How does one "do intervals"?
 

A bit of background first: I'm pretty disgusted with my performance in the other sport/physical activity in which I participate . . . tennis. So, I started up taking weekly lessons again, about a month ago. A pattern has developed during the lessons, and I talked about it with my coach tonight. During the lesson, as he is feeding balls to me, I get out of breath after about five-ten minutes and have to take about a half a minute or so to recover. He says that my anaerobic conditioning is lacking, but that with my cycling, my aerobic condition in fine. (I question the level of my aerobic conditioning, but I wasn't going to debate the point with him.)

I asked him how to build up my anaerobic endurance, and he said, "intervals". Since some of our family members here raced in the past, (and some still do), and some of us have ridden "intervals"; I'd like to ask, How would I go about riding intervals on a bike?

Scenario: I live in an area where I can be out in the sticks in about two-three miles. The roads outside of town are all straight in a north/south and east/west orientation. There is a stiff prevailing wind in the afternoons from the west or southwest. Outside of town, in the desert, I can ride a minimum of one mile without having to stop at a stop sign. On some of the roads, I can ride up to several miles before having to slow down/stop at a four-way stop sign. One road, which is very heavily traveled, and I really don't want to ride on that road, is probably eight/ten miles before having to stop for anything.

This is on the flats, (valley bottom). There are hills about, also within a very few miles. The closest hill is two miles in length and the back side is only one mile in length. About a 4.5-5% average gradient with a few ramps around 10%. Other hills are longer, one is very short, but also very, very steep, (the one time I tried to ride up it, I couldn't make it to the top before having to dismount).

I do not have a MTB, just road bikes, (and a TT bike which has not been fitted to me yet). Last limited parameter is my work schedule. I have to rise every morning at 4:15 to get ready to catch the vanpool for work. This is M-TH. We are on a 9/80 schedule. Since I'm bumping up against the limit of how much vacation time can be accumulated, I usually take every Friday off, either as the RDO, (Regular Day Off because of the 9/80 schedule), or as a vacation day. In a few weeks, I start teaching two nights a week, (M and Th), and currently have my tennis lesson on Tuesday evenings. This schedule means that the only time I'll be able to "do intervals" is on Wednesdays and my three-day weekends. I expect I'll be told that this frequency won't be enough to build anaerobic conditioning.

So, how do I ride intervals on my bike? Are the intervals based on time or distance? I appreciate any advice/help anyone can offer.

When I was younger I just did a series of windsprints on the flat. Eventually you'll find yourself recovering faster in between them and increasing the number. You could just about do any variation in intensity that you want as long as you hammer some part of your time. It will definitely lower your ET on century rides if you've been used to a steady pace. Personally I think even one day of intervals a week should do you some good.

Lately since coming back from a decade hiatus my intervals consist of pedaling up the hills and freewheeling down the other side :p

Some of these guys who compete will be along to give much more comprehensive tips than I know.

I'm not an expert but intervals are done by giving a hard effort for a given time, maybe 2 minutes, then relaxing for a couple minutes, then repeating the effort.
Lots of people who race use interval training and taylor the times and frequency to their own needs.

On Wednesdays I sometimes ride across a local dam which has walkers, dogs, etc. I sprint up to speed until I encounter traffic then slow down. When it's clear again I sprint back up to speed. I call it "dam intervals".

Agree. It's pretty much a series of hard to very hard short duration efforts up to or near your max HR. Duration can be <1 min to ?
It is my understanding that anaerobic fitness is very trainable, i.e. it responds pretty quickly to training.... but you lose it faster than aerobic fitness too.

Intervals are simply riding for a specific time at a specific effort. The time is measured by a watch or cyclocomputer and the effort is measured by a power meter, a heart monitor, or rating of perceived effort.

Volumes have been written on the subject, but very generally speaking you go as hard as you can such that you can maintain that effort for the length of the interval, and then repeat. And, also very generally speaking, the shorter the interval, the higher the intensity, the more it works your anaerobic system.

Here's a good one that you could do twice a week: 10 x 1' as hard as you can for the full minute. It's simple, it's short, and you don't need anything more than a watch and a big dose of HTFU.

Having some hills close by is perfect and the one with the two mile and one mile climb is perfect. For me it works best if they are not too steep and that one should work fine. I have a harder time getting my HR up high enough on flats for some reason.......unless I'm pulling a group and intentionally drive it up--motivation maybe?? For me a 2-3% grade works best as I can pedal at a pretty high cadence.

Anyway, you probably want to determine your max HR or at least your anaerobic HR (hopefully you have a HR monitor??)........the point where you really have difficulty talking. Do some riding and warmups over to the hill. Then head up the hill taking a period of time where you go all out to get your HR up to the point you cannot talk and breathe and then keep that pace for one minute. For me it is easier if I can keep my cadence 80-95. You want to spin more than you feel like you using too hard of a gear. After a minute continue to ride but a a slow enough pace to let is drop back down by about 15-20%. Then go at it again for one minute as hard as you can go. You should be able use both the front and back side of the hill to do these.

Repeat as much as you are able. Over time you can increase the duration of the interval and also the number. The key is to make sure your HR drops back down well out of the anaerobic level after an interval before you start it up again.

Good OP, and good discussion.

Question: for those of us with access to hills, are hill repeats sufficient for interval training? Where I live, I can ride over to a 4% steady incline that takes me several minutes to climb. However, to do sprints in a protected environment (not worrying about cars as I come close to passing out) I have to ride on residential streets in a circle, going round and round and blowing through stop signs, which I would rather not do.

