The research may be old, but is it still applicable? This article (https://coachsci.sdsu.edu/csa/vol71/astrand.htm) had me intrigued to try this for an ME workout. If you don’t want to read the article, it is basically saying that people had a greater training effect by doing 10″/10″ or 5″/5″ intervals compared to anything greater than that for economy.
This morning, I did that on the incline with surprisingly great results. Usually with a 55# pack (145# bodyweight), I slog up in 55-60 minutes with HR near AeT. It’s slow, I take the steps slow and it’s just not efficient. Today, it took 1:15 using 10″/10″ intervals, for 37′ moving time (which is near my AeT unweighted time). I felt very strong the whole way, it felt like a much more powerful training effect with the same effort in my legs as just slowly slogging. Every step just felt more powerful, compared to slow repetitions. My HR was still bordering AeT the whole time, but it was my legs that felt it, not any hard breathing.
I plan to start trialling this more once/week. Any thoughts on these types of intervals for ME work? I was reading a post and one of the Scott’s was saying he had his fast twitch athletes doing shorter intervals for ME work, and then after reading this article, the plan was set in place. Could this type of training be a more effective approach for fast twitch athletes and ME work?
