Level 5 intervals: Power V Heart rate

Ade Merckx

I hope I'm not misquoting the good Doc but I believe Andy C mentioned that your heart rate at the end of a five minute VO2 max interval should be within a few beats of max. My max is 186 (or it was two years ago!) and form the set of 5 x 5 interval the highest max was 172bpm. My current FT is 300 Watts. Today's three VO2max efforts were 354 340 and 337 all on the KK trainer. Any thoughts guys

wiredued

FWIW at 114% FTP for a 5x5 I would get about 169bpm max at the end of the first interval and 173bpm on the last one. My MHR is 185bpm.

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rmur17

i agree with your recollection: iow, i recollect the same thing.

First thing that pops into mind is that your L5 interval power in relation to FTP - averaging around 1.15 sounds reasonable. How would you rate PE for each interval? on the face of it, they'd appear to be three max efforts.

Given #1, the second thing I wonder about is just how linear your power measurement device is? If we take 300W measured = 300W actual, then 345W measured = how much actual? Are you using a PT, SRM or the KK power feedback?

#3, how was your freshness for this workout? Legs/fuel/motivation just not there to push close to your 5MP? How do the interval powers relate to your current 5MP?

#4, I hope the spam will end some day.

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rmur

Ade Merckx

Hi Rick all the efforts were done on the KK trainer. Not perfect perhaps, but pretty good. My 5min max done a couple of months ago is 360Watts. I haven't done an actual one hour effort. But with regular 3 x 20's at 304-307 watts even when slightly fatigued I reckon I could bang out - 300watts... I just wondered because surely after a 2 or 3 days training, won't it be pretty hard to get close to heart rate max. No probs I'll keep plugging away

rmur17

okay your 5MP is around 360W and your average working interval power was very close to 95% of that. In my n=1 experience that matches exactly where'd I end up doing L5 intervals and IIRC it's close to what I recall of discussions over on the ole wattage list over several years.

Sounds hard enough to me and the HR differential is likely a matter of things other than interval work rate.

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rmur

acoggan

It is true that in lab studies I have routinely, ah, encouraged subjects to try to drive their heart rate to w/in 5-10 beats/min of maximum by the end of each of their 5 min intervals (not counting the first one or two, of course). That can be difficult for some people to do, though, especially if 1) they've been training hard (thus tending to suppress their heart rate response), and 2) their LT and/or anaerobic capacity are "underdeveloped" relative to their VO2max. Thus, for those who have powermeters I would go by the "alls you can do is alls you can do" rule, regardless of how one's heart rate plays out.

Ade Merckx

Thanks for clearing that up Andy. Below is my profile:1 min power and 5 min power are definitley underdeveloped

Weight 73kg
FT Power 300watts (trained)
1 min power 545watts (untrained)
5 min power 360 watts (untrained)

kant314

Just out of interest Ade, what was your FTP when you started using the KK?
How much improvment do you think you've made in the few months that you've had it?


also, are you starting V02 max training now, in Jan?
I thought the idea was that you start them nearer to the start of the season...say 3 or 4 weeks before your 1st race?

thanks
John

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Ade Merckx

Hi John, FTP was 270-280Watts tested on November 15th
I'm just trying L5's (3 x 5mins) once a week as an introduction - I will step them up to 5 x5 twice a week with six weeks before the first race on March 9th

kant314

that's good.
You've made a lot of improvement.. you must be pleased

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Sillyoldtwit

Hello!

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