Interval Training

lafors

I wanted to try do some interval training on the turbo I have (Tacx Flow).
The intention is to improve my hill climbing. Now I'm not currently fit imo so please go easy if the speeds are bad!

Firstly my Max HR is 214 (tested with multiple HR monitors), I'm currently 98kg and about 1.98m. I'm hoping to drop 10kg also.
I based the intervals on HR which is hopefully correct?
So what I was aiming for was:
- Warm-up 10 mins - Keep cadence around 80 and move up a gear a every 1 minute
- Breather 1 min - Keep cadence up in easy gear
- Interval 5 min @ 80% Max HR
- Breather 3 min @ 60% Max HR
- Interval 5 min @ 80% Max HR
- Breather 3 min @ 60% Max HR
- Interval 5 min @ 80% Max HR
- Warm-down 10 mins - Keep cadence around 80 and drop down a gear each minute if required

So thats what I aimed for and here's what I did:
Lap 1 - 10:01.94 @ 22.5km/h @ 82 cadence @ 158bpm (Warmup)
Lap 2 - 00:59.95 @ 22.1 @ 80 @ 175 (1min break)
Lap 3 - 05:02.93 @ 26.9 @ 90 @ 189 (5min @ approx 90%)
Lap 4 - 02:57.12 @ 20.0 @ 81 @ 181 (3min cool down)
Lap 5 - 04:59.25 @ 27.2 @ 80 @ 190 (5min @ approx 90%)
Lap 6 - 02:59.67 @ 18.8 @ 82 @ 183 (3min cool down)
Lap 7 - 05:00.82 @ 26.2 @ 79 @ 191 (5min @ approx 90%)
Lap 8 - 10:00.15 @ 17.6 @ 77 @ 170 (10min cool down)

First thing you'll notice is I hit my expected 80% during the warmup and I felt OK so I upped (or rather had to) to up my rate to 90% for the 5 minute intervals.
Next thing is that my HR is very slow to return to normal levels. This is a sign that proves I'm unfit...correct? So for my cool down I tried to maintain my cadence in a easy gear while concentrating on reducing my HR.

So am I doing the right intervals?
Will this help improve my climbing (in conjunction with other training)?

pprendeville

It's hard to say if it will improve your climbing. But it can't not help. Any training is better than no training. I would say, don't over analyse. It would be hard to track that specific info after every turbo session over a long period of time. Maybe do a higher cadence and then a lower cadence every second interval to mix it up and see how your HR responds. Aim for 90-95rpm maybe.

Different climbs require different training techniques. Short explosive climbs will require you to work on your VO2 max while for long steady climbs you will need to work on your threshold HR/Power. It would be good for you to do a 20 min test to determine these values. I have a a Tacx Flow as well so you can use it to determine your power which is a more accurate way to train as it gives instant readings. As to the accuracy of the Flow, I can't really stay but it's consistent I find.

Keep up the training and be consistent is the main thing and you'll improve. Any weight lost will also help.

Beasty

Funnily enough I did a not too dissimilar session last night, but went a lot harder. I did it based on power rather than HR, but you should expect some cardiac drift in these sessions - I maintained pretty consistent power throughout each of 4 x 5 minute intervals, but my HR (based on a max of 186), was along the following lines

1st 5 mins - start 130, steadily increasing to 166
3 mins respite (power output dropped by around 50%) - drops back to 132
2nd 5mins - steadily increasing to 173
3 mins - drops back to 134
3rd 5 mins - steadily increasing to 176
3 mins - drops back to 136
4th 5 mins - steadily increasing to 178

When I say "steadily increasing" it's definitely front loaded, with very little increase in the last minute or so of a 5 minute interval

In respect of your own session
- did you try and maintain the same HR throughout each interval? If so you may have started a little hard and eased off - it's better to put out the same effort throughout, and if you have anything left towards the and of the interval then push a bit harder (all my intervals averaged between 306 and 310w)
- you showed very little decrease in HR during your "breathers" - this indicates a lack of overall fitness that will only really be corrected by lots of time on the bike/turbo
- cadence - I used to work at around 80rpm, and even then thought of myself more of a grinder than spinner. Now I will aim for 100rpm minimum on the turbo (Wattbike in my case)

5 minute intervals will improve your climbing but you need to build your base fitness first. Do some longer sessions at lower steady effort

BTW the speeds you recorded are pretty irrelevant (other than for comparing your own efforts) as they would be driven entirely by the resistance on the turbo