help with intervals

[Geoff]

For those of you that do HR or power intervals I have a question. Where I live it is essentially rolling hills with very few flats and few hills longer than 1/4 mile. I am having difficulty staing in Z4 doing Z4 intervals of 10-15 minutes in length. Any advice on how to compensate for the hills during these intervals (besides using a trainer) to get a quality interval staying in Z4?

Thanks,

G

[Kervin]

When I just used HR, I could get my HR to stay in Z4 by keeping a high cadence on the down hill side of rolling hills. I use power now and I find it eaiser to do because I can keep tabs on my actual effort much more closely.

[Climb01742]

i am far far from being an expert, but i run into the same thing during every interval session too. all our roads seem to be rolling too. my solution is to just stay in the same gear (if possible, or shift up as little as possible) and let the power spike happen in the hill. i try not to over do it on the hill, back off a bit, effort wise, but let the watts go up. i found trying to shift too much to deal with the rollers broke both my concentration and rhythm too much, too often. someone once told me this and it seems true: letting the terrain dictate your gear gives the terrain the upper hand. letting your body dictate the effort gives your body/brain the upper hand. in the middle of a hard long interval, i try to let my brain be in control. it's simpler and seems to work for me. again, whether this is "right" or "wrong", i don't know but it seems to help me.

[11.4]

Intervals just aren't consistent when you have a lot of hills to deal with unless you compensate for the hills. And motorpacing has the same issues in spades. By this I mean to go for shorter intervals commensurate with your flat stretches and intervals based on lengths of longer hills. There is plenty of evidence that you get virtually all the benefit of longer intervals from shorter ones -- a Z5 interval has the effect of respacing lower level intervals by moving all your transition points higher. And you can do intervals based on your longer hill climbs. Trying to match output (whether by HR or watts) across rolling hills is well nigh impossible; your legs respond so differently and if you are not a superb climber and a daring descender you won't be able to match the efforts. I have the same problem where I live and will do my shorter stuff in my local area, even if I'm just using a short section of road for formal structured intervals and riding back and forth. I schedule rides in flatter areas where I am motorpacing or doing longer structured workouts.

One other alternative is to do your high aerobic intervals on a trainer or rollers where you can control the consistency of the workout. I've set up some riders with an old wired Powertap and a rear-wheel trainer, which works really well for this. If someone is so inclined, find a used Monark ergometer that's equipped for Wingate studies and you can do all your workouts on it and get very solid data as well as superb workouts.

[Geoff]

thanks for the replys. I do have one good flat loop that I do intervals on but it too gets boring like the trainer so i venture out to the hills but just cant stay on target. I will try the higher cadence today but may just have to keep planning workouts for the terain.

G

[znfdl]

Geoff:

I also have the problem of flat terrain for intervals. I do all of my intervals on my computrainer. I calibrate the computrainer with my SRM. Might be boring, but I can dial in a good cadence and consitent power output.

[Geoff]

ok, so yesterday I did intervals on the rolling hills and tried to get right at the top end of Z4 at the crest of the hill. I would shift up one and increase cadence going down. I was able to keep my HR in Z4 but it just didnt seem like I was getting the same workout as on a flat or trainer.

Correct me if I am wrong but should'nt intervals cause a adaptaion in muscules (ie I should feel the burn so to speak) and the cardio system. This just seems to be working the cardio. Are these two independant of each other?

G