort 98-100%MaxHR
Warm Up
4 sets or more if you want:
2Min - Z2
30Sec Z3/ 30Sec Z1/30Sec Z4/30Sec Z1/30Sec Z5 (sprint)/ 30Sec Z1/30Sec Z4/30Sec Z1/30Sec Z3
3Min Z1
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The only problem with this workout is that you base it on HR (as noted in your zones list)…and HR typically takes around 30 seconds to fully respond to an effort…therefore you cannot know, based on HR, what your effort is during the 30 seconds “on”…the athletes actual effort could be well outside of the intended zone…making the actual workout very different from the plan…for instance…all it takes is a little hill to ramp what seems to be a Z3 effort to Z5 or above…and the athlete would never really know it based on HR…that little hill may ramp power output from, say 200W up to 350 or more…the difference seems much more subtle unless you have a powermeter telling you that you are suddenly riding 150W harder…HR based 30/30s are useless…much like HR based 400s on the track
If one owns a powermeter…this workout would be a snap, at least in mechanical execution…just dial up the correct zone wattage for each interval…and you know you are doing the correct level of work, regardless of terrain and wind… Of course the workout itself would be a bear to do… much harder than 30 Z1/30 Z3
An awesome TT’er firend of mine used to just love the following:
15mins warm up to moderate effort
30 x 1 min sprint / 1 min easy
15 mins warm down easy
He never lacked any mental toughness!!
The only problem with this workout is that you base it on HR (as noted in your zones list)…and HR typically takes around 30 seconds to fully respond to an effort…therefore you cannot know, based on HR, what your effort is during the 30 seconds “on”…the athletes actual effort could be well outside of the intended zone…making the actual workout very different from the plan…for instance…all it takes is a little hill to ramp what seems to be a Z3 effort to Z5 or above…and the athlete would never really know it based on HR…that little hill may ramp power output from, say 200W up to 350 or more…the difference seems much more subtle unless you have a powermeter telling you that you are suddenly riding 150W harder…HR based 30/30s are useless…much like HR based 400s on the track
If one owns a powermeter…this workout would be a snap, at least in mechanical execution…just dial up the correct zone wattage for each interval…and you know you are doing the correct level of work, regardless of terrain and wind… Of course the workout itself would be a bear to do… much harder than 30 Z1/30 Z3
You are correct that you will not likely achieve the speciified heart rates during each 30 second effort. While I described it in terms of heart rate, there is also the accompanying description of relative effort level (recovery effort, steady tempo, race pace, anaerobic - slightly below max, sprint effort). This is really what you would target.
Find some place with rolling hills. Ride a single-speed, for those without have them in one gear and abuse them if they shift. Really tough folks ride fixed. The terrain will force varied cadences.
If you’re on trainers then do the good old 6 minute intervals with one minute in between… and build the length increasing by a minute each interval. Tag 15 minutes on each end for warmup/cooldown.
The hard part is make everyone stay in the same gear they started in for the entire set. Everyone will go out too hard - it’s a lesson in pacing.
On the road, I’d go for the good old fashioned “Pull till the people behind you are bleeding from their eyeballs.”