humans and horses are both endurance animals
Speaking for myself (I've yet to oonsult Mr Ed on matters equine), I'm defiantly not an endurance animal. Well, I try to be, but my physiology defies me all the time.
Still, I'm rather sold on the value on HIIT and reclon the OP will be helped by 3 weeks of battering himself.
We have overall as a species evolved towards endurance, I reckon, on a fundamental level.
You wouldn't see a cheetah or a lion going for a jog.
What training to get a cheetah good at long distances then?
Would never work, I reckon. Physiology just not adapted.
Same reason you can't train a human to hold its breath for 2 hours like a whale does, or follow scent trails through the bush for miles.
*Inhales*
You're a nutter, you know that?
I remember reading that a race horse has a VO2 max of something like 180, and dogs up to 240 compared to 90 for a top cyclist.
I wonder if you could make a cheetah faster by putting it through a structured training programme? It works with horses after all.You could make it faster by getting it to do a warm up. Works for horses (& humans).
Greyhound owners give their dogs a bit of a w*nk just before they go in the traps - works wonders.
Apparently.
How long was that?
*Inhales*
POSTED [b]8 MINUTES[/b] AGO # REPORT-POST
How long was that?
POSTED [b]5 MINUTES[/b] AGO
3 minutes 🙂
Yeti maybe we should club together and buy a day of fitness measurement and testing from someone with the facilities. Just for curiousity's sake 🙂
Not a bad shout that. I'm getting my bodyfat % done this week.
I gonna admit defeat on the breath holding thing. Have worked out though that if I'm really hungry I can smell out a packet of Beef & Onion Hula Hoops from about 20 paces!
Would never work, I reckon. Physiology just not adapted.
Back to my dog as the test subject.
She finds it easier to do a 20k route fast behind the bike than doing the same route at half the speed, if I was running.
Which supports your theory.
animals are running for dinner, we're running to burn off dinner.
(well, some animals... and i never run)
Well you are getting into biomechanics there. Dogs are out and out endurance athletes - seem to remember in the wild wolves hunt by running their prey down over miles. It's probably that with you running the dog is half way between a run and a walk, which is annoying.
Sure about that?STW is moving with the times MrSmith
yes. i asked my flatmate who works for british cycling, after he finished reading the OP and shaking his head he just laughed.
BC and Sky are moving with the times too, the use of intervals will be in the training manuals/coach's database but to use them in a short lead-up to a specific long distance event especially when the person training is possibly time limited would be laughed at.
i had a program written for me as i was doing the tour of flanders and paris roubaix sportive in the first week of april but up to the 1st week of jan had done very little riding, managed to follow the program fairly closely and then knocked an hour off last years time on the TOF and was only 5min behind the 1st-3rd cat riders i was traveling with.
i didn't do one interval, all steady tempo work midweek and weekend rides were measured in hours/saddle time not miles. not forgetting the very important rest periods that are often not part of training when people read a bit on the internet 3 weeks before an event/race.
you saying I'm slow? 🙂
MrSmith, it appears there are two schools of thought here. One is the 'as much long slow as you can manage' and the other is 'HIIT for endurance'. Both have many professional highly regarded coaches backing them.
One takes hours and hours, the other takes not much time at all. Given that the OP is time crunched it makes much more sense to try the latter, doesn't it?
every other day with (i presume) a commute or ride in between for 2 weeks?
no recovery rides or rest? not ideal prep for a long day in the saddle.
often it's better to drive/train/trundle along in between intense activity, the OP may not be able to do a couple of hour long medium tempo rides midweek but the benefits would be greater then 15 minutes of intense training every day.
without a control or before/after testing we will never know how proper structured training (even if just a couple of hours a week) could help the OP 🙂
I don't know enough about bike training to comment specifically. But assuming the theory behind run training is transferable then HIT training can be used for both endurance and speed (strength) training.
The sets your'd use are very different though. What the OP has posted seems more suited to building speed through power (and therefore a TT or short race) rather than a interval set suitable for distance training.
If training for, say a marathon. You would build intervals at threshold into a long run rather than a short sprint set with rest between. - would this work on a bike?
MrSmith - interesting what you say, though of course the circumstances are different. Also, the BC approach will, while certainly the best form of coaching available, be skewed to the idea of a rider being able to train on a full time basis.
The ideal is a classic base build, tempo riding and intervals thrown in. Too much of one will make one good at that, but little else. But some of all of them will be best. It's just a case of working with what you've got.
I used to ride 10-12 hours a week, but because all it was was tempo at the fastest, I had no real top end. Cue first crit races and I'm out the back. RvV last year (didn't go this time) was fine, even if I'd never done a ride of more than 4 hours in training.
the OP may not be able to do a couple of hour long medium tempo rides midweek but the benefits would be greater then 15 minutes of intense training every day
I don't think 3 weeks of tempo is going to do much to someone who rides regularly anyway.
Bit of sharpening up before a big event seems reasonable to me. Indeed, it's what I had prescribed to me when I was paying a coach for training for a 24 hour solo. I did tons of base then sharpened up shortly before. I did however do the sharpening up more than 3 weeks before, and I did nothing the week before, which is what the OP should do I reckon. Or at least some very short sessiosn.
I used to ride 10-12 hours a week, but because all it was was tempo at the fastest, I had no real top end. Cue first crit races and I'm out the back. RvV last year (didn't go this time) was fine, even if I'd never done a ride of more than 4 hours in training.
well you missed the glorious sunshine 🙂
as for top end, me too but i only need to start doing that now in time for the cross season and don't race on the road (cross will only be token effort)
Forget about this HIIT, who fancies this...
"300"
25x Pull-up +
50x Deadlift @ 135lb +
50x Push-up +
50x Box Jump @ 24" box +
50x Floor Wiper @ 135lb (one-count) +
50x KB Clean and Press @ 36lb (KB must touch floor between reps) +
25x Pull-up
300 reps total
You go ahead Yeti.
I'm a bike racer remember not a gym addict!
[url= http://www.gymjones.com/knowledge.php?id=35 ]LOL... I'm thinking of becomming a Spartan warrior.[/url]
well you missed the glorious sunshine
Tell me about it. Rivers of mud up the Molenberg last year made for a "real" experience.
as for top end, me too but i only need to start doing that now in time for the cross season
Thru illness and house moving (and having a baby), I've been off the bike for 4 months, only getting back on last week. I quickly sketched a programme today for the cross season -
- 6 weeks initial base build - but rides can never be more than two hours, so lots of tempo
- 11 weeks HIIT work (following Carmichael's time crunched plan - 6 weeks before season, 5 weeks during)
Won't be pretty, but with limited time available, it's the best I'll do. And the cross season will be ridden for fun first, racing second.
You go ahead then Yeti 🙂
Molly - read the stats of what some of those guys achieved!
Impressive stuff but damn hard to organise your own workouts to be different and a challange each time!
Does nothing for me Yeti. I am a bike racer 🙂
Meh... if the Spartans had bikes they would've beaten you in a bike race and then beaten you with the bike.
They wouldn't have beaten me in a bike race.
Course they would... they were Spartans. They'd even beat a cheetah in a bike race.