Last week I spoke about consistency and the advantages of consistency in both attending training sessions and also the intensity in which we train and how, over a period of time, consistency will make us faster. This week I am going to go away somewhat of what I spoke last week, though by following through what is written, you will gain a knowledge of how to become faster by incorporating intervals into your training plan.

As we go through the basic phases of training the majority of our time will be spent in the base or build phase, which, over time will see the ability to prolong our training sessions and become faster – though the main advantage is that we will be able to sustain the consistent pace longer. So how do we become faster over the same distance?

If we look at how we train, generally when we come to a hill, be it whilst riding or running we will generally either maintain the intensity or push a little harder which will ultimately see our HR rise – this, although unplanned is a “semi” interval. Although the latter is unplanned this is how we do become stronger which will allow us to push a little harder when required during a race.

If we are to look at how you program intervals into your training plan, there will be a need to look at our base or build to understand where we are at and what intensity and period we should be completing intervals. As a general rule of thumb, when we start interval training, shorter more frequent intervals are used – as a starting point 5 to 8 intervals of 30 second efforts with 30 seconds recovery would be ideal, this would be completed during a 45 -60 minute ride or run and at an effort of 80 to 85% max HR. As we progress we can extend the duration of the time of the interval and also the rest period and as we get stronger our goal is to be able to push through and perform longer intervals with shorter rest periods, which will align with our race pace. A simple example to build up to would be, for a race of 1 hour we may do 5 x 10 minute intervals at our chosen race HR rate with a 2 minute rest between each interval, or for an Ironman, 4 x 60 minutes intervals with 5 minutes rest between. Obviously there will be a “programmed approach” to reaching both of these levels over a period of time, and the length, duration, intensity and rest of intervals would differ along the way to reaching the ideal time and intensity. A general rule – the shorter the interval, the higher the intensity, though as you get closer to your goal race the intervals get longer and the intensity is closer to that of your anticipated race day HR.

As we progress as athletes we will be looking at various race distances which all require the ability to hold a different HR, for short course or sprint races it is pretty much as hard as we can go for the duration of the race, though as we get into longer races from Olympic distance to Ironman we need to be conscious of what our ability is to hold a given HR for the entire race. When we look at the start of the season or after we have had a prolonged absence from training we know that we will not be able to train nor race as hard as we would have prior to the absence, so how do we decide our training phase and intensity? Pretty basis approach to this is to work backwards from your goal race and set a program to follow!

If anybody would like additional information on interval training, or would like to know how to accommodate intervals into their program please contact me so that we can discuss.

Until next time, safe training.

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