View Single Post
Old 02-03-16 | 08:15 PM
  #1  
bbg47
Newbie
 
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
PMax or TMax Intervals

Curiosity got the best of me, and to spice things up a bit on the indoor trainer I thought I'd give those "TMax Intervals" Paul Laursen did that study on that everyone was probably quoting and referencing a few years ago. So I started with the process of doing the peak-power output test, which looks much like Ramp Tests you see administered by national team programs and various coaches (alas, I really can't afford a coach myself at the moment).

For those unfamiliar with these:
-Do a ramp test starting at low wattage, increasing by 25w every minute. Go until you're unable to do anymore. Calculate the average power over the last 60-seconds to determine your peak power output (PPO).
-Rest for a day
-Then, ride at your PPO for as long as you're able to, which from what you see in all the stories and in the original paper itself should be "4 to 6 minutes."
-Suppose you hit 5 minutes at your PPO. You take 60% of that, which in this case would be 3min. You do 3min long intervals, and rest for 6min (double the work session). Repeat up to 8 times.

So, my results were...
I got up to 375w on the trainer for the MAP test going into the last minute, which would be 400w. At that point, I tried to keep it at 400 but I wound up going pretty hard--as in, not controlled, just gunning it basically--and averaged 415 over the last 60 seconds. It was...very hard.

Then, after a rest day, I got back on the trainer and only managed to hold 415w for 2.5 minutes! So that would mean, by the standards of this protocol, doing work sessions that are 1.5min long, on 3min rest.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Or can anyone help me figure out why exactly I can hit over 400w in a ramp test, but can't hold that wattage itself for too terribly long? :-) Thanks so much!
bbg47 is offline  
Reply