So i've been short on pain lately, thought i'd try intervals...

I don't have a HRM, so right now it's going to be:
#1 pedal as hard as possible
#2 pedal slower
#3 repeat...

i was just wondering what sort of time frames I should be shooting for, and is it possible for this to be productive without a HRM? thanks for any ideas,

B.

try a short steep hill and climb as hard and fast as possible for 30 seconds then roll back down (still pedalling) . Make sure youre rest or easy spinning is about twice as long as youre effort time then keep repeating until you faint

30 seconds on, 2 minutes off (and by off I mean still pedaling) is generally what I do.

running, more like 1 minute on, 5 minutes off.

LOL! I love it.

You've got the basic idea. Stop when you puke (and hopefully not too far from home and take it easy the next day.)

I usually do 4min on 3min off and repeat it 4 times. I have been told this is good for VO2max. Whatever the hell that is.

Cheers

If you are doing sprint intervals, the suggested work:rest ratio is 1min on, 5 min off.

The interval sets in Spinervals usually are 1 min on, 1 min off for 10 minutes.

The length of the interval depends on what you want to accomplish. 6 x 4 minutes on with 2-4 minutes off is good, as well as 2 x 20 minutes on with 5-10 minutes off. Add a 10-20 x 1 minute on with 1-2 minutes off and you're pretty well covered. Of course you'll be just guessing as to the intensity. These workouts are for different days and should be preceded by a recovery day, btw.

^^^^^^^depends on one's base fitness and situation too^^^^^^^

more fit you are, the more of them you have to do and you will get to a point of diminishing returns, I do intervals for a living so to speak........nature of my job

Register on this web site. It's free and they will take some basic info and setup a training program for you. I don't take it as gospel but it does give you a program that sort of takes your current fitness into account. You can just used percieved effort as your "hear rate monitor". When you fall off the bike that's 100%.

https://www.polarcyclingcoach.com/?agn8_-g4u2v9

[QUOTE=sprcoop]Register on this web site. It's free and they will take some basic info and setup a training program for you. I don't take it as gospel but it does give you a program that sort of takes your current fitness into account. You can just used percieved effort as your "hear rate monitor". When you fall off the bike that's 100%.


ROTFL

Short on pain.....I love that.

I live where it's pretty flat. I have a heart rate monitor but I'm not serious enough to use it. If I want pain I go out with the local group. I almost always seem to push harder than if I'd gone solo. Just pick a guy that's faster/stronger than you and decide that he's not going to drop you. And never let on that he's killing you. There has got to be a strong group out in SF that you can hook up with for pleasure/pain.....hmph that's a loaded statement.

Years before HRM I used the following method for intervals:
Select your road, get a fixed distance (say road sign ot road sign), time yoursef flat out over that distance, add (say) 6% of your time and keep repeating until you do 2 consecutive rides outside that 6% limit.
It improved my sprint speed and it hurt.