Chapter 8: Cardio Crash Course 123
Interval training: With interval training,you alternate short, fairly
intense spurts of exercise with periods of relatively easy exercise. For
example, say you’re out bicycling. After warming up for 15 minutes or
so, you may try cycling all-out for 30 seconds and follow this with a few
minutes of easy pedaling until your heart rate slows down a little, to about
120 or fewer beats per minute. Then you do another tough 30-second
interval, and so on. In essence, you’re switching between the low and
high ends of your target zone.
When you first try interval training, keep the high-intensity periods
short — 15 to 30 seconds. Follow these periods with at least three times
as much active rest (so, 45 to 90 seconds). Active restmeans that you
keep moving between intervals instead of stopping dead. So after you do
that 30-second bike sprint, pedal slowly for about 90 seconds. You may
need even more recovery than that, especially if you’re a beginner. As
you become more accustomed to higher levels, you can increase the
length of the high-intensity intervals as you decrease the length of the
low-intensity intervals. Eventually, you can aim for a 1:1 hard-to-easy
ratio, measuring intervals in terms of time or distance.Fartlek: This charming word means “speed play” in Swedish. Fartlekis
basically interval training without an exact measure of time or distance.
You just do your intervals whenever you feel like it. You may try sprinting
to every other telephone pole. Or set your sights on that horse standing
in the field down the road and pick up your pace until you reach him.
Uphill battles: You can add hills to walking, biking, running, or skating
workouts. You have to work harder when you come to a hill, but ulti-
mately you’re rewarded with extra strength and stamina. As a bonus,
going uphill can burn twice as many calories as exercising on flat land.
One fun drill is to do hill repeats. Find a long, fairly steep hill and then
sprint up it and jog down it, repeating this sequence four to eight times.
Here’s a trick to make hill workouts seem easier: Pick a landmark that’s
partway up the hill, such as a bush or mailbox. Pretend that you have a
rope in your hands and cast it over your landmark. Now pull yourself up
the hill with your imaginary rope. When you reach your landmark, cast
your rope on something farther up the hill and keep doing this until you
reach the top.Tempo workouts: Tempo workoutshelp you learn to move faster. During
a tempo drill, you move at a pace that you consider challenging but not
brutal, keeping that pace for four to ten minutes. Do that a couple of
times each workout. In between, exercise at your normal pace. If you’re
new to tempo training, begin with short tempos and gradually increase
their length. Anyone training for a local road race or a bike-a-thon will
find tempo work helpful.