Interval Training – Science and Application part 3 with prof. Paul Laursen | EP#163

• What is the cost in terms of fatigue, recovery time, overall stress, and injury risk of various types of intervals?
• How do factors like age, sex, and athletic ability and experience influence interval training?
• Practical application of HIIT in triathlon programming - what would be some example training weeks for long- and short-course triathletes? 
• The HIIT Science book and the course.

1:16  -

• Science and application of high intensity interval training: Solutions to the programming puzzle - is Paul's new book recently published, written with Martin Buchheit.
• Paul and Martin have also put together a course on high intensity interval training (HIIT) - it goes along with the book and takes it even further. 

4:02 -

• Sprint interval training are long sprints - the intensity is all out and it ranges from 20-30 seconds. 
  
  You need long recoveries between these to calm the metabolic system, generally 2-5 minutes. 
  
  You get a big response because it's a massive load on the whole body. 
• Repeated sprint training are shorter sprints (3-10 seconds), all out in nature - not typically used in triathlon but regularly used in team sports. 
  
  The recovery is also shorter, typically around 20 seconds.
• VO2 max intervals are for example 6x2 minute intervals, with 1-2 minute recovery. Using distance it may be 6x1km for example. 
  
  They're hitting a type 3 (anaerobic and aerobic) or type 4 (anaerobic system and neuro-muscular system) response.
• Short intervals are for example 7x30 on:30 off, with 2-4 minute recovery. This is typically above your VO2max. 

9:52 -

• Taking a hierarchy approach for the types of intervals (see previous episodes for more details on these), response 5 would be considered the most extreme, and response 1 is the least extreme.
  
  Sprint interval training is the most damaging, then repeated sprint training, then long intervals (VO2max) and short intervals would be the tamest. 
• Recovery also relates to the individual. 
  
  Certain individuals can progress to the higher ones and they become more sustainable, compared to someone just starting out and going straight for the extreme ones. 
• This is where the art of good coaching comes in - appreciating and understanding the individual nature of recovery. 
• If you're new to interval training it's best to start with short intervals, and work your way up the hierarchy. 
• The neuro-muscular response tends to be larger on the sprint intervals (type 5 response) and not always as bad on the central nervous system response.
• If you repeat short intervals enough and do them at a high enough intensity, you can still get a significant response from them. 

14:00 - 

Gender

• I don't really consider the gender when programming intervals - I don't see too many differences. 
• I'm aware of the slightly different metabolic responses you may have - e.g. girls tend to be slightly better fat burners than guys, however anaerobic training isn't affected by this much. 

Age

• Age really comes down to training age - you may not need to programme the training any different for someone in their 50's if they've been training for a long time, but you'd just expect possibly a slightly lower output. 
• Additionally, some young athletes with a young training age may not be able to do too much high intensity work. 

24:14 - 

• There's such a range in age-group athletes, from people trying to finish versus people competing at the high end. 
• Starting with a person who wants to finish the short distance triathlon, and maybe they're time-crunched and training less than 10 hours a week:
  
  In this case a good set of regular intervals of any kind is going to be beneficial. A 30:30 set may be just as beneficial as 2 minutes on/2 minutes off VO2 type intervals. 
• Once you transition to a 15-25 hour triathlete and polarised training starts to be more beneficial, then we may focus more on shorter intervals with high power versus longer intervals. 
• Generally we'd use shorter intervals for shorter distance and longer intervals for longer distance. 
• I like to have one HIIT workout per week in each discipline to start with. 
  
  The better the athlete gets and closer to race season, the more we'll add in - both in frequency and variety. 
  
  You might have a short interval one day, leaving time for recovery and then a long interval session the next day. 
• I would usually have more interval sessions in swimming, then cycling and the last being running as it has the largest neuro-muscular strain involved. 
  
  With running, you don't want to do too many too soon, and also you need to ensure you have enough time for recovery. 

28:58 - 

Swim

• I like to have a different focus on the swim each week, but there are 5 key sessions:
  
  In my elite athletes I like a strength set with paddles and bands (done in a HIIT format).
  
  Another day they'll be an emphasis on speed (sprint intervals/speed sets). These will be 25's or 50's with longer recovery between them.
  
  Another day, particularly in triathlon, you need a threshold set with longer intervals (400's).
  
  Another day will be a technique set. 
  
  The fifth key session would be in open water if at all possible. 
• If you're taking sets off, you'll probably take the open water set off first and add the technique session into another day if needed. 

Bike

• Again at an elite level, there are some key days I like to have:
  
  Firstly a strength, low cadence hill day. These would be more prolonged hill repetitions, ranging from 5-20 minutes. 
  
  We'd also include a short intervals session, progressing to longer intervals. 
  
  A good threshold day may be a crit race for a short distance athlete, or it might be a more long- to mid-zone work for an Ironman or 70.3 athlete. For example, 4x20 minutes at race pace. 
• Cyclists tend to do a lot of mid-zone work too, so it's important to include it the longer you go with races. 
• There's a good blog that Dan Plews has written about the pyramidial and polarised training profiles.
  
  Pyramidial is more Ironman/Tour de France athlete. The more you need the high end, e.g. sprint and Olympic athletes, the more you need a polarised plan. 
• Even in the polarised concept, your threshold will go up. You're still hitting the targets of what will raise an anaerobic threshold. 
  
  We have done lots of studies that show this is the case. 
• The key session you'll have with a sprint/Olympic athlete compared to longer distance would be a crit race.
  
  We always try and get these athletes into this type of race as their heart rate will be in the threshold zone.
• If your threshold is 200 watts, you could do 1 minute at 220 and 1 minutes at 180 which would be a great set to do for 5 minutes - hovering around your threshold. 

Run

• In running we have 4 key sessions: tempo, strength & endurance, intervals and long run. 
• To develop resillience a strength and endurance day is key. For example, easy running over hills. 
• Key run days are similar to cycling - progressing from short to long intervals. For example starting with 30:30's and progressing to 1km's, and then longer from there for long-distance athletes. 
• Having a long run will also form a key day, which develops endurance and resilience in the musculo-skeletal system. 
  
  For short course athletes, the long run is ideally at least up to 90 minutes (but you can start at 30 and progress it). 
  
  For long course athletes it's not too different, you may aim to go up to 2 hours 20. You don't need to run the full length of the marathon.
  
  However, long-course athletes may have more frequent run sessions - so still having high volume but split into shorter, more frequent runs. 
• Recovery runs can also be helpful for some athletes. 

• The Science and Application of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) website
  
  • The Book
  • The Course
• Interval Training - Science and Application part 1 with Paul Laursen | EP#128 
• Interval Training - Science and Application part 2 with Paul Laursen | EP#129 
• Designing interval training: 10 things you have to know | EP#139
• Designing interval training part 2: 10 MORE things you have to know | EP#146
  

Connect with Paul Laursen

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Hi! I'm your host Mikael,

I am a full-time triathlon coach and an ambitious age-group triathlete. My goal is podium at the Finnish national championships within the next few years.

I first started the website Scientific Triathlon in autumn 2015 as a passion project to share my learnings with a larger triathlon audience. Later on, in early 2017 I started the podcast That Triathlon Show. 

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