I'm surprised there's been no commentary on T-Max intervals

bbrauer

especially considering they were featured in the latest Bicycling mag, and apparently received the Andy Coggan seal of approval in a bit of name dropping by the author.

They sound interesting, but I don't see anything substantially different from a standard VO2 max interval. Seem like they both target the same intensity level and energy system.

jbvcoaching

You have a link?

acoggan

I should have been quoted as saying something along the lines of "yeah, they sound like they'd hurt, and so should be good for you, but there's no magic in any particular interval workout" - was I?

obxbes

Read the article but I don't have a power monitor. Any way to translate this to a heart rate workout

Roadie_scum

That was my read on the situation. I think that's why noone has been jumping up and down about them. You could use them. You could just as well do something else and get a similar effect (5X5's).

I presume you are talking about intervals from the guys in Queensland's studies where they do something like repeated intervals (how many?), duration 60% max time at VO2max and intensity ~100% VO2max? Repeat when HR drops to 60% or after set time period. Is this what you are talking about? Did I recall the details correctly?

dkrenik

This is addressed in the final paragraph of the article.

Actually, they seem something of a "'tweener". From how they say to calculate the duration they look to be ~2.5 - 3.5 min's long. Too long for level 6 perhaps? Not quite long enough for level 5?

Doesn't look to be available on-line yet - print only.

Dave

Roadie_scum

Based on this kind of work??

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/e...Pubmed_RVDocSum
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/e...Pubmed_RVDocSum
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/e...VAbstra ctPlus

dkrenik

Nope.
This

Roadie_scum

Sorry, I should have been clearer. That seems to be a description of what a 'tweener' workout is. I think I have my head around that. I was wondering (since I don't have access to the article) if the Tmax interval workout concept referred to by the OP was based on the links I referred to?

dkrenik

It sure does as Laursen and the University of Queensland are referenced several times in the article.

Dave

jbvcoaching

Is this a fair description of them?
http://mtbjournal.blogspot.com/2007...ure-to-max.html

Roadie_scum

If the Tmax interval concept is from the Laursen work, as I posited and dkrenik seems to confirm, that's pretty spot on. Nothing sensational in them - just another method of targeting VO2max and maybe some amount of AWC depending on your precise PPO and Tmax.

I don't have exact figures right now, but I've been able to hold my VO2max wattage for about 7-10 minutes in the past, which puts 5X5's right in the same ballpark as these. That was off a different test protocol though, which would have resulted in a lower PPO and higher Tmax. No great surprises really. The concept of moderating the interval length to allow repeated intervals to be performed at around PPO/VO2max is not new.

The keys to structuring work like this in my view would be:

(i) Have the interval intense and long enough to attain VO2max.
(ii) Have the interval short enough to allow repeated attaining of VO2max.
(iii) Have the rest periods long enough to ensure repeated attaining of VO2max.

The Laursen approach seems to be one way to reach these goals, though for people with a short Tmax, would it be possible that the interval isn't long enough to attain VO2max? And what determines Tmax? Is it largely AWC? Or something more subtle about VO2 kinetics/metabolic fitness? Or both? I would be surprised if Tmax was all about AWC, as I seem to have a fairly high Tmax and a fairly low AWC.

RS

jbvcoaching

TMax looks a lot like MAP at (my) first glance, which of course has been discussed quite a bit here and elsewhere.

Well said on the rest of the commentary. Looks like a safe, well controlled way to get people to just go hard in a way that's going to have some positive training effect.

To answer obxbes, no you'd generally not want to modulate supra=threshold intervals like these using HR...which will lag too far behind power. PE and a watch, or even speed/distance up a known climb would be effective ways to execute this workout without a PM.

Roadie_scum

Um... doesn't PPO look like MAP? Tmax is a little different right?