January 1 and I’m back on the bike. With 26 degree F tempertures and gusty winds, it was an indoor training session.
Just a year ago, I wrote about my first experiments with 8 second intervals. There was a buzz about a publication from Australia showing that very short high intensity interval training was effective training both for improving fitness and weight loss.
What I liked about it was that it was a relatively easy way to get my work levels up to high levels rapidly on the bicycle trainer in a way that was hard work but seemed easier to achieve and maintain.
Interestingly on the bike today I didn’t get up into as high a heart rate zone today as I did a year ago. It felt like a mismatch between aerobic fitness and leg strength. The effort I was able to put at the pedals wasn’t enough of a demand to really push my heart rate up.
Unfortunately it may not be due to improved fitness but rather loss of power from being off the bike for a few months. I think this workout will be become a weekly staple for a while, so I’ll be looking for rapid improvement as I build back muscle strength specificity on the bike.