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KimFue@xxxxxxx wrote:

Historically fartlek came first. We anal Americans just adapted it to an 
oval track and made it more rigid ;-) .

What I do is probably more fartlek than the more anal interval training 
brother - although I do keep logs when I first start it with a horse. 
Since I have both deep sand and hills I can crank up the heart rate 
without a lot of stress on the legs. The sand is not a big deal since 
our horse grow up in the sand are are ridden in it from day one. A one 
mile gallop is a one mile gallop - independent of what you call it. When 
I do this I try to maintain the heart rate above 180. Note I said try 
since after awhile of interval training it can be difficult to get the 
heart rate up as high.

My routine depends a lot on the route I take in the forest and what I 
want to accomplish. A typical routine is trot on the flat, gallop the 
hills making sure the heart rate is above the chosen threshold (e.g., 
180, 195, etc.). At the top of the hills drop to a walk and measure how 
long it takes to drop back to 90 at a walk. That is my "recover." I 
would like it within two minutes. Another hill do it again. The shorter 
hills I will go faster - getting the heart rate up higher. On hills of 
say 1/4 mile we really fly. The longer hills, say a mile or more, I'll 
set the goals at 180 to 190.

I do it about once a week. As for as what it does, I'll tell you the 
story on the mare. In Oct of '94 we started training where we live now 
where we had hills and sand. When I started it on one particular hill of 
a mile length she made it about half way up the first time and was 
hitting 220. I backed off at that point. Within two months I could not 
get her above 195 at a pretty good gallop going up the same hill. By Feb 
I had to flat out run her up to get her in the 180 to 195 range. At an 
easy hand gallop she would run at about 175. She would recover within 
about a minute.

In Feb she eaisly did her first 100, more like 105 since I got us lost. 
I don't think we would have made it without the four months of 
intervals. The other thing it seems to do is put a super base on them 
that they don't tend to lose for quite awhile.

Truman


> So I guess the real question is this....how many endurance riders 
> actually include formal interval training in their conditioning 
> program?  I know many riders add galloping or speed work to their 
> program, like speed play or fartleks, but I really wonder how many do 
> actual formal, interval work. Also, does interval training and 
> fartleks give the same training effect as far as improving VO2max?  If 
> not, what is the benefit of each in regards to endurance riding?
>  
> So in regards to interval work with the horse.  What would one assume 
> is the max HR like 220 or 230 and then go with 85% max.  So do you run 
> the horse at a HR that is 85% for one minute  and the let them recover 
> for three minutes regardless of their HR recovery or do you 
> use dropping to a  certain HR as opposed to a timed recovery period.  
> Do you ever drop the recovery time between intervals or just increase 
> the number of intervals as fitness improves?  How many intervals is 
> ideal to start with and approximately what is the lowest number of 
> intervals to work up to to gain the most benefit in distance riding.  
> I have always heard that interval work once a week is sufficient but 
> would like to hear from others using interval work what frequency they 
> have found most beneficial.   Also, do you ever increase the distance 
> of the interval or do you just increase the number of intervals per 
> session or is the interval based only on time?
>  
> Should interval work be done as the only work out or is there any 
> benefit in incorporating it into longer riders.  For example, go on a 
> 10+ mile training ride (aerobic) and in the middle of that training 
> ride, like on a long grade, incorporate interval work for x number of 
> minutes and then continue on a regular with the aerobic training for 
> the rest of the ride?  Or should speed play/fartleks be the only speed 
> work done during longer rides?
>  
>  
> Just curious as how others incorporate speed work in their long 
> distance training.
>  
> Kim Fuess
> AERC #6648



--

"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. The opposite 
of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."    Niels Bohr 
-- Nobel Laureate, Physics




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