Today another sub one our indoor workout
session it's super hard and will get you
super sharp for any event coming up I
call this long the alarm is blunt knife
interval session why the blunt knife
well it sort of has a serrated edge to
it with the overview and at the end you
will not feel very sharp at all you've
got a nice nice there's a nice first up
what I'll cover those how to save this
file down and put it into your custom
workout file onto it so you can get
stuck into it on both Windows and Mac
you'll need to save the VW o files zws
standing for Swift workout into your
documents or My Documents Swift workouts
directory so I'll put a link below for
where you can pull down this file but
I'll run you through a quick example
here so right clicking the link here
save link as and I'm putting that into
document Swift workouts we hit save so
the next time you start Swift the
workout itself will pop up under custom
workouts right here so there's my Tinky
one from the other day and here's a
blunt knife session
ok I'll click on edit there so we can
talk about the session as a whole 46
minutes and 40 seconds so it comes in
under the hour perfect to cram in in the
morning lunch time if the evening maybe
even twice in a day if you're that
hardcore but under the hour so you can
just cram it right in which is the whole
reason why a lot of us do cycle indoors
so first up ten minutes free ride your
choice of warm up spin the legs maybe
swim in a few harder efforts I usually
put in about a minute or so of hard work
there I load the legs I spin the legs
just getting ready for what's coming up
into eight minutes at your FTP your FTP
not mine not someone else's your FTP
what you should be able to hold for a
random at the hour so it shouldn't be
easy you should have to work for it in
the last three or four minutes or so but
nothing you can't do then straight into
the fund this is one hundred and fifty
percent of your FTP for twenty seconds
the way I usually attack these is the
first five seconds put it in a bigger
gear out of the saddle
get the gear turning get it up and
running and sit back down to fifteen
seconds I'll show you what that looks
like on the graph
a few minutes but for here 20 seconds
150 percent and then into 40 seconds
free ride so have a cup of tea you have
a cup of coffee a piece of toast
whatever you like during that 40 seconds
just turn kick the legs turning but you
don't have to hit any certain wattage so
you won't be punished if you don't hit
say 100 watts or 50 what you can just do
whatever you like during this session as
long as you're ready for the next one
which comes in 40 seconds can't exactly
the same thing again so 20 seconds 150
percent out of the saddle get the gear
right get the breathing right get your
technique right bang into that 150
percent and again 40 seconds 20 so
repeat that five times and then happy
days five minutes of whatever you like
just tick it along and then you do the
reverse of that backing into the
Sprint's same deal as before up out of
the subtle if you like that's where how
you get the gear up and running and
spinning 20 seconds on 40 seconds of 20
seconds on repeat times five the last
one 20 seconds at 150 percent bang into
five minutes just over your FTP if the
numbers are right you're going to be
working pretty hard
but it's quite rewarding if you can get
through to the end of that it's the 5
minutes 20 at the end which is money you
put in the bank so later on so that is a
20 seconds hard out that's your 10 20
second interval bang into five minutes
over your FTP just a little bit over
you're going to be working pretty hard
because that's the team you've put in
the legs already and in the lungs you're
going to feel it and this is why we call
it the blunt knife you're not going to
feel very sharp at all if you don't get
through it set it as a benchmark if you
got one minute into that last session or
two minutes or three minutes a next time
to get all the way through or just over
the next few weeks budget out a little
bit and get right at the end it's quite
rewarding what you can do this if you
find it too easy go doing yourself an
FTP test if it's still too easy to bump
the numbers up you can totally customize
all these workouts so once you get
through that 10 minutes free ride again
not hitting any numbers at the end there
this is stressful enough getting through
I don't want people to have to hit
numbers even in recovery recovery
shouldn't be about hitting numbers or
zones it should be just ticking the legs
over getting yourself ready for the next
effort because the efforts are where it
counts and good recovery is also
important so the session comes at you
pretty quick and that last five minutes
again a mental gain a lot of
Scout's I do their physically hard but
they also make you really focus on your
mental game that's the breathing it's
how you're feeling it's the positive
