Tuesdays seem to be my day of training at the moment, although I’m not sure that 3 session in a day is necessarily good thing.
I’ve just done a Turbo Trainer session that felt OK. Either I’m getting better or the calibration is a little out as I keep increasing the wattage for each session but still manage to complete them. I did my 1:1 minute intervals today which I haven’t done for about a month. Last time I did them I did the hard efforts at 360 Watts which had me working at 89% of my maximum (162bpm) and said I’d have to try them at 370 Watts next time.
So, this time I started at 370 Watts but that felt too easy so I increased the wattage with each rep until I was at 400 Watts which felt sufficiently difficult. So after a 15 minute warm up I did
- 1 minute @ 370 Watts, 1 minute @ 120 Watts
- 1 minute @ 380 Watts, 1 minute @ 120 Watts
- 1 minute @ 390 Watts, 1 minute @ 120 Watts
- 1 minute @ 400 Watts, 1 minute @ 120 Watts
- 1 minute @ 400 Watts, 1 minute @ 120 Watts
- 1 minute @ 400 Watts, 1 minute @ 120 Watts
- 1 minute @ 400 Watts, 1 minute @ 120 Watts
Followed by a warm down.
The 400 Watt intervals were pretty hard, getting my heart rate up to a maximum of 166bpm on the last one (92%), but I can’t believe I’ve really improved that much in one month. I’m not complaining if I have, and I guess I’ll have to try all 7 reps at 400 Watts next time.
I’m not sure how my legs will feel at circuit training followed by swimfit tonight though.
Heart Rate from todays Turbo Trainer Interval Session
I didn’t think I’d be able to do that!
Yesterday, despite still having a bit of a cold, I did my 3:2 minute intervals workout on the turbo trainer. Last time I did this workout on Feb 1st I did the hard efforts at 280 Watts and wrote:
My legs were feeling it come the end, but it does seem as though I’m improving. Just in time for some races throughout the summer. It does mean I will have to increase the wattage to 290 Watts next time, which I sure will start to hurt!
So, true to my word, I increased the wattage to 290 Watts yesterday and thought I would struggle. Once again though I completed all seven repetitions and it wasn’t too bad. you know what that means… 300 Watts next time.
My heart rate did peak a little higher than last time (158 bpm rather than 155 bpm), but that is nowhere near my maximum, so hopefully I’ll at least get close to completing it at 300 Watts. Maybe I am improving for real.
Turbo Trainer Workout
I’m enjoying this and seem to be getting better.
I did the same workout as last week, 3:2 minute intervals on the turbo trainer. Last week I did them at 270 Watts with the final one at 280 Watts and my heart rate hit 164bpm on the last one. This week I increased the wattage to 280 Watts and expected to struggle. The first repetition did feel quite hard and I still thought I might struggle come the end, but as I got into it they seemed to stay relatively easy. So much so that I increased the wattage to 290 Watts on the last one. Despite that my heart rate only peaked at 155 Watts.
My legs were feeling it come the end, but it does seem as though I’m improving. Just in time for some races throughout the summer. It does mean I will have to increase the wattage to 290 Watts next time, which I sure will start to hurt!
Nice steady interval workout
It looks as though my hard work on the turbo trainer may be paying off as I seem to be making some improvements.
I did my 1 minute interval session yesterday, where after a warm up I try to do 7 repetitions of 1 minute hard and 1 minute easy. After a little bit of experimentation over a few weeks I found my limits and could just about do these with the hard effort at 350 Watts. I have since done a few of these at 350 Watts, which normally gets my heart rate up to around 90-95% of my theoretical maximum.
Last time I did them on January 19th they felt a little easier and heart rate was only 89% of its maximum so today was the day to increase the output to 360 Watts. I had tried them at 360 Watts before and failed miserably. On that occasion I only managed 5 repetitions, but today was different. In fact, although the last one did feel quite tough it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. I managed all 7 reps and with a maximum heart rate of 162bpm I was still only working at 89% of my maximum.
This may all sound very encouraging and it looks as though there are signs of improvement, but it also means that I should try them at 370 Watts next time. I don’t think I’ll be able to complete all 7 reps at that power output, but it has to be worth a go.
I felt quite good at circuits and in the pool on Tuesday too, so maybe I’m just having a good couple of days – We’ll see how I fare in the real world on my night MTB ride tonight.
