[JoelM]

I'm starting to do an hour of pyramid intervals on the trainer once a week. I've searched for info on the web and failed to come up with a decent regiment, so I put my own together that looks like this:

effort/recovery minutes
1/5
2/4
3/3
4/2
5/1
4/2
3/3
2/4
5/1

This seems like a good workout, but it isn't an absolute killer (should it be?) and the bike I use on the trainer is a whopping 6 speed road bike so I've only got 1-2 gears between recovery spinning and maximal effort. At the end of an hour my average speed is just below 20mph which is slower than I average on a constant workout. Anyone have any suggestions or comments? What works or doesn't work for you?

 

[kmoses]

Firel outlined a similar pyramid workout in his book. Except his goes 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 with recovery after intervals equaling the time of the preceding interval. IMO, they work ok. I like to combine them with tempo or endurance rides. I like 2 sets of 10 x 30 sec. on/30 sec. off intervals followed by 1 or 2 sets of 5 x 2 min on/2 min off intervals. My average speed is always lower on short interval work too.