F2 (Big Gear Climbs)

The things you have to do when you live in Minnesota and the weather will not cooperate. In order to do many of the workouts I need to simultate them indoors on the trainer. Acutally I don't mind all that much because I can carefully control the conditions and accurately monitor my output (via the HR monitor and Kurt Kinetic Trainer). These primary objective of this workout is to strengthen the "slow twitch" muscle fibers allowing them to carry more of the load during higher efforts such as climbing. The intervals are typically 1-2 minutes in length with a 3 to 5 minute recovery period between intervals.

Schedule
0 - 10 min warm up (13 -> 18 mph)
0:10 - 0:20 E2 warm up (18 mph, 210 Watts)
0:20 - 0:22 Interval #1 (24 mph, 400 Watts)
0:22 - 0:26 Recovery (12.5 mph, 100 Watts)
0:26 - 0:28 Interval #2 (24 mph, 400 Watts)
0:28 - 0:32 Recovery (12.5 mph, 100 Watts)
0:32 - 0:34 Interval #3 (24 mph, 400 Watts)
0:34 - 0:38 Recovery (12.5 mph, 100 Watts)
0:37 - 0:40 Interval #4 (24 mph, 400 Watts)
0:40 - 0:44 Recovery (12.5 mph, 100 Watts)
0:44 - 0:46 Interval #5 (24 mph, 400 Watts)
0:46 - 0:48 Recovery (12.5 mph, 100 Watts)
0:48 - 0:50 Interval #6 (24 mph, 400 Watts)
0:50 - 0:54 Recovery (12.5 mph, 100 Watts)
0:54 - 1:30 E2 (18.5 mph, 220 Watts)

The intervals went fairly well despite the fact that my stomach was very upset and I didn't feel very well all day. Once on the bike, however, I quickly got in the grove and the warm-up went well. The goal was to hold near 24 mph (400 watts) for each interval. The first 4 intervals went well although they were very intense and difficult to finish strong with the average speed around 23.5 (375 watts). I wasn't able to complete the fifth interval; stopping about 15 seconds short. For the final interval I reduced the speed down to 23 mph and had no problem completing it.