Heart rate from todays Turbo Trainer workout
It’s always good to mix things up a little on the Turbo Trainer. Also, I had coffee with Jon the other day, my friend who did the various tests on me at the Sports & Exercise Department at Aberystwyth University. Whilst chatting about training he said that the session to do out of the ones he’d given me were the 3:2 minute intervals. I hadn’t tried these before so I though I’d give them a go yesterday.
The idea is that after a warm up you do up to 7 repetitions of 3 minutes at a pre-determine, hard workload and then have 2 minutes rest. John had set me a target of 275 Watts for the hard 3 minutes. I can only set the power output in increments of 10 Watts on my Tacx Flow Turbo Trainer so decided to give it a go at 270 Watts. My workout therefore was:
Warm Up:
- 5 minutes @ 140 Watts
- 4 minutes @ 200 Watts
- 1 minute @ 100 Watts
Main Set
- 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 270 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 280 Watts, 2 minutes @ 100 Watts
Cool Down:
- 4 minutes @ 180 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 140 Watts
- 3 minutes @ 100 Watts
Here is my heart rate trace during the workout, peaking at 164bpm (90.6% of my maximum)
Todays Turbo Trainer Workout
As you can see although it was quite hard, I still felt OK on then final repetition and actually did it at 280 Watts rather than 270 Watts. Next time I shall have to try it at 280 Watts throughout. In fact, talking to Jon last week, he was saying that if I can do all 7 repetitions of any of these interval sessions then the idea is to up the wattage immediately as they should really be so hard that you can’t quite complete them. That sounds like torture to me but I shall start increasing the wattage until I can no longer complete the whole set.
I did enjoy this set of intervals though as they seem to be working a little on endurance as well as power. 3 minutes can actually seem like quite a long time!
I’ve just finished a 4:1 minute interval workout on my Turbo Trainer. I have promised to people that I’d post some of my workouts here, but this is one I’ve mentioned before in a previous post.
As you would expect, the 4:1 ratio is 4 minutes ‘easy’ at 100 Watts and then 1 minute of hard effort. Which such a long rest, the hard efforts are pretty hard at 400 Watts for me. The first time I tried it I couldn’t manage all 7 repetitions, but I did manage them the next time with my heart rate peaking at 169 (93% of my maximum) on the last two reps.
Today it was pretty hard again, but my heart rate was only 165 (91% of my maximum) on the last couple of reps. Maybe there’s some improvement afterall. Trouble is that means I should probably try it at 410 Watts next time which will be difficult.
They may be pretty evil at the time but these interval sessions are pretty good and hopefully have some effect on my overall fitness and strength. Time for a nice cup of tea and a rest now though.
Heart Rate Graph from todays Turbo Trainer Workout
My Tacx Flow Turbo Trainer has a built in calibration device allowing it to ensure that workouts you do on it are consistent despite changes to things such as tyre pressure, contact pressure, bike you use etc. Any change to such things would make a difference to the efficiency and could therefore adjust the effort needed for a particular workout.
The calibration system is easy to use. Press a few buttons on the computer, then pedal up to a certain speed at which point it tells you to stop pedalling and it then measures the amount of time it takes for the wheel to come to a halt. From this, the turbo trainer can work out what braking resistance it needs to use so that it remains calibrated from session to session.
It is recommended that you do this from time to time just to make sure the machine is still calibrated correctly and you should do it if you change things such as a tyre, tyre pressure or anything else on the bike. I’ve done it a few times since having the turbo trainer and the calibration result has always been ‘+2′. As I understand it this means the braking resistance is slightly higher than a factory default of 0.
The bike I use on the turbo trainer is quite nice, everything works really well on it, it is smooth and has an amazing rear hub and I keep the tyre pressure high so that always made sense to me as the turbo trainer needed to up the resistance a little to compensate for the efficiency of the bike. However, the bike is also 20 years old and the tubular tyres on it have been on there for 20 years. Most of that time it has been sat in a shed and the years had taken their toll on the tyres. The cracks and splits in the rubber finally succumbed to 500 miles abuse on a turbo trainer so I replaced the rear one over the weekend.
Cue a re-calibration of the Tacx Flow. I re-calibrated today with the new rear tyre and this time got a reading of ‘+1′. I left it at that as I assume that means it will now give me a braking resistance that will allow me to replicate workouts I was doing before despite the new tyre.
