How much should you rest in between intervals of a classic vo2max workout? 1:1 work to recovery? What do you think?
How much should you rest in between intervals of a classic vo2max workout? 1:1 work to recovery? What do you think?
Makes no difference as long as you run whatever you planned in that zone.
SOH wrote:
How much should you rest in between intervals of a classic vo2max workout? 1:1 work to recovery? What do you think?
equal rest is pretty standard. you can have the rest too short which burns you out - try to avoid that pitfall and keep the rest around equal.
"Makes no difference as long as you run whatever you planned in that zone."
Ditto
Maybe wear a heart rate monitor for one workout, or at least a few reps, to get something resembling an objective measure of when you have recovered (i.e. your heart rate has dropped back down to a rest-like zone)? It's gonna be different for everyone. Once you get the general idea for yourself you can toss the HRM.
It depends on the goal of your workout. If you're preparing for a peak race at 3k or 5k distance, which are run at close to VO2max pace, then short recovery is better to simulate the specific demands of that event.
If you're doing these workouts further away from a peak even that will be run at a significantly different pace (either faster or slower), then total time in the zone is more important. It's important to clarify, however, that when people talk about being "in the zone" for VO2max intervals, they're talking about it from the perspective of energy systems and physiological events that are taking place inside your body, rather than absolute pace (which is more important when you're close to a race). Just because you're running at your vdot pace doesn't mean that you're immediately at maximum oxygen uptake. This is why I like to keep rest slightly shorter than 1:1 if I'm doing 400s. When the recovery is too long, you're not actually hitting the state you want to hit until late in the interval. Incomplete recoveries ensure that you hit that state soon after you start.
By contrast, for longer intervals like 1ks or 1600s, recovery times doesn't matter so much because you'll get plenty of time in the zone regardless. I've moved towards doing very long active recoveries (so the HR doesn't get too low). For example, if I'm doing mile repeats at 5 minute pace, I might jog an 8 minute mile between reps. The advantage to this approach is that you can do more total reps. Where you might max out at 4 or 5 with a 3-5 minute rest, You might get in 6 or even 7 when you take a longer recovery. That ultimately means more total time spent at VO2max.
800 dude, your mile reps example is flawed. More rest means less time at vo2max. That's pretty well understood.
justsomeoldcoach wrote:
800 dude, your mile reps example is flawed. More rest means less time at vo2max. That's pretty well understood.
You must not be very good at math.
800 dude wrote:
It depends on the goal of your workout. If you're preparing for a peak race at 3k or 5k distance, which are run at close to VO2max pace, then short recovery is better to simulate the specific demands of that event.
If you're doing these workouts further away from a peak even that will be run at a significantly different pace (either faster or slower), then total time in the zone is more important. It's important to clarify, however, that when people talk about being "in the zone" for VO2max intervals, they're talking about it from the perspective of energy systems and physiological events that are taking place inside your body, rather than absolute pace (which is more important when you're close to a race). Just because you're running at your vdot pace doesn't mean that you're immediately at maximum oxygen uptake. This is why I like to keep rest slightly shorter than 1:1 if I'm doing 400s. When the recovery is too long, you're not actually hitting the state you want to hit until late in the interval. Incomplete recoveries ensure that you hit that state soon after you start.
By contrast, for longer intervals like 1ks or 1600s, recovery times doesn't matter so much because you'll get plenty of time in the zone regardless. I've moved towards doing very long active recoveries (so the HR doesn't get too low). For example, if I'm doing mile repeats at 5 minute pace, I might jog an 8 minute mile between reps. The advantage to this approach is that you can do more total reps. Where you might max out at 4 or 5 with a 3-5 minute rest, You might get in 6 or even 7 when you take a longer recovery. That ultimately means more total time spent at VO2max.
I agree with nearly all of this.
About 3-4 weeks before the first major championship race, we drop the total volume of VO2max work by ~15-20% and drop the recovery period. Where we might have done 5-6 x 1000m @3:00 with 3:00 recoveries in previous weeks, we would go to 4-5 x 1000m @3:00 with 2:00 recoveries. These tend to be the hardest workouts of the season. There is clearly an important physical component to the workouts, but the reason for dropping the rest is as more psychological than it is physical. I would not do this with an athlete than hadn't been hitting on all cylinders recently - they are unlikely to handle the workout well, which greatly reduces the likelihood of any potential psychological benefits. For those athletes I would stick with the longer rest intervals or would shorten the run interval accordingly to reduce the rest interval.
Earlier in the season, rather than reducing the rest interval, I would increase the length of the run interval for additional training stimulus. For total volume.
We generally don't exceed 8% of weekly mileage in a VO2max workout. The exception would be a low-mileage newbie who would usually do at least 3200m of VO2max work even if they were running less than 25 mpw.