I have gone over this subject many times before but it can never get enough attention as the evidence is ever growing in support of interval training as a solid training regimen for endurance based sport. Here are two articles that are very interesting reads on this very subject. Post any comments you have.

Aerobic Gains: Sprint vs. Endurance Training
Dr. Stephen Cheung, Ph.D
PezCycling News

Whether it's tapering and peaking for a key event, a busy schedule or the approaching winter, we often need to ramp down the volume of training but worry about the loss of endurance capacity. Can short bursts of high intensity training help to maintain our endurance?

Mixing intensity

It has been a long-standing argument in both laboratory exercise research and coaching circles: How much cross-transfer is there between high-intensity training and endurance performance? And how does this happen? For a long time, the two extremes have been thought of as being mutually exclusive. Like the wings of an aircraft, if one goes up, the other must go down.

However, we find that adding high-intensity training during the off-season appeared to improve endurance performance even in elite athletes. Specifically, the survey suggested that efforts near or beyond power output at VO2max were most beneficial overall, possibly because they stimulated all the major metabolic pathways (alactic, anaerobic and aerobic.)

to finish reading click here...

Endurance Training: Intervals vs Long-Slow/Steady-Distance
Kurt J. Wilkens, RKC

Endurance Training goes by many names and takes many forms. If you spend a considerable amount of time in so-called ‘health clubs’, it’s likely “cardio” (probably the most popular terminology in general); cardio often involves a treadmill or an exercise bicycle. If you’re a woman, I would imagine you have, on occasion, referred to it simply as “aerobics”; aerobics are usually done in some type of dance class. If you’re an athlete, or at least athletically-inclined, you probably know it as “conditioning”, or, if your athletic interests take a decidedly Eastern European bent, it may even be “General Physical Preparation”; depending on your particular athletic pursuit, conditioning/GPP may have you running a lot and doing many, many bodyweight exercises. My personal favorite, and the nomenclature that we prefer at Integrated Conditioning, is ‘work capacity’; work capacity is typically developed via the use of various ‘weighted’ protocols, such as kettlebells (H2H drills, TAPS multi-level drills, etc.) and strongman implements (tire flip, sandbag carry, etc.).

People will typically perform their Endurance Training for one or more of the following reasons: heart health, fat loss, and/or improved physical performance.

Other than for occasional inclusion during specific periods or phases in an athlete’s training program, most people generally (I realize it’s wrong to generalize, but generalities are not always wrong) seem to think of Long-Slow/Steady-Distance (LSD) work as the best/most-effective-for-everything/only type of Endurance Training worth doing. This type of exercise has been around for a very long time, and it still persists to this day – even in spite of the mounting evidence that indicates that there may be a far better way to get your Endurance Training (no matter the reason you are performing it).

(In all fairness, interval training is receiving a little more ‘press’ in the fitness community, but certainly not near what it deserves. I’m hoping that this article will open the eyes and expand the possibilities of at least one person who hasn’t already considered switching from LSD to intervals.)

LSD training, also often referred to as Steady-State aerobic exercise, is “steeped in tradition”, and anything with so much history behind it is going to be difficult to overcome. People often spout that useless rhetoric about how “… it’s worked in the past, it will work now! Why should I do it any differently?”

to finish reading click here...


Trevor Win'E Memorial Challenge
For those of you participating in the challenge the workout will begin at 9 AM so plan on being at the gym between 8:30 and 8:45 to begin warming up. Wear your CrossFit Omaha shirts unless you are the Spitting Llamas, who had special shirts made up. Those of you that are not participating are encouraged to come cheer, count reps, and of course get a workout in at 10 AM as we will hold a regular class at that time.


WOD
Rest Day

Use this time to rest the body up as well as coming up with a solid strategy for your team to complete the challenge.