On Apr 21, 5:52*pm, Ed Miller wrote:
Here is a question I've had for some time, maybe someone can answer: In
doing maximum intensity intervals of say 3 minutes I start with a heart
rate of around 110 or 120 and struggle mightely to bring my heart rate
up to 175 or 180 in just 3 minutes, so that only a fraction of the 3
minutes is actually spent at goal. (my maximum ht rate is 186)
Naturally after I'm at the third or fourth interval its a bit easier
but still only a part of what I'm counting as the 3 minutes is spent
near maximum heart rate. Is this correct or should one be spending the
whole 3 minutes at goal and not even count the time leading up to it?

--
Ed Miller

Often with shorter VO2 max type intervals you need to rely more on you
RPE (rate of perceived exertion) than on your true HR. HR is more
important for LT (lactate threshold) intervals, because they are a
little longer and you're trying to target a fairly narrow HR range. I
usually only do 90 sec to 2 min max intensity intervals, because I
find that longer than that and I'm not really performing VO2 max work
(I'm holding back just a bit, not actually training VO2 max). Also,
full recovery between intervals is important in these workouts,
because you're not training your recovery speed (That's an LT
workout), you're training your VO2 max. Cheers.