HOW TO DO INTERVAL TRAINING CORRECTLY
Interval training is one of the best ways to increase performance across all endurance sports. It is therefore a regular staple in all of my training programs.
During interval training you typically work at higher intensities than you are normally used to sustaining in an effort to increase aerobic capacity and push your fitness to a new level. You do this by doing short “intervals” followed by a brief recovery. Over time as you get fitter you will be able to do longer intervals at the same pace and over time your sustainable pace will increase too. For example, early on in the program you might do:
10 x 2 minutes at a zone 4 (SST) effort with 1 minute recovery between each interval
As you get fitter this session might grow into something like
5 x 4 minutes at a zone 4 (SST) effort with 1 minute recovery between each interval
Here you can see that the length of time at the higher intensity is increased to keep pushing you to become fitter as you adapt to the training stimulus. There are many ways to work with intervals and with me you don’t have to worry about the science behind them so much as how to do them accurately!
Tip #1 : Always press the “lap button” on your smartwatch at the start and end of each interval
How you should approach these sessions so that you get the most out of them largely depends on the technology you own. That’s because when moving at a set pace/ speed, heart-rate takes about 3 minutes to rise then stabilize. If you are only doing short 1 to 3 minute intervals you can see that heart-rate will not be the correct judge of effort for the interval. Therefore, you need to also use your instinct along with power on the bike or pace on the run to accomplish the repetitions accurately.
Tip #2 : Set up a dedicated screen on your smartwatch so you can see all relevant data with ease
When you start the first interval, simply work at the correct power, pace or effort that is associated with the target training zone. (You will get to know this exactly through the lactate testing that we do ). Over the first few intervals you will see the HR gradually start to come in to zone and stabilize earlier in each interval.
As your session continues, watch to be sure that the heartrate does not go over the upper target for the desired zone. If the heartrate goes too high then lactate production will increase and this will shift your fuel usage and undermine the goal of the training session. Therefore as the session goes on, you might have to ease off the pace/ power to keep the heartrate “in zone”. As you get fitter you will find that you won’t need to ease off the pace and that you are able to complete more intervals at that same effort.
Tip #3 : it’s always better to start a little too easy that to go out too hard!
