Interval Training

Since the beginning of this year, Science of Speed coach Trevor has been on a new interval training plan. We tested his LT/Vo2 max before the start of the training and again 4 months later. In that time, he showed at 3% increase in power at threshold. We sat down and discussed how the training’s been going for him: Q: How long have you been riding? A: Years and years, as a commuter. I owned a car for about 6 months when I was 18 and I hated it. I’ve been riding every day ever since. Nothing serious until I did my first bike race on a steel commuter with front/rear fenders and a rack 4 years ago and I’ve been obsessed ever since. Q: How long have you been training? A: Since that first race 4 years ago. No real structure to it though. Just lots and lots of riding. Q: How long have you been doing intervals? Had you done any before? A: I started in January. Before that, the closest I came to interval training was when I would go for all the sprints on a group ride. Q: How has it affected your training? Right off the bat I learned I was capable of more than I thought I was, intensity-wise. Before doing Vo2 intervals, I did everything I could to avoid sprinting. I hated it. After a couple of months of focusing on Vo2, I realized I just never really tried to go that hard before. There’s been a definite improvement there. Time-wise there’s been a big change as well. Before this year, I just tried to ride as much as possible and hit the group rides hard. I would try to ride every day as much as possible. Doing interval workouts on weekdays and taking rest days has actually shortened the amount of time I ride by quite a bit, freeing me up to do other things. Q: How has this changed your fitness? A: Again, I think a big part was just never really going as hard as I could on a regular basis. Before doing intervals, I just assumed if I went out on the group ride and rode hard then I was getting a good workout. I definitely made improvements that way but only up to a certain point. Last year I felt like I’d hit a plateau. In the last 4 months I’ve made more improvements across the board than I did over the entire season last year. Science of Speed offers a wide variety of training plans, from fully customized individual plans to static training plans. Contact us today and let us help you take your performance to the next level!