Interval Training - how much is too much?

[Big Fat Fishy]

When preparing for a competition, how much hard interval training should you do in a week?

Is every day too often? Every other day?

I'm not talking about very long workouts, only 20-30min total time. But should I mix up slow or steady work with the interval training or just sticke with the hard, fast stuff to max out my time? (less than 3 weeks left).

[Nosmo]

I was going to say 4% of your total mileage and 2 days a week, but then I saw that you have less then three weeks left.

Given how close you are to competition then 3 interval sessions a week is plenty. The interval sessions should be very intense. If you do them correctly you will not recover enough to do them on consecutive days. 3 interval sessions per week is OK short term but you will burn out if you continue doing that much you will burn out.

Also to do them correctly you should be doing 20 minute warm ups, and it will take an additional 20-40 minutes or more to do the intervals plus some time to cool down.

[Big Fat Fishy]

Thanks for the advice.

20min of warm-up? I guess I'm not doing this "properly", because my workout is often over by the 20min mark!

Oh well, the world needs novices too.

[Nosmo]

So what are you training for and what workouts have you been doing?

[Big Fat Fishy]

Mostly I've been training for general fitness, but I was considering entering the CIRC so I decided to do some interval work and get my speed up.

Most prior workouts were of the Pyramid or Stair variety, going for 34-44min, 2-3 times a week.

For the past weekand a half it's been almost every day, and mostly short intervals. So 6x1min on, 1min off, or 3x2min on, 2min off with 4 min warm up and cool down. So about 20min a pop.

[Nosmo]

Sounds like you've been doing something reasonable. Stairs/Pyramid is smart if you are not doing a warm up. At least you've been doing some warm up on the intervals. Your total interval time 6 minutes is short. SO I can see why you may have been able to do many consecutive days of those.

To do well in the CIRC, you need to know how to pace the 2K. Best way is to actually do some 2K's and see how fast you are. However there is not much time for that so I'd recommend concentrating on 4x1000m with 5 minute off (easy paddle). You should be able to do that at the same as your 2K pace. All the intervals should be the same pace or slightly faster as you go along. The first two should seem relatively easy, the third mentally hard and the fourth physically very hard (but perhaps easier mentally then the thrid) even though they are done at the same pace.
This should give you a very good idea of how to pace yourself for the 2K. Do the first 1000m of the race at exactly the same pace as you can do 4x1000m-do not go faster. Then you can bring up the pace slightly if you feel OK. Then really bring up the pace for the final 500 if you can.

[romad63]

I asked this exact question of my coach last night as I am training for the Crash B's and have a bit over a month left.

His response - plan on 5 days a week which will consist of

a weekly 2k at race pace
2 interval sessions (these will be varied but should be very hard)
2 long sessions at slower pace (in my case will prolly be 60 minute sessions at 18-20 SPM)

the week before Crash B's I'll taper down. That will be the plan I follow time will tell if it works

[Big Fat Fishy]

Thanks for the advice. You're right, I think I need some longer intervals with more total time.

I'll try the 4x1000m workout. That sounds tough, but will be a good gauge of whether or not I can hold my notional race pace for a full 2k.

And I agree on pacing. Better to go out steady and try to pop it a bit at the end. I would rather split negative than fly&die. At least, that's the plan.

Romad63, I like your coaches plan as well but I don't think I have enough time left to mix up intervals with long workouts. That should have been last week, or a couple weeks before. Best of luck to you at the Crash B's.