[dave]

Word up.

Been reading some old OTE articles recently, and some stuff on t'internet about interval training. One of those things i always mean to do but was never disciplined enough to get round to it.

Just wondered if anyone here does it/has done it, and what you recon to it. :?:  Does it work, is it shit-hot, or shit?  Can i become a reyt knarly mutha? Any hot tips?    

Selecta.

[dobbin]

right - (please correct me if i'm wrong...) interval training in climbing is aimed at endurance mainly but can be geared to power-endurance. As this is a bouldering site then I'll share my interval training for bouldering ideas...

Find four circuits of varying difficulty, the easiest you should be able to lap, the hardest you should be maxed out but able to finish when fresh. Do a lap of the easy one, rest a couple of minutes, do another lap, rest again, lap the next one, rest, etc... you get the picture...

Interval training enables the athlete to improve the work load by interspersing heavy bouts of hard climbing with recovery periods of shorter length than you would rest were you trying to redpoint summat.

Please read the guru:- http://www.planetfear.com/climbing/training/neilgresham/ng_intervals.htm

It all depends for what you are aiming - this is not a good strategy for power!

[dave]

Cheers brudda - I was thinking of aiming it at power-stamina, which i think could be usefull on the green traverse-type boulder problems. plus its of course transferable to short sport routes come the summer. Have you used intervals then? did you find them to be effective?

[dobbin]

Run Tings... erm, whilst a leading exponent of knowing what I should be doing I almost always fall foul of doing what i would rather be doing - i.e. powerful bouldering of up to 5 moves!

When trying to get some fitness sorted for summer I did a bit and came on quite quickly - stamina seems to fall away faster than power/strength so if you stop doing your circuits then you loose your edge...