From: praetzel@marconi.uwaterloo.ca (Eric Praetzel)
Subject: Re: Speed Improvement Training
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 17:12:50 GMT

In article <94723@bu.edu> fkao@buengf.bu.edu (Frank Kao) writes:
>Question #1:  I heard of interval training on both running and biking,
>  anybody have any guide lines on doing this?  Can I safely say run intervals
>  earily in the morning, and ride intervals in the night?  Do I do each
>  on consecutive days?
  You might try the tri group for stuff like this.  If you do intervals you
should wait until you recover to do the next set.  This is usually about 2
days.  General guidelines would be:
  30 sec to 2 min - anerobic intervals for working on sprints
  3 min to 20? min - power intervals for developing aerobic power
See if you can find the Lactate, Pulse Training book by Jenson.  It is mentioned
in the books that come with the Polar heart rate moniters.  The book is an
excellent source of measured data.  Most newer books by popular atheletes /
trainers cover interval training.  The general jist is that they are not done
at full out pace.  You want to find you Anerobic Threshold and do the intervals
below that to build your aerobic power.  The idea is that you force your body
to adapt to a new workload.  This does not require massive destruction of
muscle tissue and depleting the body of stored energy; so the go till it hurts
idea is not really applicable.

>Question #2:  How much distance riding should I do, I have already over 1500
>  miles riding for the season, is this a good base for the interval training
>  should I limit the distance riding I do and concentrate on the intercal
>  training for the next few weeks, get the speed up and then do the distance
>  riding?
  I do interval training before I hit the pavement.  I don't do low speed
pedaling (ie hill sprints) until I have a bit of milage under me. I have met
national class tri's who don't do intervals until they are "warmed up" ie
5,000 km.  If you are fit you will not see massive improvements.  Keep the
training varied.  The very hard intervals are only supposed to be about 10%
of your milage.  Vary the types of training to prevent boredom and adapting
to one type of workout.  As a comparison, most people I know do about
4000 to 10,000 mi / year and usually rack up about 1000 mi on the trainer
before they get close to pavement in the spring.

>Question #3:  How long does it take before I can see some results from teh
>  the different training?
  It depends how fit you are to start with.  Several studies have shown that
the improvments vary from 0% to 100% and 4% to 100%.  The less fit you are
the more you can improve.  If you start a training program you should continue
to see improvment for 2 to 3 years before you plateau.  However, this will
be hard to measure if you are doing something like bike racing because your
sucess depends a lot upon who you are with and the politics of a race.
  My sugesstion is to take a vacation for a year.  Tie yourself to a couch,
be sure that the is an ample supply of goodies (pop, chips ...) and then take
up exercising.  You will see incredable improvements  :-)
  Also.  Remember that your parents have a lot to do with how well you perform.
I was just comparing the performance of a friend of mine to my self.  It turns
out that if he is out of shape and I am in peak condition; it still does not
matter.  He could drop me any time anywhere.  So if you set goals against
others make sure that they are reasonable.
  - Eric