Billat's 30-30 workout

Rickshaw · Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2005 1:32 pm

I'd been meaning to give the Billat 30-30 VO2Max workout a try for a while, and today I finally did it. The workout is 30 seconds at your 1-mile race pace, then 30 seconds at half that speed (an easy jog), repeat until exhaustion. The "30 seconds" part sounded pretty good, but the "until exhaustion" part sure didn't.

This morning I searched out a new track where the coach wouldn't chase me away, and gave the 30-30 a try. At my 6:00 mile race pace, a single 30-30 interval added up to 200 meters, which made it easy to measure on the track. At first the workout felt too easy, but it quickly got tougher. After about 10 repetitions (1.25 miles), each speed segment felt like it would be my last. But after 30 seconds of slow jogging, I always felt barely good enough to do one more. And so it went... I ended up doing 24 repetitions total, or 3 miles. To be honest, I didn't really push all the way until exhaustion, but I was sure pooped. I guess if somebody put a gun to my head, I might have managed another mile.

It's hard to say if this workout was better than regular VO2Max intervals, since I don't know how much it benefitted me. But I do think it was a little easier to last until the end of the workout than with long intervals, and it definitely kept my HR (and presumably my VO2) at a constantly elevated rate much better than long intervals with long rest periods.

Anybody else try the 30-30's yet?