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A Change Of Pace

Interval training can shake boredom and rattle the doldrums of ritual

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KEN LAMBERT Seen in a mirror's reflection, Hank Koerner and Marci Hart, front left and right, work out in Tija Petrovich's Vicious Cycle spin class, which uses interval training to strengthen both aerobic and anaerobic capacity.

YOU'RE LOGGING your time and miles, but you don't seem to be getting anywhere. You've hit a plateau, the wall or whatever cliché best describes your frustration and boredom.

So mix it up. Instead of locking onto the same droning rhythm or trying to go a half-mile longer, maybe you should consider shaking your body from its comfort zone once in a while. How about a weekly shot at interval training?

Essentially, interval training consists of flurries or bouts of short but intense activity punctuated by equally brief periods of low activity or rest. Research has shown that interval training improves both your aerobic and anaerobic capacity. (In the anaerobic stage, muscles lack sufficient oxygen to burn fuel, resulting in the production of lactic acid).

Your body adapts to the daily ritual you put it through, and its efficiency can cost you progress. So it can help to put yourself through different speeds, paces and variables. Spinning classes are noted for this. Elite athletes use interval training to prepare for events. Scott Jurek, who runs ultra-marathons, even does it to mix up his routine and challenge himself.

The training has many advantages. You can increase your anaerobic threshold — the point at which your muscles use more oxygen than your heart and lungs can deliver. Your heart muscle is strengthened. Some believe you can burn more fat and calories more quickly. But experts quickly add caution. Don't do interval training unless you are in good shape. And don't rely on it too much even if you are. Start with once a week as a change of pace. Work up to two times a week as your body begins to handle it better. As always, stay within your limits.

Tija Petrovich, owner of Seattle Fitness, a Pioneer Square health club, incorporates interval training in the Vicious Cycle class she leads once a week. She has her students perform short bursts of speed (15 seconds at 95 percent effort), pushing to an anaerobic threshold state, then an aerobic recovery phase (45 seconds at low effort).

"From a client's perspective, interval training burns a lot more calories in a shorter period of time, making it an attractive training idea," she says. "I do not recommend intervals for novices. Injuries can happen when people who are not used to interval training are not prepared for the physical demands of this.

"I personally use interval training as a part of my training. You can imagine that interval training is very demanding and can be hard on the body. After about 20 minutes, I want to stop."

Daniel Ball is a master personal trainer and instructor with Lake Washington Technical College's Personal Trainer Program. He says interval training, the ways competitive aerobic athletes use it, involves repeated, short efforts lasting from 30 seconds to five minutes performed just under race pace, or 85 to 95 percent of target heart rate. This generates aerobic benefits because each rest period is so brief that full recovery can't occur, forcing the stressed aerobic system to adapt.

"Whenever someone complains to me that they can't break 26 minutes for a 5K, I ask them how they have been training," says Ball. "They usually answer that they run three miles a day, three times a week . . . Interval training breaks this cycle and forces runners who want to improve their times to train more goal-specifically."

There also are degrees to interval training. If nothing else, consider varying your pace once in a while. If you're a walker, try going fast for 30 seconds, then falling back to an easy gait, then fast again. Do this four or five times in one stint. Or you can increase the intervals to a minute each. You might try it in the pool, if you have room. Swim hard one out of every third or fourth pool lengths. If you're on the treadmill, include short speed or elevation periods. How long and hard you make your bursts depends on your fitness.

Richard Seven is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff writer. He can be reached at rseven@seattletimes.com. Ken Lambert is a Seattle Times staff photographer.