The issue is controlling the rest intervals, which might range 30-90 seconds depending on your work-out goals. Several minutes rest between effort intervals defeats the purpose.

Off the bike you might get a similar benefit by Tabata routines, 20 sec. rests, plenty to pick from on Youtube.

Here's a link to a page with several plans for interval training:
http://www.bicycling.com/training-nu...s/get-fast-now

I use Plan B.

With the local hills the rest interval can be anything I want it to be, because I can coast downhill very quickly.

A different slant on the question: so I go up the hill and reach the "just short of booting" level of intensity. I coast back down. When do I turn around and go up the hill again?

Have a friend who keeps on telling me to warm up then start in #1 cog for 30 seconds all out and 1 minute rest--#2 cog 30 seconds all out and 1 minute rest--etc. to #10 then reverse then cool down. Shift to large chainring and repeat. When that becomes easy go for 1 minute all out.

That^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Here's another set that can be done on the flats and requires only a stopwatch: http://blog.trainingpeaks.com/posts/...intervals.html

Basically 15" all out, 15" coasting, repeat ad vomitum.

Vladimir and Archibald sound like a couple of sadomasachists to me.

There are a number of different ways to do intervals. The trick is to go hard for a while and rest for a while. Keep on increasing the number of intervals. For example, if you do 4 intervals one week, do five the next, and six the one after, etc. You need to rest in between intervals so you can push again. If you rest too long, you going to lose the effect of the interval. I've seen interval rests go anywhere from 15 seconds to 3 minutes. Here are some ideas:
Hills that take you 3 to 5 minutes to climb. Ride up hard and coast back down. Repeat
Hard as you can for one minute and one minute rest. Repeat
90 % effort for 8 minutes and two minutes rest. Repeat

Thank you all so much for your input. I'm reading them all carefully.

OldTryGuy, which is the 1 cog, the 2 cog, etc.? Is the 1 cog the largest sprocket in the back? (I suppose that I'll need to change my cassette if I follow this routine. From my current 12-30 to something tighter. Tightest I have right now is an 11-27, which I can flip back and forth to a 12-27, (adding either the 11 or the 16).)

#1 is the largest. We would be starting with a 23 max then going to the 11 or 12 and back. In your case you could just start lower on the cassette with fewer repeats.

Volosong, I have a suggestion for you to increase anaerobic. Kettlebell swings. I do them in the winter when I'm riding less. Look on Youtube for videos. Most likely a 35lb bell will be fine. Cheap. Killer. See what your coach thinks.

+1 Here is the recipe book.

I played a lot of competitive tennis and taught tennis. I do not see where short cycling intervals will help tennis. Tennis is about explosive movements with an aerobic / anaerobic component. Running will help tennis and agility drills that feature quick starts and stops with side to side emphasis. Hill repeats, IMO, will not help tennis but just make you tired. For me, exercise is sport and muscle specific. I walked around London and climbed stairs and it was hard. I am in great cycling shape and crappy walking and stair climbing shape.

My suggestion for tennis cross training on the bicycle would be long z3 or tempo intervals. These build a big aerobic engine and I would couple those with running sprints or just playing a lot of tennis. Just go out and hit tennis balls for 2 hours and it will get you in tennis shape.

One very basic and important aspect of interval training is that you DO NOT go at "close to max" or to "just short of booting" at least to begin with.
You might be at that point on the last rep, but not the first.

Regardless of the duration of the interval (could be short-ish, could be long-ish... with designed rest in between) is that you do a set of 3-5 reps generally. Just an example, let's say 4 reps of 4 minute effort/90 second minute rest, for a total of 15-16 minutes of "hard time". You'd warm up for 5-10 minutes before and do a 5-10 minute aerobic cool down afterwards. The amount of "hard time" might get progressively longer as you progress, maybe adding a rep and/or making each a little longer.

The basic concept is that you start with your first interval at an effort such that you can duplicate it for the full 3-5 rep workout. Let's say you're doing a hill. If you go balls to the wall on the first effort, say doing it in 3 minutes, you probably won't be able to do that 3 minute time 4 times in a row. You'll probably find yourself slowing down each time, and maybe really struggling on the last one.

You need to pace that first effort so that you can still do it in about the same time for another three repeats. They should be more and more difficult to duplicate every time because you're getting tired, and the very last one should be very, very difficult to achieve. That way you know you're really maximizing your set. It might seem too easy at first, but if it's really tough on the last one, you'll know that you've done it smart.

I haven't read the links above, but this is the way it was taught to me by very qualified running and skiing coaches. There's more to designing the intervals for serious, well monitored training and specific goals, but if you follow the principal of being able to repeat it for 3-5 times with a modest rest in between, and the last one is really, really tough to achieve, about as much as you can do, you're probably getting a huge portion of possible benefit from your intervals.

Oh, another thing is that this sort of hard workout (including race pace sessions and races) needs to be only about 20% of your weekly schedule. You need to be rested to get the maximum benefit out of the hard days. You also need to rest (easy days, days off) for your body to absorb the training. Many cyclists especially think they are being tough and effective just riding as fast and hard as they can every time they ride. It might be tough, but it's not smart.

Thank you for your thoughtful answer. I will give it a try.

It depends on the type of interval you are doing. Short sprint intervals and VO2Max intervals typically require 5min rest between intervals. For these intervals shorter rest periods make the intervals less effective as you can't put out sufficient power. Even the standard 2x20 intervals usually have 5 min rest between intervals. It just depends on the intensity and purpose of the interval.