micro intervals

whoawhoa

I'm thinking of trying micro intervals for improving "burstiness" in crits and mountain biker races. Anyone have ideas on protocol? I think I'll place them into a tempo workout, with the on/off both 15 seconds, with on @ ft+100 and off @ ft-100. any other thoughts?

RapDaddyo

You might want to read this study http://www.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/...papers/LAUR.pdf. If you want to attain neuromuscular adaptation, you might want to shorten the duration (e.g., 10secs) and ride them at max power. It sounds hard, but it actually isn't very hard because it's over so fast. But, I think you'll see from the article that they result in an improvement in FT and VO2MAX as well.

acoggan

Is that this study?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16095414&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum

RapDaddyo

It looks to be the same, certainly the same authors. I can't find a publication date at either link. I think the study in my post was published in 2001. I can't find the date of the article in your link, but I'm guessing it's the same study. The HIT protocols look to me to be best suited for increasing VO2MAX and FT more than anything (not to say the best protocols for those adaptations, but the best use of the tested protocols).

Spunout

I work these into my weekly speed workouts in base. After a few weeks of leg-speed, I start doing the last 4 intervals as 'form sprints' at 300% FTP for 10 seconds, no more.

Gradually replace the spinups with form sprints until you're only doing two spinups as part of the warmup.

Into late build, I'll start replacing the form sprints with more realistic all-out sprints.

acoggan

I don't think what you do would fall under the category of "microintervals", at least as how I (or, e.g., Peter Keen) would use the term.

SolarEnergy

What is your definition of microintervals? (sorry, I am too lazy to search it on the web. Or euhhh... well, I am on the job right now )

acoggan

I guess I would define them this way: a long series of intervals (e.g., 5 min or more) done with very short (i.e., 15 s or less) on and off periods, so as to at least partially dissociate the neuromuscular and cardiovascular/metabolic demands created by the average power output. I therefore don't consider the long-popular 30 s on, 30 s off intervals to be microintervals, as the work and especially rest periods are too long to really achieve the above goal. Similarly, I don't consider doing just a few short, hard efforts to be microintervals, as unless you continue the sequence for an extended period of time you're really just doing a few sprints with partial recovery in between.

SolarEnergy

Sorry, I hit a language barrier here. I don't understand this sentence.

In other words, this type of work doesn't necessary improve the energetic file generally associated with the workload's duration.

10X(15s on, 15s off) would be more likely to improve the upper limit of VO2Max? And then what, you repeat that 4 times?

e.g. 4 (10X(15s on, 15s off)) with 10 minutes recovery between each 5 min?

Thank you so much

acoggan

When the "on", and especially the "off", period is very short, the overall cardiovascular and metabolic response to the exercise will closely resemble that seen at the same *average* power. However, the neuromuscular demands - i.e., the forces that have to be generated, the motor units recruited to do so, etc. - will be largely dictated by, and thus primarily reflect, the power during the "on" period. Thus, you can say that microintervals at least partially dissociate the neuromuscular and cardiovascular/metabolic demands, and if there is any point in doing them (aside from, say, variety's sake) that's where it lies.



Now I've hit a language barrier, as I'm not entirely clear what you mean.



There are million-and-one ways of structuring "microintervals", but the above would certainly be one of them (provided the power during the on periods was high enough to bring the average into level 5).