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Hi,

I am forever prodding at things to see whether they could work better. Once I started paying proper attention to my energy and to feeling good, plenty shifted, and my training shifted with it. For years I was a runner. These days I cycle, partly because my joints much prefer it, partly because someone gave me a mountain bike in orange and turquoise, retro as anything, exactly my colours.

I come home, see it standing there and I am already looking forward to the next ride. With running it was the same story: bright turquoise trainers, and every time they catch my eye I want to be out in them. My inner child, it turns out, can be bribed with my favourite colours. Silly? Probably. It works, which is the part I care about. Is purple your favourite colour? Then go and get yourself that cool purple bike!

I used to love wrecking myself. Since the menopause, though, heaping more stress on top is not clever, so I train differently now. Which is when I came across a study that had asked more or less that question: one group rode steadily for 90 minutes, the other went flat out for 3 minutes in total.

In the group doing the sprints, a hundred times as much changed in the blood as in the group training steadily for 90 minutes. These are the substances your muscles use to put your liver, your fat tissue and your blood vessels to work.

I turned it into a session and have done it a handful of times now. Honestly? 30 seconds of sprinting is dead easy. You go all out, you count along, and then you get to ease off again straight away. Six times, four minutes apart, and the rest of the half hour is warming up and cooling down. You can absolutely do this, and it is good fun on top!

FREE WITH THIS EDITION Your sprint session The whole plan as a PDF: the warm-up, the 3-step build-up and the chart to keep beside your bike. And on the blog you will find the guided 38-minute audio, recorded by me, with music that moves with you. I count you into every sprint; all you have to do is pedal or run. Download the PDF Rather listen straight away? Put the session on your phone →

What to watch out for

Outdoors, plan your route first. You do not want to be 30 seconds into a sprint as a set of lights, a junction or a crowded stretch comes up. Traffic comes first, always: if something comes at you, wave that sprint off and take the next one. Indoors it is simpler. And going flat out sends your blood pressure up sharply for a short while, so speak to your doctor first if you are on medication, have a heart condition or are pregnant.

Let's go!
Tanja

PS Twice a week is plenty, at least 48 hours apart. Your usual outing can carry on alongside it; this does not replace it, it is a different kind of stimulus. And in GOOD.21 you work out what your body actually uses.

Tanja Thielen Health strategist & bestselling author Instagram (English)  ·  Facebook (Deutsch)  ·  LinkedIn (Nederlands) My books →