talk to get through it because I can
guarantee if you're feeling bad and
you've got negative thoughts those watts
will come down so there's the overview
of the session I'll put a link below so
you can download it yourself and give it
a go on your setup at home last time
people said they wanted to see me
perform these workouts and see if I can
get through it to see what it was all
about well I'm not going to put a camera
in my face as I'm drooling and looking
very ugly but a lot uglier than I am now
on the bike and just it's just not a
pretty sight I did however screencap my
virtual self doing this workout so let's
run through that now and see how I went
so starting up my ten-minute free ride
here on the London course on Swift you
can see the name of the activity there
or names of the workout llamas blunt
knife and there's an overview of the
session there the handy thing there as
well it's a finish time so 43 minutes
there knowing I've only got 16 minutes
of work it's a pretty good mind game to
start with it's only 16 minutes on the
bottom left there you can see my minute
warm-up with a little bit of a jam at
the end back into free ride now into my
8 minutes at FTP well around about what
I think my FTP is at the moment don't
tell anyone but I haven't done an FTP
test for a while so up Foxhill eight
minutes and 175 heart rate so I'm
working pretty hard coming to the end of
that eight minutes
you can see me go to the arch and whack
into the first twenty second interval
out of the subtle they're well digitally
out of the subtle and physically out of
a total as well for five seconds I then
take a seat myself whack at the UH
nagira to as the wattage flattened out
now what happens with these sessions in
eggnog is initially the bodies take a
few seconds to kick in so you can grab a
few gears to load the legs and about
five to eight seconds later it'll sort
of even out and you can see that with a
graph there so the first five seconds of
spiking it comes it dips down and then
flattens back out that just seems to be
how odd mode operates the shorter
interval twenty seconds isn't too bad so
you get there here we go again up out of
the saddle so you'll see me spike the
power here 5:39 so it's over target and
AG mode will sort of back the power off
there we go to 450 and then it brings it
back up to where it needs to be so
overall you still get that one hundred
and fifty percent in add mode you can
see the heart rate slowly climb their
cadence wise whatever you like I don't
actually sit or prescribe any cadence I
don't even look at my cadence to be
honest I just get it done so here's the
arched you'll either love or hate
depending on how you're feeling at the
time this one I didn't even know if I
was going to get through it so 20
seconds at that hard leg loading effort
of 150 percent FTP straight into five
minutes a little bit above your FTP so
here you'll take takes about a minute or
so for me to find my feet so to speak at
this effort and really know where it's
at but the heart rate up to one one
eighty one and it's just about getting
it done and watching the seconds tick
down Berger mode will take you above and
below and above and below as it averages
things out and you can see right in at
the end I'll just fast forward here
through to about a minute 45 you can see
at the bottom there I'm going to the red
and the orange the red in your different
zones I'm not one for zones as such I
just know the numbers that I work out
but you can see the difference down sort
of operating a little bit at the end
into the last 40 seconds it kind of
hurts
remembering we've got the initial eight
minutes of FTP into the legs and we had
ten 22nd effectively sprint efforts in
the legs already 20 seconds to go and
you can see here I'm dipping up and down
quite a lot but the finish line is there
so I get the visual cues really really
help it's just head down now I'm in the
herb mode so I just need to pedal
cadence of 90 heart rate 183 184 you can
see along the bottom there in the last
minute or two it gets pretty ugly for me
hooking the corner and the finish line I
think I just stopped pedaling after this
one let's see look at the cadence 56
year oh yeah I stopped for a little bit
that hurt but we did get through it
and a screen shot for good measure so
you can see the last couple of interval
0 1 2 3 4 5 straight into that 5 minutes
above FTP one solid workout and the
session overview is exactly what we
designed in the workout editor so we've
got the 8 minutes right in the zone FDP
banging into those sprints and what I
like to see there is right at the end
185 BPM my highest heart rate right at
the internet last minute that's where I
was working the hardest so there we have
it the blunt knife interval session
where of 46 minutes 30 of that is doing
whatever you want to do free ride sounds
easy doesn't it download it let me know
here you go