Am I doing this right
 

Intervals that is. In an attempt to break up the routine, build speed, and build endurance; I am starting to add intervals a couple of times a week. I will warm up for 15 min while spinning in the 90 to 95 range and heart rate in the 60 to 70% of max. I then will up shift and spin in the 106 range for a minute pushing my heart rate above 90% of max. I then downshift and spin for 2 minutes. I will do this as many times as i can for 30 total minutes and then cool down for 15 minutes. At the end of the ride today my average HR for the 1 hour on the bike was at 85% of max and I felt wrecked. In the long run will this help me or hurt me or do absolutely nothing.

Age 37, weight 245

Intervals don't really build endurance except in the untrained.

Heart rate is too variable for 1min intervals. If you can keep track of your HR and your cadence in a 1 min interval, you aren't going hard enough.

Just go all out 8-12 times with 3-5min of rest between each interval. Since you're just starting with intervals you'd do better in the 6-8, or 12-20min ranges.

Sounds like that workout is actually stuck in no-mans-land in the middle where you get minimal fitness-improvement benefits. You have to both do much, much harder intervals and hit 100% max-HR, and on a separate day, go longer and do 20-minute tempo intervals. My suggestion:

1. first find your true max-HR by doing an accelerating sprint at high 95rpms+. Start at 90% sprint-effort (muscle-effort, not HR) and accelerate for about 10-sec. then increase effort to 95% for another 10-seconds, then finally, give it all out 100% sprint as hard and as long as you can until you collapse. Max-HR should be hit anywhere from 5-seconds before or after the collapse.

2. do the 2x20 LT test in the sticky above. Select a gear that gets you 90-100rpms as this will be where you'll do most your riding when at LT. This figure is actually more important to setting your training intensities than max-HR

3. anaerobic intervals are done above LT, so a HRM is not much use as your HR should be steadily climbing the entire time anyway. Intervals are typically 1-5 minutes in length at a steady muscle-intensity and speed. So a 1-minute interval could be done at 95-98% sprint-effort and a steady 32mph (or whatever you can hold for 1-minute). You should ALWAYS hit max-HR by the end of the interval. Besides the performance, strength-building benefits, it teaches you pacing and learning your body on how far it can go at various speeds. Then recovery fully to 50-60% max-HR and repeat. You'll find that as your fitness increases, the rest-time necessary will decrease tremendously. In the beginning, it may take 3-5 minutes to recover, when you're in shape, less than 1-minute.

4. aerobic tempo are another type of "interval" done at LT and below. Typically 10% below up to LT. I find these are most effective when they're at least 20-minutes in length at a steady pace, kinda like a short time-trial. Do an out & back course and get in a 2x20min tempo workout.

5. endurance is partly about energy-delivery and you'll need to do 3-4 hour rides at least once a week. Do it at a steady brisk pace that you can maintain the entire time. Typically 60-70% of MHR or around 20-10% below LT. A large portion of benefit here is learning how to pace yourself and how to maintain steady hydration and food-intake.


So as you can see, your workout is not the most effective possible. You'll want to break it up into at least three different types of workouts and do all these workouts at least once a week. The interval and tempo workouts can be done twice a week.

what DannoXYZ said. couldn't have said it better.

just make sure you are truely going as hard as you can for as long as you can.
finish long stretches.
when you are ready to quit an interval, go 10-15 more seconds.

you've got to have a strong base and mental make up to be able to push yourself hard. chances are you are not pushing hard enough if you are by yourself.

If I were you I would work up to Danno's program. Start doing one type of interval first, then add the other hard workouts as you get fitter. I suggest the MHR interval workout to start. That's what gave me my first big improvement.

I guess I did not make it clear that for the 1 minute, I am truly going as hard as I can and not slacking. Monitoring my cadence and heartrate are not hard, all it takes is a glance at the computer. The fact is that some day's I only have around an hour to ride and I am trying to pack the most work I can into that time. I am trying to subscribe to the alternating 2 hard days, 2 easy days, with a LSD ride on the weekends. Thanks for the advise I will use it to make myself better.

I agree with what the others have said.

An important part with intervals is to make sure that you get back to an appropriate base HR before you start the next interval. Don't be worried if you have to wait longer than the recovery time you're using.

Also, I think that you should set a fixed number of intervals and do that. When you reach the point where your performance drops off considerably, you should stop.

Finally, on days you do intervals you should avoid doing other work. Your average HR shouldn't be anywhere near 85% on an interval day.

Very informative post. Why the higher RPM's? It would seem to me that a lower RPM, say in the 70's would stress the lactate system more, or at least more quickly, while the the higher RPM would stress the the aerobic system more.


Al

Is this in regards to #1 or #2? Both of them relate to the aerobic system. Finding max-HR requires using easy gears/high-RPMs to not over-stress the muscles and have them quit before max-HR is reached in the sprinting max-HR test.

As for the 2x20 test, it's a balancing act between muscle-lactate and aerobic system. For most people, the main limitation is muscles which gets sore, burn from lactic-acid and cramp well before their aerobic system is even slightly stressed. A lot of people can't even finish 20 minutes due to leg soreness and cramping and this throws off the LT-HR figure since the aerobic isn't even close to its limit. If you do the 2x20 test at different RPMs, you'll find that it will draw a curve:

RPM__LT-HR___POWER
70rpm 150bpm 180w
80rpm 160bpm 190w
90rpm 170bpm 200w
100rpm 175bpm 200w
110rpm 180bpm 190w

There's a sweet-spot somewhere such that the muscle-lactate system is maxed out close to where the aerobic system is also maxed out. This ends up giving you the highest power-output as well. Emperical testing can also be done with time-trials and you find that the fastest speeds are around 90-100rpms. You don't want to leave any excess capacity on the table; most of the time it's the aerobic system that's not fully utilized while the muscles are taxed too much.

[QUOTE=DannoXYZ]Is this in regards to #1 or #2? Both of them relate to the aerobic system. Finding max-HR requires using easy gears/high-RPMs to not over-stress the muscles and have them quit before max-HR is reached in the sprinting max-HR test.

QUOTE]

Actually, it was for for both. I have read several articles on measuring max HR and none mentioned rpms.

Thanks.

Al