Tabata Intervals: Boosting VO2max the “easy” way:

Well, I made it…

To the end of another fun and successful road racing season. Many of my goal were met and exceeded, and I came up short on one or two, but looking at the big picture, this was a way better season than I could have ever hoped for.

That said (and hopefully written about in more detail at a later date), with the exception of the Sundays crit in Portsmouth, my training/racing outlook swings the way of CX.

Goals for the CX season are as follows… and will only be take very lightly!!

1. Have tons of fun!
2. Yell at/with as many teammates and friends as possible.
3. Do at least 5 races.
4. Drink a beer after a race.
5. Keep training with enough volume and intensity to prevent my FTP from dropping below 340 while experimenting with new and fun training protocols/workouts.
6. Get and keep body weight between 187 and 192, this should be easier now that I’m not as concerned with recovery as I am during the RR season.

So, as you can see, excluding goal #5, not much stress for leo this fall.

OK, so I promised some info on TBABTA INTERVALS, and here it is:

http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/Go-for-Broke-with-Tabata-Intervals.htm

Basically, each interval consists of:

20″ @ maximal intensity (in my case, I’m aiming for 180%-200% of FTP or 630-700 watts, average. Yes I know the protocol suggests “all out” intensity, but I’d rather get all of my intervals into the 630-700w range as opposed to the first few @ 750 and the last few at 400… that’s just me though.)

followed by:

10″ @ 0 watts, just coasting

repeat this pattern for 6-8 reps, giving you a 3-4′ block of intervals that looks something like:

20″ on
10″off
20″ on
10″ off
20″on
10″off
20″ on
10″off
20″ on
10″ off
20″on
—-

10′ recovery spinning,

repeat.

10′ cooldown

DONE

Interestingly, when I take the Average Power for each 2:50″ block of intervals I get a number that is on the high end of my VO2 max range. This makes the VO2 max boosting power of the Tabata interval even more understandable (you did read the article in the link, right?).

So, yes, these are tough physically and possibly mentally but for some reason they feel much easier than long SST/LT sessions do for me at this time of year AND a 45′ minute workout with some serious intensity seems just perfect for the demands of CX season, doesn’t it? Constant accelerations and re-accelerations seem to be a huge part of the challenge of
Cross racing, so in may ways, this seems like a good time of year to give this a shot.

So, these workouts make sense to me now because:

1. They’re new, interesting and fun, for me at least.
2. At this time of year, I got nothing to lose (except my endurance base, which doesnt bother me right now).
3. They should allow me to boost VO2max, which is the weakest part of my power curve. Also, boosting VO2max should boost ability to ride at sub VO2 max intensities (which would be Threshold intensity for all you astute power nerds). This may not be true, but that’s why I’m trying it now!
4. It should make me a stronger CX racer and racing stronger is one of the best ways to make racing more fun for me.

So, there’s my Tabata rant.

The plan is to do 2 tabata workouts per week (or possibly only 1 if I do a Cross race that week). And see how it goes. I’m hoping to do 6-8 tabata workouts over the next 3-4 weeks and then step away from them for a bit.

We’ll see how it goes.

Oh, and I plan on doing them on the CX rig, exclusively.

-L