Interval Training on Tacx Flow Turbo trainer

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

Interval Session Heart Rate

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

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