Physiology of hard supra-threshold intervals (Page 2)

Ok.  This explains what I was asking.  I was wondering how the power output was staying constant while cadence was dropping.  Only way to do that is increase resistance (I guess).  So the Computrainer adjusts the resistance to maintain 300 watts.  Nice.  You can't slack off!

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This is my erg file implementation of JorgeM's cycling program, week 9, Q1 for power users. It's based on a calculated CP60 of 273w so the intervals are at about 114% of that. The beginning, including the short spikes, is the warmup with a base of 160w and spikes to 310w. The main set is 5x (2minutes @ 310w + 2minutes @ 170w) followed by 15 minutes at 235w and a 5 minute cool down at 160.

Ok, I'll try to attach a screen capture.







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cap2.JPG (47KB - 14 downloads)

Except that the HR is only a reflection of the effort you are using. Doing VO2 Max Pace/Level 5 Power/Zone 5a Friel HR intervals like Billat's 30/30s (30 sec VO2 pace/effort/pwr, 30 sec recovery) repeat until you can no longer hold the pwr/effort, increases Vo2, while minimizing risk of injury and mental fatigue from doing longer VO2 intervals. And is therefore a great way to introduce V02 max training to those people who are new to it.

So while your HR may just be catchign up, you can still do Billat's microintervals using RPE, or simply being aware that your HR may only catch up to the "zone" by the end of the interval.

As a comparision, in the same way that your Threshold Power is related to (or defined by) your power output in a 60 minute time trial, VO2 Max power is closely correlated with your 5 min max power.

But just like we don't always need to do 1 hour intervals at threshold to improve our theshold power, you don't need to do VO2 intervals for a full 5 minutes to improve your VO2. It's the intensity that is important, as well as the total time accumulated at that intensity.

There are just a lot of ways to slice the pie, so be creative in how you structure your intervals.

Fred, awesome image posted, thanks for the discussion.

Edited by AdventureBear 2009-01-14 11:45 PM

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To calculate CP60, Jorge had us do both a 20 minute and a 5 minute TT. The 5 minute power was a lot higher, but even 5 minutes of that didn't get my HR as high as it was at the end of the 20 minute test. For me at least, it can take more than 5 minutes for the HR to catch up to that kind of effort.


For Jorge's VO2 workouts, like the one above, the intervals are still well below 5 minute power. Billat's 30/30 repeats sound pretty tough. I think my legs might give out doing that before my HR maxed though.

The you're not understanding correctly. If you can do 2 min at 115% of your Critical Power (think that's what the above chart shows), you can do 30 seconds at 115% of yoru Critical power. Heart rate is irrelevant.

The shorter intervals are just another way of accumulating time at VO2 max. These are different than 30 second "sprints".

Note that Fred's inital graph is 2 min nitervals at 150% of FTP, and Jorge's are 2 min at 115% of your Critical Power (I think i've got it right)

The point is that both the length and intensity of the itnerval have to be correct if you are going to scientifcally target your training. RPE works as well here, but it's pretty clear by these graphs taht HR is not adequate for short interval training at any intensity.

So the HR users MUST go by RPE when doing short intervals.

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ah, my fault. I misread somewhere.

And to be fair, to the poster previous to me, I should have said that I did not explain it well, rather than saying that you didn't understand!

Guess I'm just full of it tonight.