Hello,
I have a few questions concerning Athletica’s MIT 30/30 workouts (running):
- I read elsewhere that the hr during the rest-intervals shouldn’t drop more than 5bpm. However in Athletica’s plan the 30 sec. rest seems to be fairly “easy.” What is the scientific explanation for either approach?
- How important is the “30”? I used to do hill sprints every now and then on the same hill that I used today for the 30/30 and was surprised it is almost the perfect length. However, it’s a bit longer so in the past it would have been more like a 50 sec uphill. I always did the recovery by “feel” (meaning I would start the next sprint uphill when my breathing wasn’t as laboured anymore). Today I also took a bit longer rest after one interval because I didn’t feel like the 30 sec off was enough.
- In another article I read that "1 minute intervals are too short to reach VO2Max) - but in athletica this WO is labeled as VO2Max Workout. So I am confused now as to which energy system this should primarily target.
Thanks a lot 
Nicole
P.S. I noticed, since I included “hill” in my feedback the training plan now features uphill sprints, instead of the other interval workout that was planned for next week. Love this!
Hey @NicoleLB85
- The purpose of rest intervals are to recover and ensure that you can push it hard on the work intervals. The work interval is the most important part of HIIT, after all. You should in fact let your legs do minimal work (spinning just lightly) and let your heart rate and breathing recover from the hard work! Actually I would not pay too much attention to your heart rate at all when doing HIIT work, as there’s an inherent “lag” in your heart rate response.
- As I mentioned in the first point, the work duration is the most important. If you need more recovery, go ahead and take it. How important is exactly 30 sec? Honestly your body will not know if you are doing 26sec vs 30sec, but you can for sure run/bike harder for 20sec vs. 50sec “all-out”. I have a hill that takes me about 30sec to run up all-out, but I take about 40-45sec to return and I take that extra 10-15sec happily to ensure the next run uphill is as max as I can at the moment.
- I would recommend you take a look at this blog to understand why Athletica is prescribing weekly 30/30 session. At the end of the article you can find a list of references if you want to take a deep dive into the research behind it. From my own experience, coming from the traditional 4-5 min Vo2,max efforts that left me exhausted for days, I’m absolutely loving the exhilarating shorter 30/30 or 40/20 as I am ready to go again the day after. And my VO2max has increased by 5 mL/kg/min in 3 years that I’ve been following Athletica’s training plan. I’m now 46yo(vo2max declines as we age) so this method is clearly working for me.
Doing the HIIT work on hill is a great way to reduce the risk of injuries and also increases your leg strength. Great to hear you are happy with the change.
Please let me know if you have any other questions or comments on what I just wrote…
What’s your race coming up?
MJ
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Thanks @Marjaana. That put my mind at ease when it comes to how exact I need to be with the timing. And thanks a lot for the additional ressources! I have never done any structured interval training before (just the hill sprints but I was going more by “feel”) and reading the article about how “too long rest intervals” and “too long intervals” are “useless” got me a bit worried.
I still have 3 races this year: German Trail Championships on October 5th (which I now selected as my A race, since I had to cancel my big one in August b/c I injured myself during the training race for this in July…). I have signed up for another trail race on Sept 7th (mainly for training, poles and nutrition). However on Nov 2nd I have Kullamannen in Sweden (100k rel. flat).
I’m a bit unsure though how to approach training & the races though (meaning I’m not even sure yet, which race to focus on or if I just try to race each one…). I had a few training races earlier this year, but never raced to my potential as I was going into them tired (e.g. the week before 50K I ran 180km’s) and / or didn’t give it my all (June race, where I fell & got the injury, but still placed well…) b/c I was so focused on the August race.
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Kullamannen!!! Nice one! That’s in my bucket list for sure 
If you have never really done consistent interval training you will notice big gains following Athletica’s training plan.
Hope you can heal fast for your races, they all sound like wonderful adventures.
Definitely ease up training for the your German champs and Kullamannen two weeks before each so you feel fit and fresh and not fatigued from training. Which training plan are you following in athletica? Usually taper starts 2 weeks off the race. Typically during taper you would keep training frequency but lower volume and increase intensity. You may have to play around a little bit and find what works for you. But I would say running 180k a week before a race is perhaps a bit of an overkill. You want to show up at the start line like a hyped up teenager ready to bounce, 
full of energy, happy and ready to find out who you are
We recorded a podcast episode on taper a few weeks ago. You can find it here
Best, Mj
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Thanks @Marjaana I already listened to the taper episode.
I know…but I wanted to do the early races as training runs and thought it would be a good idea to run them really fatigued so see how I’d feel at mile 160 of the 215 miles I had planned LOL.
I just signed up or Athletica again now after the 2 weeks Trial, and since I love high volume and my body adapts well to it, I will select this plan (if that’s what you meant). But I will adapt it as I go - especially the S&C sessions, because I train with kettlebells too and prefer that training over the barbell & dumbell stuff.
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