Morning from the UK
Just done a 2 x 10 40/20 session. Seilers chart tell me Bullseye is 270w HR 168bpm.
I hit the 270w say 8/10 RPE but HR was 157bpm . Which matters most for the target range W or HR
looking at my HRv I actually go -0.4 1st set to 2nd set, so it looks like I can manage to 2 x 10.
Do I do 3 x 10 next, aim for same powered HR will rise as a consequence of more intervals, or push up Power to get in right HR range?
Thank you. G
Do you know your actual max HR or have you used a formula? If you are doing 10x 40/20 your heart rate after the first will not be the same as after the 10th. So at what point was it 157bpm? Or is that an average?
Hi, that was the max my HR hit for the intervals. 157 even after taking into account the lag. My MaxHR is 190.
Exercising very close to max HR is a decent but not perfect proxy of VO2MAX (much more than power). One of the more commonly used ways to gauge VO2MAX work is to measure total time above a certain percentage of HRMAX and intervals.icu has a great chart for that purpose under the HR sub tab of the activity.
Some talk about work above 95% HRMAX, other use 93 or even 97.
So if your max is 190 and you only reached 157 max on those 2x10, you were operating quite far from the target intensity.
I never prescribe power targets for these kind of micro intervals because they are very individual.
Its more like a set of all-out efforts sustainable and within a low variability until the last one.
With some experience, the athletes start to get a feel about how deep should they dig.
How do you know your maxHR is 190? Did you calculate from a formula (eg. 220-age) or is that what you’ve seen on a HR monitor?
Thank you.
Hi, Yes off a HR monitor. 189 - 190 is a regular number that pops up when doing efforts to try and determine it. I’m 51 so haven’t done the 220 -age, I’d be way off with that.
Same here. 49 and often seen 185.
Band or wrist HR? Wrist based can be very misleading.
HR Belt… I think I need to punch the start of the micro intervals to spike HR to correct VO2 levels and then work at maintaining it in that zone.
Yep. If you front load the interval, you will get into the target zone faster. Another strategy that works well is to start with lesser rest to work periods and only then when recovering starts to be really hard, converging to the prescribed resting bouts.
In a ham&eggs type VO2MAX workout like 5x5:00 the first rest could be just 1:30, the second 2:00 and then 2:30 for the remaining ones which is the 2:1 typically assigned to this kind of sessions.
Finally, the higher the cadence, the easier it is to get the HR up.
One key aspect: RPE should be very close to 9 by the last but one interval. If it i not, then it is probably an effort below target and therefore sub optimal.
thank you