LowCel 

A few days ago I checked out my training schedule for this week and saw that I had to do some 30 second intervals. I figured no problem, just 30 seconds at a time how hard could they be. I had to do ten 30 seconds all out, 30 seconds rest then take a five minute break then repeat ten more times.

I decided that I would probably be better off doing them on my trainer (cyclops fluid 2). I warmed up for 20 minutes and then started. By the time I was done with the first set I thought I was going to puke. By the time I finished the second set I thought I was going to die! My wife was in the other room listening to me waiting to just hear me fall off the bike.

I'm just wondering if they are really this hard or if going to the dentist today and having my mouth numbed might have affected my heart rate. I honestly doubt that had anything to do with it but I'm grasping at straws and trying to tell myself that some little ole 30 second intervals couldn't hurt me that bad.

Here is the way the wattage went for each interval. I started out a little harder than I should have but brought it down to a more reasonable level by the second interval.

527, 447, 459, 452, 447, 415, 404, 414, 417, 400, 5 minute rest
438, 429, 406, 408, 401, 411, 379, 396, 392, 378

GuitarWizard

Yeah....whenver I'd do the CTS Criterium DVD, I wanted to die 3/4's of the way through it. Then about an hour later, you're thinking to yourself that it wasn't so bad.

TheKillerPenguin

My experience with intervals- if you're not in serious pain, you're not pushing yourself enough.

TheKillerPenguin

btw, how'd you get power readings on your fluid 2? or do you have a powermeter for your bike?

LowCel 

I have a PowerTap SL.

GuitarWizard

That reminds me....I haven't done a structured interval workout since March 25th. Been riding outside with lots of hills to kick my ass.

RD Olivaw

As a reference, I'm curious what your max HR is.. From the graph it appears that you never broke 170.

LowCel 

My threshold hr is 167, my max is right around 182. Today my max heart rate was 172. Honestly I very rarely pay attention to my heart rate when I am on my road bike though.

RD Olivaw

I usually glance at it quite a bit as it's a good indicator for comparing actual effort with perceived effort.

edit: of course if I had a power meter, that would be the ultimate indicator of actual effort

zer0hmz

Well, I can't give you an opinion on your results...BUT...you have inspired me to try this

edzo

lowcel you'll crank out more watts on the intervals
if you do your first three at half that wattage, then spin
for a minute...

and then dive into the major ones


very probably I mean

LowCel 

Thanks for the advice edzo. I'll try that next time. The first three at half wattage are supposed to be part of the warm up correct?

edzo

yup, part of the warmup phase. crak open the pipes hard but not way hard witrh rest inbetween 3 times, then do the massive work. it should go better for the rest of the intervals. helps squish the joints and make then ready for hammering along with the big muscles. the easy long spin towards the first 1/2 interval is good.

again this works for me... your mileage may vary. it could be just what I am used to doing. warmup is key, and the first blasts shouldn't be for the PR...after warmup then go nuclear

merlinextraligh

power intervals on short recovery are about the most painful workout you can do. Sounds easy because they're short, but that's why they're so intense. What cadence do yo do them at? In the CTS program, you do them at 114-120 rpm. At that cadence they really get your HR up.

LowCel 

I didn't have directions on what cadence to do. I was just told to do them "all out". I believe I kept it around 85 - 95 though.

merlinextraligh

The idea of the high cadence is to really tax your anerobic system. You probably won't get quite as high of wattage, or speed, but they'll peg your HR.

LowCel 

I can see how that would be true. I have noticed my hr going pretty high in the past when doing spin ups.

TheKillerPenguin

Inspired by your post, I tried em out today. I can definitely feel it in my lungs! I couldn't get my hr to max out though, but with the exception of the 5 minute rest my HR was above 185 the whole time.

henryholz333

That must have hurt big time!!