Intervals
 

I'm about to move onto the interval portion of my training but I don't really know what to do. I understand intervals are hard efforts for some length of time followed by a recovery period and repeat. How long should my intervals start at? How many do I do? Should I focus on short bursts of power or sustained efforts? I am trying to be a climber and while I can stay seated and keep a good pace up a climb I have no explosiveness, i.e. I climb like jan ullrich, in the saddle no matter what if possible. Any tips?

This should get you on your way.

http://www.nsca-lift.org/perform/articles/01053.pdf

If you do a Google search on the subject you'll get 1000000000 hits

then you need to attack every hill with that elusive explosiveness in mind. no matter the climb, get to the top the quickest way possible, recover then do it again (same or different climbs)

** ex: a climb that takes a minute, may leave you in the saddle for the first 1/3, climb out of the saddle for next 1/3 then back in the saddle for last almost 1/3 then one last blast of power to get you up and over with some oommph. now, you aren't going to go all out in the first 1/3 or your 2nd 2/3s will suffer. (i use this because many people climb like this, 1/3, 1/3, 1/3)

if you want to go 26mph then you have to train at/near those speeds. well, you just don't turn it on like a faucet. you ride @ 22mph then jump up to 26mph for as long as you can....10 seconds? fine. repeat for several intervals. next week? 15 seconds. fine. repeat several times. 20 seconds @ 26mph, fine.....

GOING FAST OR ADDING POWER IS ABOUT YOUR ABILITY TO RECOVER FROM THOSE EFFORTS

during a training ride, where the group is going 25mph., everyone is tired. everyone. the ability to hang on is being able to recover when the group slows (either on its own or by traffic light, etc) the ability to recover is enhanced with intervals.

intervals suck and shouldn't be overdone. if you aren't gassed after them then you aren't working hard enough.

It's a big subject, so I agree with 531aussie. Here's an article to get you started:
http://www.ultrafit.com/newsletter/july02.html

In fact, if you go to http://www.ultrafit.com/etips.asp and search the articles for "intervals" you'll get a bunch of good hits, along with a lot of other good stuff.

To get the most out of intervals, you'll need a heart rate monitor, or have a pretty good feel for what levels of exertion pertain to aerobic and anaerobic threshold. To determine your anaerobic threshold, do the test in the sticky thread at the top of the T&N forum. I think lactic threshold and anaerobic threshold are close enough to each other that you can think of the terms interchangeably (at least, I do).

I am off to do some TT intervals.... I'm going to read all these kool links later. Ciao!

Tridevil, I sent you an email so we can go over this stuff.

Koff