Was on the turbo trainer last night and loaded up the Sufferfest Revolver ( 15x 1 minute on, 1 minutes off  at 9/10 effort) for the first time in ages. I don’t have a power meter but rely on the reasonably linear curve of  my magnetic resistance trainer to gauge my effort and have worked out that 5x the effort level on screen in Km/h is about right for most sufferfest workouts at the moment.

After the 1st interval (45km/h), I felt distinctly odd, faint, a bit dizzy but not nauseous, I felt ok again by the start of the next interval, so I dropped the intensity slightly for the second interval(42.5km/h), but felt the same by the start of the 2nd rest so I dropped the effort again (40km/h) and was able to complete the rest of the workout quite easily.

I’ve never really felt like this during exercise before, question is did I just go to hard or is this how this kind of workout is supposed to feel and should I have attempted to keep the higher pace for the sprints?

Revolver is a really dumb workout and certainly not one to do without a ton of training in your legs.Sufferfest is cute but there’s a lot better, progressive stuff out there these days. Sounds like you just went too hard, too soon .

What do you mean by a ton of training? I’ve been doing Angels or Downward Spiral 1-2 times a week and 2-3 x 2hr outdoor rides a week all year? What would you recommend for a 45minute Turbo workout instead?

have you got a HR monitor? That’s normally a good sort of checks and balance types thing for effort.

I go through a few stages of feeling pretty unpleasant on the turbo, normally some sort of indigestion/reflux type thing, then slightly light headed, then the darkness starts to come at about 195bpm+.

i’m get to be sick on the turbo (although i think i’ve come pretty close) I have fallen off it once though.

Sorry, misread your post. I thought you meant it was the first time you’d been on the turbo this year!

Still a dumb workout though. It’s impossible to do well. Max efforts need around five mins recovery between them in my book. There is a place for a micro recovery workout but not with 15 uninterrupted reps.

Still a dumb workout though. It’s impossible to do well. Max efforts need around five mins recovery between them in my book. There is a place for a micro recovery workout but not with 15 uninterrupted reps.

Agreed – a one minute effort at 9/10 PE done properly is enormous!

IMO minute on/minute off should be pitched at just above threshold if you’re going to aim for 15 straight.

One question though, OP – what did your warmup look like before launching into this?

About 10 minutes warmup

https://www.strava.com/activities/1869627784

I do these intervals, and yes I’m feeling dizzy/sick at times at about the 40/50s mark.   It could be fatigue ./ lack of energy, or just over exertion.   Make sure you’ve eaten plenty of carbs in the 24hrs before you interval and perhaps even some Haribo 2hrs before to ensure your glycogen is topped up to combat the former.  Have a Carb drink on the bike to top up between intervals.

Be careful, don’t collapse on your own.  I’ve done this once and considering my turbo setup is next to all my bikes falling on them really hurt.

I’d echo what Kryton says about carbs – I’ve felt like this on hard sessions if I haven’t eaten properly throughout the day.

I’m not sure I’d go as far as a carb drink on the bike – everyone is different in that respect.

Another thing you might want to look at is tyre pressure – if that’s dropped you’ll be working harder.

Does sound like a bit daft at that effort level. It’s like doing 3 laps of the velodrome flat out and trying to do it again after 2 laps cruising and then repeat for half an hour.

Quite like Revolver, the Louisville CX world champs footage could not be more appropriate. Some of the music is decent, as well. Top of the shop effort, though, no question (16 intervals lads, you have to do the last one.)

Sounds like you’re doing loads so maybe just one of those days – a refusal on VO2 max stuff can happen. I’d think revolver would be quite difficult without a power meter, though, it’s 135% (IIRC) on and it’s harder to judge stuff above the rim like that IME. Like you say you knocked it back to ca. 120% and completed it quite easily, but even that should be a taxing workout. But it sounds like you know sufferfest better than I do, downward spiral is also hard and if you’ve got that dialed you know the working parameters.

Irrespective of what your work out is, if you know how to actually try it’s perfectly possible to push yourself too far.

Sounds like that to me.

Kryton’s food intake sounds like a way of putting plenty of weight on ! + in hard short intervals ie 45 mins long all you needs is a sip of water, plus your stomach will find it hard to absorb carbs if you are working hard enough.

For me high intensity stuff on a turbo doesn’t work when tired (not slept enough or tired body from exercise), eaten too close to being on turbo, coming down with a cold.

If it doesn’t feel 100% right by the 2nd/3rd interval I stop, it’s your body telling you  you shouldn’t be doing it

“Kryton’s food intake sounds like a way of putting plenty of weight on ”

He hasn’t written anything that sounds like that to me.

Which post ?

All I see is sensible intake for an extended hard effort that he intends to gain from