...of intervals. That was the total amount of interval time in last nights ride. The ride was actually 1 hour long. I needed to get in that first set of intervals on the TT bike, needed to test the TT bike handling skills, but only had, and only needed, 1 hour. You may not think 22.5 minutes of intervals is enough, or that an hour is a long enough ride, but that's plenty--especially for an spring workout. If you have a solid base (hopefully most training thus far has been at the recovery to moderate level--except for some testing), then it shouldn't take you many interval sessions to get you back where you were when last season ended. My standard interval is the basic 6 x 3. Six minutes at race pace/intensity or slightly higher, followed by 3 minutes of recovery, rinse, repeat. I rarely do more than 5 intervals per session and only do one workout per week on the bike that has high intensity training involved. Unless there is a race that week, then the race is an additional session of high intensity work. I'm not the fastest guy out there come race day, but my training structure allows me to hang with the big dogs to some degree. Later in the season, I may stretch the intervals to 8 minutes with 3.5 minutes of recovery. Sometimes, however, the intervals are 15 SECONDS, followed by 5 minutes of recovery. Yes, you read that right. There is a hill interval workout in Friel's roadie version of the Training Bible that has you build up speed for a few seconds out of the saddle right before the base of a steep hill then you gun it for 10 seconds like you're sprinting for the GOLD making it about 15 seconds long per interval. Then you recover for up to 5 minutes. Do about 8 of those and soon the 5 minute recovery feels like 5 seconds. That workout does wonders for when you are racing across rollers and instead of shifting, you get out of the saddle to crest each hill. Ok, I've went off on a totally different workout...
Anyway, back to last nights intervals... here's how they went:
Ride was on county roads that were somewhat curvey, with some easy rollers.
- 20 minute warm up moving HR up an down to zone 3 (tempo pace intensity)
- Int #1= 6 min, av speed 25.0, 161 AHR, 2.52 miles (fairly flat with some curves)
- Int #2= 6 min, av speed 23.3, 166 AHR, 2.34 miles (curve, cracky pavement, 1/3 hill in middle)
- Int #3= 2.5 min, av speed 24.1, 160 AHR, 1.01 miles (started on a slight hill, then flat smooth)
- Int #4= 6 min, av speed 22.5, 162 AHR, 2.29 miles (started on a steep, but short hill, then smooth rollers)
- Cool down ride till I hit about 1 hour of riding
TOTAL: 139 AHR, 171 MHR, 21.4 miles, 20.6 av speed, 31.7 max speed
Ok, I had to throw in a 2.5 minute interval because where I was, approaching a small town, Mantorville, I couldn't start a full 6 min interval so I went as long as I safely could. Then it took me 3 minutes to get back on a county road to resume. Then I did the last interval. I was striving to reach and hold around 170 for an average heart rate (AHR). I usually got to 169-171, but the average fluctuated. The first interval was quite a bit lower as I treated it almost as a warmup because I didn't want to go all-out after just a 20 minute warmup. I was happy with the average speeds though. I realize as I get older my HR's may come down, but if I can maintain the same average speeds while racing that I have in the past few years I'll be more than happy with that.
4 comments:
Don't forget to get the mountain bike ready for May 9th.
Dude,
That was the longest ride report for a 1 hr ride that I have ever seen. ;)
The older I get, the more I realize that I just like to ride, the longer the better. When I get to a hill, I stand up, other wise I sit comfortably in my Brooks saddle (with springs).
I'll have probably about 3 rides this year on my tri (converted back to road bike).
Don't forget the mtn bike ready for May 9th.
-J-No
I'm not much of a rider but if they're anything like running intervals, 22.5 minutes of intervals sounds like plenty to me! Like you said, this early in the year that's great.
It was a busy hour.
About the Sandwich 50--I haven't been on an mtn bike in 2 years. About 50 miles on the CX bike last fall if that counts? What do I have, 2 weeks before the Sandwich..no problem.
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