aprilm

Can someone please explain this to me, or point me in the right direction to read up on it? I don't have a ton of miles under my belt, so I don't want to injure myself. I guess my main question is, how does one go about "starting" interval training safely? How often do you do interval training? What are the benefits, other than getting in a good workout in a short period of time? I pushed myself to my limit last week (went as hard/fast as I could for a couple minutes) without even realizing there's a term for it... I just want to do this right. Any thoughts/advice appreciated!

waterrockets 

I think you can start intervals with very little base unless you have some limiting medical condition, but you should do your first couple workouts with artificially high cadence to make sure you don't overdo it for your legs.

Here's a good thread to read through:
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...light=interval

Adgooroo

April - All the interval training programs I've seen make repetition a key ingredient: Rev it up for a couple of minutes, rest, do it again, and again, etc. Personally I find it hard to be so programatic on the open road, though I don't have a lot of self discipline either. The spinning class I attend during winter does all kinds of variations of this stuff, though; so do many of the Spinerval-type trainer DVDs.

snowy

Mountain biking is my interval training for the road

I personally don't do interval training I just try to find a short hill and do repeats on it.

gfrance

and a very effective one if I may say so.

snowy

Yes! What a difference I can tell in just one season of riding. I've been putting about 140 miles a week between the road and mountain bike. Lost 15lbs in the process and its crazy how much stronger I feel when climbing a hill.

Someone said that the mountain bike makes you a stronger climber for the road and the road makes you a stronger endurance rider for the mountain. For me I believe its true.

Bob_Chase

+1

waterrockets knows his *****. I don't know him from a hole in the wall, but his comments on interval training were a huge help when I first began. One of the best posters on BF IMO.

Chad's Colnago

Yep, waterrockets knows his stuff. I've modified some of my intervals based off of his comments in threads.
April - Since you are admittedly new to intervals and even new to road biking be sure to take it a bit easy in the beginning and listen to your body. Intervals can do weird things to your body. They produce a tremendous amount of stress in a short amount of time. Perhaps instead of doing an entire interval workout do a few reps and see how you feel the next day?

Doggus

It's cross training. The guy that won the Texas State Championship Cat 3 crit this year attributed his win to track racing.

waterrockets 

Yeah, mountain biking can help you get over that emotional hump of seeing a hill from the bottom when you're clipped in on two wheels. Nothing on the road is as steep as some of the stuff I've climbed off road in my 24/29. Slickrock Canyon, with my stem in my belly button, for example

From a pure training perspective, mountain biking isn't going to be quite as efficient though. If you have to put a foot down because you screwed up and spun out on one water bar, your interval is compromised somewhat. It's not throwaway, but just a little less consistent and controlled. It took me a while to find all the road training as fun as some of the MTB stuff I was doing.

For several years, MTB was my recovery ride day, which is when you can really enjoy a trail and the scenery. It was always ruined if I saw another cyclist out there though -- gotta chase Off road is also great for the tempo/terrain-driven efforts (go hard on the hard stuff and easy on the easy stuff).

<blush>

aprilm

waterrockets - thanks for the link... I've read some of your posts on intervals, but the search wasn't working for me.

Good idea. I sometimes push myself a little too much... I'm more worried about my heart and coughing up a lung than anything else--seems like my heart/lungs work harder than anything else. I know my legs can take a beating.

Bantam

It is interesting because my lungs are better than my legs to this point. I came over from running, so my respiratory system is leaps and bounds ahead of my legs. I still have to build those cycling specific muscles.

Duke of Kent

One odd thing about cycling: you might get vastly stronger in your lower body, but that doesn't necessarily imply bulking up. If anything, my lower body has stayed the same, but in the last year (two years now on the bike) my 20MP and LT have gone up by 40 and 20watts respectively. Actually, taking a look at some race photos, my legs are looking a little skinnier than they were just last year.

blacksquid

You have another!

Seriously, I'm working with a friend of mine who happens to be a cycling coach and I started my interval training indoors over the winter on my CycleOps. It worked to build my aerobic capacity before I really took to the road (I'd been doing a lot of rock climbing over the last 10 years so my leg strength wasn't really an issue). Failing a trainer, you may want to find a flat stretch of road and ride along that in a higher cadence.

Boudicca

Does riding the heavy commuter bike Monday-Friday count as interval training for the weekend?

No, I didn't think so.

waterrockets 

I frequently do intervals on my commute, or towing two of my kids in a trailer. The point is to intentionally modify your intensity for the interval duration, and actually recover. This is not something to be done if you're running late, as your average speed will drop through the floor.