Intervals or Long Ride?
05-08-07, 01:10 PM
#1
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Intervals or Long Ride?
I promised myself that i would start doing some interval training this week and today is the first scheduled day. But this is the nicest day of the year weather wise, so I really want to go for a nice long ride to enjoy the weather. So what do I do, intervals (not pleasant but sure to improve my endurance and speed) or just do a longer ride? Nice days have been at a real premium this year.
05-08-07, 01:54 PM
#2
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On that long ride-just start attempting the interval training. The last 200 yards up a slope are worth sprinting, providing you have just taken it steady before hand and recover afterwards. Failing that- two markers on the flat 200 yards apart do just aswell. 3 on a 20 mile ride are enough to start with but make certain you fully recover after each one.
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05-08-07, 02:11 PM
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Originally Posted by stapfam
On that long ride-just start attempting the interval training. The last 200 yards up a slope are worth sprinting, providing you have just taken it steady before hand and recover afterwards. Failing that- two markers on the flat 200 yards apart do just aswell. 3 on a 20 mile ride are enough to start with but make certain you fully recover after each one.
Here's an article with suggestions on working those intervals into your rides.
https://www.cptips.com/intervl.htm
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05-08-07, 03:06 PM
#4
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Our cross-country coach was a big proponent of fartlek (Swedish for "speed play") -- a sort of free-form interval training in which one varies one's pace during a run. It's rather like the way children move about a playground as they vary their speeds from walk, toi jog, to spring according to how they feel. It became a verb for us ("just take it easy on Saturday and fartlek for a few hours.") It also gave us a long succession of winning teams. Not sure whether the cycling world has anything analagous.
Paul
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05-10-07, 08:00 AM
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Wife just read an article that said recent research shows that 30 seconds at sprint and 4 minutes of recovery repeated for 30 minutes is the equivalent of 1 1/2 hours of moderate riding. I'm going to try this 1X per week with 30 minutes of tempo. YMMV.
Jim
Jim
05-10-07, 08:48 AM
#6
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Well, I picked the intervals. 16 miles with 6 interval sets of 3 min on 2 off at HR up to 95% of max. The last 3 weeks I have been doing a couple of tempo type rides and now the intervals. last night, I rode 30 miles at an endurance type HR (otherwise known as just a ride). I was 15 minutes faster than the last time I rode it a three weeks ago, and at a lower HR. So it really looks like adding some training type rides is working well.
