High Intensity Interval Training

[CoachSuzanne]

Originally Posted by CoachEricD

I have read a bit on HIT lately. Most notably, I recently read Chris Carmichael's books "the time crunched cyclist" and "the time crunched triathlete." (Which I highly recommend) In those, he mentioned that you can train to be seriously competitive in races 3 hours and shorter on 6 hours a week if you use HIT. He focuses (almost) entirely on fitness, so you have to keep in mind that your technique always comes first.

I wanted to post this because Carmichael uses power intervals (100% max effort) as 1 minute intervals, and VO2 max intervals as 8 min intervals at slightly below max (he is much more precise about "slightly below"). I have a weird gut feeling about the value of HIT 25s if your goal is miles. So make sure your distances reflect your goals.

As Suzanne and Terry have said, the shorter and faster the distance, the greater the injury risk and the bad technique risk. My rule of thumb is to always train at a level that requires 100% concentration. So pick a distance or an intensity that you can hold your form IF you hold 100% concentration. You should be at an intensity or distance in which, as soon as you lose focus, your stroke count goes up. That way you have immediate feed back and you are always pushing your limits.

I have yet to read time crunched cyclist, but there are numerous studies looking at suprathreshold intervals for cycling and running and how they affect your endurance pace. Lots of different protocols out there from 20 seconds hard, 10 seconds off (Tabata) to 30 seconds sprint, 4:30 recovery (Masters University), 30 sec vo2 max, 30 sec recovery (Billat), and of course any number of protocols looking at interval training at threshold, vo2 max or sprint efforts.

Basically "HIIT" is a catch all for anything suprathreshold, that's all. It's not new, it's just newly in people's awareness, which IMO is a FANTASTIC thing especially for cyclists.

When I train my triathletes & cyclists, I basicallly use HIIT through all periods of training, including "base".

However I think Terry's comments above about what to do during recovery (ie, not just aerobic recovery, but 100% concentrated on form) is spot on.

I tried this today with "fast 50s" alternating with recovery 100s. The fast 50s I kept at 18-19 SPL, and the 100s recovery at 15-16 SPL with 100% concentration on the single stroke thought I used for the entire set.

it was really refreshing to do the fast 50, take a 5 second break then go right into an easy 100 recovery and revisit the focus at a slower rate.

Thanks yet once again to Terry's magnificent way of articulating his approach to training.