Because the racing seasons have been so disrupted lately, I’m going it alone for this year and not hiring a coach. I still want to train well, and so I’m re-using some old plans that I liked.
When it comes to 5 minute intervals, I’ve been setting a goal wattage of about 325w. I rest for 4 minutes, then I do the next one, repeat 5 times. I’m finding that I vary between 320w and 350w for an interval, I’m wondering what direction I should take these intervals.
Higher intensity, same duration, same rest
Same intensity, same duration, less rest
Same intensity, same rest, more reps
I’m mostly a CX racer, so repeated hard efforts for short periods is really my jam. (I’ve also got 15s and 1 minute intervals in my library; it’s not just the 5x5.)
These are labelled as VO2Max intervals in my old training plan, but these are from years ago, before I had a power meter and was just going by HR.
My manual says that 20-40 minutes of work is about ideal for this intensity, and it should be from about 106-120% of FTP. Using my measured (20-minute test) FTP, that’s about 325w, using the more generous eFTP here, that’s 343w.
But I still don’t really understand the rationale behind the rest. That is, I know I need to rest between intervals to prepare for the next one, but to what level should I be resting? This isn’t a ‘full rest’ situation; clearly the load is supposed to progress and make each interval harder to hang on to. But does reducing the rest make this set more or less effective?
My current thought is to sort of split the difference between these tactics. Lift my target to 330-335w, stay at 4 minutes rest, and do 6 intervals instead of 5.
Does anyone that understands the rest component of the set better than me have any advice?
This is probably going to sound boring but… It depends…
Every energy system can be trained in two ways, repeatability and intensity. The recent trend is to first train the repeatability (W’) and then the intensity.
So especially for interval training in the VO2max region, first make sure that you can repeat the effort several times with short rest. When satisfied with that, go for higher power, less repeats and longer rest before returning to train repeatability at that higher level.
Don’t focus on %FTP to set your starting point. As always, things are very dependent on the individual. Make up your mind on the interval length you will train for and check your last 60 days power curve for that time. For example check what your best effort was for 5 min and multiply that by 0.93-0.95. Then setup your interval workout for 7 x 5min at that level with 2min rest (if completely new to this kind of training, 3 or 4 min rest could be better to start). In most cases, you will not be able to complete all 7 intervals. That’s just what is intended, go to failure. Aim to complete at least 30min (6 intervals in this case) and don’t increase intensity untill you can do 7. If you can’t finish 6, reduce intensity because the most important thing is to accumulate enough time at that energy level. Keep doing this for several weeks, eventually even adding an extra interval. You should be able to do a little extra time going forward. So don’t focus on the “failure” but focus on the increasing time in the 7th or 8th interval.
Once you can’t get any significant progress anymore, switch to training a higher intensity (a couple watts above your best 5 min effort) by doing 4 x 5min with full rest in the line of 5-8 min(W’ can be your guide here). Don’t do this to long, just switch back to repeatability training at a higher intensity, especially for your case, where repeated hard efforts are key. Go back and fort between training both to keep raising your VO2 max power-repeatability.
This is kind of the way Xert is doing things.
Have fun!!
As it happens, 0.95 * my best 5 minutes is roughly equivalent to my FTP * 1.2, so it looks like my intensity goal was pretty much bang on. I’m going to keep the rest at 4 minutes, but I like the idea of going for 7 intervals and seeing if that’s something I can hit or if I have more work to do to get there.
Thanks! Boring advice is usually good advice when it comes to training.
Like all the rest of the post, great advise for this kind of adaptation target!
As far as some consensus points to, the purpose of this kind of workouts is keeping you as close as possible to your VO2Max for the largest amount of time - it means 9 or 10 RPE and gasping like a fish out of the water.
Workout structure can vary a lot and two very different ones can achieve the same time at VO2Max vicinity.
Power figures are secondary.
I am currently working in a variable rest period 5x5.
The first rest could be just 1:30 and there is always a 15s increase for the next one.
Using HR as a reference (for the lack of a better one) doing so prevents having it drop too much in the first rests which probably means most of the beginning work would be off target and it is just setting you up for the latest intervals.
Mentally it also helps to know the next rest will be a little longer.
Those things are brutal so having some sort of mental short cut can be the difference between completing or failing.
I also prescribe some carbo loading before this “trips to hell”.
