The Optimal Intervals for Stimulus ...?!?!

length of the interval really doesn't tell you anything. at what pace? with how much rest?

for 10k, i like mile reps at race pace or a ladder

for 5k, i like 1000-1200m reps at race pace or a ladder

for 3k, i like 800m reps at pace or a ladder

for 1500, i like 400-600m reps at race pace or a ladder

for 800, i like 300-400m reps at race pace or a ladder

I probably wouldn’t do a workout with MULTIPLE reps longer than the ones i listed at race pace.

Ex: Near a peak, I might do 1x1km at 1500m pace and then some 200s after. But I have never liked doing like 3-4x800 at mile pace or 3-4x1k at 3k pace. I find those sessions too hard for training - i would rather just race or time trial at that point

I have read interesting stuff from a swim coach called Maglischo. He points to some research that shows the aerobic capacity of different types of muscle fibres and what training might be most efficient for each. I have come to some of my own principles of efficient training so far:

1. Slow twitch are best developed by slower than or at threshold paces (from easy-moderate to threshold)

2. Fast twitch are best developed by as fast paces as possible at minimum 30s rep duration. Such training is very efficient at developing mithocondria and lactate buffering capacities. the faster, the more of the fast twitch fibres are trained aerobically. Short volume gives high rewards, but f course this requires recovery time. 5-10x 30s all out with 5min rest will work, but also a high number of 30-60s with 30s rest, or even 15-30s reps with 15s rest. If the rest is too short, the pace goes down and the training adaption goes down (but the lactate clearance training increases)

3. lactate clearance (moving lactate from the fast twitch to the slow twitch for energy use) need to be trained and I guess paces from threshold and up to VO2 max is well suited since one can do a lot of work without needing "too much" recovery

I try to do a lot of "easy" thresholds for the slow twitch, 40s hard hill repeats weekly, 5x30s all out with 5min rest weekly and short intervall work (20s/20s up to 60s/30s) at an effort above threshold "effort" and below VO2 max "effort". Short to get the pace high and not get too high lactate levels.

I see VO2 max as just a number really with no relevance. If i have a high number of mithocondria in my muscle cells and I can activate a large part of the muscle for long enough, I can get a high VO2 max reading comparing inhale/exhale. The key is not the high reading, but the actual number of mithocondria and how well they can get O2 from the blood. VO2 max pace is just the pace that we can hold for the time it takes for us to get the highest reading on a test (5-7min). I guess that if I could measure the actual O2 uptake (and not the delayed reading from inhale/exhale) in all my muscle fibres when I did a 60s all out sprint I would anticipate I get a higher reading. When I run for 7 minutes there is a part of my muscle fibres I cannot get activated so the reading would be sub-maximal.

+1. Bingo!

You haven't indicated the purpose of the interval workout. It's like asking what piece of lumber is best for building a house.

flvmmox wrote:

length of the interval really doesn't tell you anything. at what pace? with how much rest?

+1 :)