Our Irish clients..

Posted by Peter Wright | 03 Dec 2008 | comments (5)

I would like you all to spare a thought for our Irish clients (We have three) as you spin along the coast in 20 degree heat ..

A comment from one of our guys in his weekend file hit home when he mentioned that the ride was a bit tough as he was riding on ice the entire time and the temp was around 3 deg.. he still finished his training though.

As if that is not hard enough another one of my clients (an EX South African to boot) volunteered a few weeks back to try a new interval session - about as hard a session as you can do on a bike (or run or any other endurance sport) - called TABATA ..

In case you are not familiar with this - in short, it is a session that looks like this..

Warm up well

1 x 4 min interval broken into 20 secs at ~210% FTP with 10 secs rest - repeat until cooked and then pick yourself up off the floor and crawl to the shower..

Yep - you heard it right, a session of about 15-20 mins with a 4 min work period - but what a work period.. until you have tried to repeat 20 sec intervals at 210% FTP (about 170% V02 Max) you really have no idea just how much of a shock it is. 4 mins suddenly becomes the longest 4 mins of your life..

In terms of results - Mr Tabata took a group of already well conditioned athletes and had them repeat this routine 5 days per week (nothing else) for 6 weeks - the results..

28% increase in anaerobic work capacity

14% increase in aerobic capacity

That is some serious progress - a 1 5 min workout with far better gains than an hour of good aerobic training.. (9.5% increase in AC and no increase in AWC after 6 weeks of 60 mins @ 70% aerobic capacity)

Food for thought ..

Comments

Sounds REALLY painful

Posted by Nick on 03 Dec 2008 at 02:05:PM
Just because I live in Ireland doesn't make me an EX :-) I'm STILL a Saffie ! Yes, the weather is turning colder here and while you get used to it, the worst bit is that it gets dark @ 4-4:30pm so some of us have to ride in the dark after work. "Luckily" for me I got a bit of a cold last week when temps were in the minus but this week is warmer, around 4-7 deg so now that I'm better it's at least a bit more comfourtable out there. Of course there's always the IDT but I'll leave that for the really bad days :-) Re: the Tabata.....it's an interesting workout for sure. Try not to eat for at least a 2 hrs before going out and if you CAN keep your wattage at the same rate for all the sets then you're either not doing them hard enough or your FTP is higher than you think :-) I'll be back at them next week so it will be interestign to see what this rest period has done to my adaptation. I found that from the second week on, the workouts were "easier" than week 1. Still very tough but the initial shock to the system is managed better.

Posted by Gianni on 03 Dec 2008 at 05:55:PM
Well. I like challenges, perhaps I should try it sometime!

Posted by Joris... on 03 Dec 2008 at 08:43:PM
not as bad as it sounds...go for it!

Posted by Gianni on 04 Dec 2008 at 06:22:PM
I take it back. It IS as hard as it sounds.. After 1week off sick and another just trying to get back on track, today was my first Tabata in 2weeks. It hurt. I also forgot my own tip to NOT eat at least 3hrs before the workout. Needless to say, I left my lunch on the road...

Posted by Gianni on 09 Dec 2008 at 06:32:PM

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