Birly, that's the kind of stuff I've read elsewhere as well and what's inspired this wee bout of HIIT; seems like magic to me (well, kind of), but if it gives me a bit of a boost for my big ride, that'll be excellent... of course, dropping a few pounds of body weight over the same period would help as well!
Going back to interval training and away from the cheetahs, any idea if I do something like this on my commute once a week or so, will it make a big difference to my speed / fitness?
The commute is 16.2 miles, takes a bit under an hour on an okay day (55 minutes at best), so I have a fair amount of time to warm up / warm down. I'd kind of figure 20 minutes warm up, do some intervals for 20 minutes then pootle home. Does that sound sensible?
I have hills also, should I work the intervals around them (hammer up the hills, freewheel on the downhills or something), or is more strict interval training going to work better?
Joe
joemarshall - read Chris Carmichael's Time Crunched Cyclist.
In it he's a big advocate of thr HIIT approach, and will give you plenty of idea for what you can do to make best use of your time.
I found commuting a similar dailty distance did give me a good "classic" base, but the cumulative effect of that and the rest of my life ended up with me being pretty worn down. Not sure I could have done much HIIT on top of it (though every ride was done at tempo).
I now have much less time - child, moved farther from work - so am going to utilise a HIIT oplan to get some fitness together for the cross season.
If you want to get better on the bike then ride it. Hard
That will work, but possibly not as well as a more structured approach.
Probably because it's garbage
Thanks - I'm not advocating it. It's just that a few people have mentioned this guy to me and that they were following it and I wondered what evidence there was in support of it (or vice versa, of course) and what people's experience was of it.
I found commuting a similar dailty distance did give me a good "classic" base, but the cumulative effect of that and the rest of my life ended up with me being pretty worn down. Not sure I could have done much HIIT on top of it (though every ride was done at tempo).
Yup, I'm not doing it daily at the moment, only work 4 days a week, and a fair few of those days from home.
wonder why a cheetah doesn't 'pull' muscles when it sprints without stretching and warming up...
Are you suggesting that a warm up is not necessary or even useful?
I started interval training about 5 weeks ago. I live in a very hilly village with left-hand loop of 1.2 miles. It allows me to nail the climb (big ring, 1 minute climbing with average gradient of around 15%), then a gentle 3-4 minute spin back down to the foot of the climb. I do 8 laps after a 7 mile warm up.
The difference has been startling, loads more power. My limiting factor now is my VO2 max and general muscle efficiency which I hope to improve with longer rides.
The main advantage as I see it is that within 30 mins of getting off the bike, I feel fresh and recovered rather than that horrible battered feeling you get after a long, high intensity ride.
Sounds a bit like Tabatha training with longer rests. There seems to be a fair ammount of evidence that that works pretty well.
I think tabatha is 40 secs on/40secs off x16 or something like that.
tabata is 8 x 20sec max, 10 sec recovery
enjoy
Tabata - no pussy cats involved.
(20 secs on 10 relaxed) x 8
I normally manage 6.5 before I feel like throwing up 🙂
When I started doing intervals years ago I hated them. I had lots to do and didn't feel like I was getting faster. After a few weeks whilst bimbling through town I approached a particularly long wait traffic light when it was on green and BLAM! My legs knew what to do and I rocketed through the light far faster than I ever expected. That was nice 🙂
So did we establish what interval sessions Cheetah's do?
Tabata are my favourite 🙂 pretty sure they're what cheetahs use too.
Looking forward to getting back into my interval training routine.... one day chasing gazelles, the next doing tabata... repeat.
I wonder if you could make a cheetah faster by putting it through a structured training programme? It works with horses after all.
Our cat was pretty damn quick and never ran anywhere unless he was being chased by the neighbour's dog.
On a gym bike with a 1-20 scale of resistance, what do ya'll reckon I should set it at? And would you change the resistance for the sprint bits vs the recovery bits or just leave it the same for the whole session?
Been doing the following once a week for the last 3 weeks in an attempt to get some speed for TT's
15 min warm up
6 x 30sec flat out with 30sec recovery between efforts
5 min easy spin
6 x 30sec flat out with 30sec recovery between efforts
5 min easy spin
5 x 1 min flat out with 1min recovery between efforts
10 min cool down
Not been working yet 🙁
what do ya'll reckon I should set it at?
Personally I'd set it on 'rowing machine'.
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).
Maybe Cheetah's do a warm up and documentary makers just think it's too boring to put on their films 😉
Interesting phil, but humans and horses are both endurance animals.. would be interesting to know how sprinter animal physiology differs.
Although - adrenaline probably compensates for a warmup in the wild...
Started this off today, the aim being to get as much out of the next 3-weeks 'training' before taking on the SDW Way in a Day
short interval training is going to do very little for riding the SDW in a day, steady tempo and hrs in the saddle is what's required and 3 weeks to go is leaving it late for anything intensive (assuming you have done little target focused training beforehand)
any competent trainer/coach could have put together a program for you, it certainly wouldn't have involved 15 second balls out sprints.
*shakes head*
any competent trainer/coach could have put together a program for you, it certainly wouldn't have involved 15 second balls out sprints.
bollox
any competent trainer/coach could have put together a program for you, it certainly wouldn't have involved 15 second balls out sprints
Sure about that?
STW is moving with the times MrSmith 🙂
Oddly enough, molgrips, when I first got my dog I asked my sister if it's endurance levels would change much with training.
She wasn't sure - apparently it's not something they learn at vet school.
Phil - afaik dogs do get fit or unfit just like we do.
it certainly wouldn't have involved 15 second balls out sprints.
your right there, I'd expect you to be fully clothed at all times during training.
*holds head in hands*
molgrips -
I wonder if you could make a cheetah faster by putting it through a structured training programme? It works with horses after all.Our cat was pretty damn quick and never ran anywhere unless he was being chased by the neighbour's dog
[img] 
[/img]
😉
Pfff.
Molly - what's the progress on the 'aftermath'?
I've weighed in under 12 stone the last three days.
Er the aftermath hasn't started yet. My folks have been over and I've been on a bit of a holiday.
Did weigh 83 two days ago though - been doing lots of walking about with a 20kg weight on my shoulders.
Molly - Don't make me find someone else to look up to! I'll try not to be dissapointed just yet
*tries really hard*
You got the mahoosive KB's yet?
One mahoosive KB yes. It's very heavy, but it seems a good point from which to start improving 🙂 I have not done any workouts yet only a few exercises, and my muscles feel like they are going to have to earn their keep, which is a nice feeling.
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!