The only way I could test it was to do a known workout and see how it compared. I therefore did my normal 1 minute interval session with the hard efforts at 350 Watts. Trouble was I was planning on upping this to 360 Watts next week as it was now beginning to feel quite comfortable, on top if which I was well rested today and felt quite good.
The workout did feel a little easier than usual with my heart rate reaching around 162 on the efforts rather than 166, but I now don’t know if this is due to the slighty lower braking resistance following the re-calibration or the fact that I should have been in good form and I’m improving.
I guess I’ll have to see how it pans out over the next few sessions… It does of course mean that I’m still on target and can increase the power output on the hard efforts to 360 Watts next week as planned.
Heart Rate from Todays 1 Minute Interval Turbo Trainer Workout
I’ve just done another of my 1 minute interval sessions on the turbo trainer and I think I’m finding my limit. The session involves a 10 minute warm up and then 7 repetitions of:
- 1 minute hard
- 1 minute recovery
Followed by a warm down. The first time I did it I did the hard intervals at 320 Watts, that was OK so I increased it to 340 Watts the second time which actually felt a little better! I then upped the wattage to 360 Watts on my third attempt but couldn’t do it and only managed 5 repititions at that wattage.
Today I decided to split the difference and try it at 350 Watts. This time I completed all 7 repetitions and it didn’t kill me. It was pretty difficult but it did feel OK. I think I’ll do a couple more like that over then next two weeks and then try it at 360 Watts again. My heart rate was up to 166bpm on the final few repetitions which is about 92% of my theoretical maximum so that’s a pretty good workout as far as I’m concerned.
Interval Training Heart Rate Trace
Don’t worry, I don’t intend to post these everyday as I’m sure you’ll get bored of them soon – if not already. However, I’m enjpying doing them and I like the heart rate graphs I produce in a strange, ‘heart-rate artwork’ kind of way. Of course, if you enjoy these posts or are trying to do the same workouts yourself then post a comment and let me know and I’ll keep them coming.
Todays workout was a little longer at an hour with some hard intervals in the middle. I did an extended warm up:
- 5 mins @ 120 Watts
- 5 mins @ 180 Watts
- 5 mins @ 240 Watts
- 5 mins @ 120 Watts
Then started the intervals where I did:
- 7 x 45 secs @ 400 Watts followed by 3:15 @ 100 Watts
I had intended to do 1 minute at the high power output and 4 mins easy, but couldn’t quite last for a minute at 400 Watts. My legs just died at around 45 seconds each time so I adjusted both the length of the hard effort and the rest effort. As you can image, it was pretty tough, but I have something to aim for with these.
I then extended the workout to an hour with:
- 8 mins @ 200 Watts
- 4 mins @ 120 Watts
Here’s the heart rate output which shows that I was at least trying!
Todays Heart Rate 'Artwork' - Click to enlarge
I’m feeling a little fitter at last so thought I would have a go at a proper interval session on the turbo trainer this morning.
I had some sample workouts from Jon following my various fitness tests and lab rat sessions at the Sports and Exercise Science Department in the University so had something to aim for. The calibration between the machines at the labs and my Tacx Flow Turbo Trainer isn’t perfect so I made some adjustments to the sessions and gave it a go.
The first of the sessions was to do 1 minute hard followed by 1 minute recovery. The hard efforts were supposed to be at 390 Watts based on my Critical Power Output and the recovery was at 100 Watts. I didn’t think I’d be able to do that on my turbo trainer so adjusted it so that the hard efforts were at 320 Watts.
The first of the 7 hard efforts felt quite difficult, number 2 and 3 felt OK, number 4 started to hurt a little, number 5 was hard, but I was getting close to the end, number 6 was really hard (and I hated Jon while I was doing it) but there was only 1 more to go. Number 7 was difficult but as it was the last one felt OK. I probably could up the wattage a little, I’m not sure if I could do it at 350 Watts but I might give it a go next time. Cadence was kept at around 100 RPM throughout.
Looking at my heart rate for the session though it was pretty much perfect. The hard efforts all peaked at between 85% and 90% of my maximum Heart Rate and recovery was steady.
As you can see from the graph below, the first repetition, although it felt hard only got my heart rate up to 146bpm, then this gradually increased throughout the set.
- 154bpm for rep 2,
- 155bpm for set 3,
- 156bpm for set 4,
- 159bpm for set 5,
- 165bpm for set 6 and
- 162bpm for set 7.
The graph is almost pretty!
Interval Session Heart Rate
