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Not quite as bad as hot needles


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So, I have always said that I would rather poke hot needles in my eyes than ride my indoor trainer. But the terrible weather, a pathetic shoulder injury that has me off the bike, combined with a 2 day stage event end July have conspired against me. Against my better judgement, I pulled out the IDT, dusted off my roadbike and set it up.

I decided a flat training regime is too boring, so I decided to try out intervals. I read up on the hub, and saw a suggestion to do the following:

20 min warm up

2 x 20 min intervals with 5 min rest

5 minute warm down

 

So I set up my HRM, got on the bike with my iPod and did my 20 minute warm up. As I hadn't calculated my HRM zones beforehand, I also kept my brain occupied trying to work out my zones.

 

"So my resting HR is about 60, and my max is about 200, that means 80% of 140 is 14 times two, is 28 times 2, is 56 times 2, is 112. OK, plus 60 is 172"

 

When my 20 minutes were up, I then upped the resistance on my IDT from '2' to '5' (scale is 1 - 5) and pedalled my brains out. Man it was a cold night but I was sweating profusely. Why didn't I bring a towel?! Luckily my Buff was on the couch next to me and I reached it without falling over.

 

I quickly revised the interval to 15 minutes (hey, it's my first time!), and soon I was enjoying a 5 minute break. But as my HRM clocked over to 40 minutes, I knew it was time to push the pace again. Up to 170-ish again, but I was struggling to keep it there. I hung in there for 14 minutes, and decided to push the pace again for one last minute. Eventually the warm down started and I fell off my bike at 60 minutes exactly, feeling pretty whacked.

 

I'll post my HRM table of the exercise. Any suggestions for future sessions, seeing as I'm going to try and do this twice a week?
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20070622_035711_21Jul07EDIT.jpg

Here is my HRM file. Anyone have suggestions for how to use the IDT more effectively? I'm thinking that it will help on Kalahari Challenge as it's a pretty flat race, so not many places to rest and stop pedalling.
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whoa, 2 x 20 minutesDead thats a killer, boring... At the moment I'm doing 10 x 3:16 , varying the cadence helps not dying of boredom. So I'll do an interval at 90 cad, 100, 80,110, 70, 90, 60, 80 etc. And then , I don't keep my heart rate at say 162 for the 70-80% session. I always make sure my heart rate increases over the interval, works for me...Big%20smile I think 20min warm up is a bit long, rather do 10min warm up and 10 cool down. cervelo2007-06-22 04:07:05

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My suggestion would be to attend one of the Polar HRM workshops. They will teach you how to structure a program for indoor training.

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MichH, you can also always join the little sessions i do with an utterly sociable scared-of-pain bunch in randburg - we meet most mornings at 5h20 and spend at least one hour onthe vomitrons... easy stuff like 5x 5min standing 5min recovery (this is a step back for the guys, but i'm not yet capable of 10-15minutes standing at a time), time trials, etc, etc. oh, and the "recovery" minutes are to be done at a nice easy minimum of 30km/hr and please do not THINK of using the small chainring on the idt... utter sacriledge! Dead

 

well done on the motivation to train alone!
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Thanks cervelo, I agree the 20 minute warm up was BORING. Will get my computer out to check cadence, may be a better option.

 

Mandibles, nice to see you on here more often Smile

I wasn't able to get to the last Polar session, any idea if they have it on their website?
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SP, not sure I understand? At a gym/ spinning studio? Or do you all bring your IDT with?

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Thanks MichH.

 

I'm not sure when the next workshop is but phone Polar on Tel: (011) 805-1028 and I'm sure they'll be able to advise you.

They make an indoor training session such fun and the time seems to pass quickly.

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it's at a physio private gym facility - bring own bike and put on cateye cyclosimulators (like my one). get account at end of month iro number os sessions attended. its a bunch of buddies really - the one dude knows the physio concerned and that's how it got arranged

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MichH, I know how you feel, just set mine up as well! I hate it! but it has to be done!

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Pyrimids goes the quickest!!

 

Do this:

 

15min Warm up

1min hard

1min recover

2min hard

2min recover

3min hard

3min recover

4min hard

4min recover

3min hard

3min recover

2min hard

2min recover

1min hard

1min recover

5min cool down

 

This session is awesome and the bonus is the time flies on this one!!!
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I do the 2x20's using power and can say that in order to put in the same effort for the second interval your HR needs to be about 10bmp higher for the second interval. If I used HR only I would definately not go hard enough on the second interval. The first would be at 95% of threshold power say, and the second at more like 85% of threshold power.

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Thanks morrgreg, I don't have a power hub or anything, so I guess I'll have to refine my HR technique! I can tell you that the perceived effort on the 2nd interval was HARD!!

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It's damn tough to put in the same 'work' for the second interval specificaly on the trainer. Mentally it's agony.

 

 

 

 

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