Dictionary of intervals: Bobble hat

Indoor Cycling Instructor Dictionary of Intervals: Bobble Hats

Position or interval: The bobble hat is an interval.
What it is: A series of stages of increasing intensity, before gradually decreasing the intensity.
Cadence: You select the cadence. You have a choice with cadence - you can either stick with the same cadence right the way through, and increase the challenge by increasing resistance, or you can keep the resistance the same, but try to increase the cadence as you go through the stages.
Intensity: The intensity increases as you head through the stages of the climb. you may start pretty easy, and end moderately challenging, or you may start at a harder intensity and end really hard. The 'bobble' of the hat is a high intensity interval - a standing attack or a sprint, and then the intensity decreases gradually, delaying the recovery.
Length: A bobble hat will last for minutes in total - it's up to you how long you make it; could just be 4-5 minutes, or you could make it longer, 10 minutes or more. You also get to decide how long each stage within the climb is. We recommend an absolute minimum of 30 seconds for each stage, with the high intensity interval at the top 15 seconds, although 1 minute works very well for the stages excluding the high intensity one. For very long climbs, spreading the stages out to 2 minutes each is incredibly challenging both mentally and physically. With each stage, you'll be adding challenge by either increasing resistance, or cadence, or both.
You can split the bobble hat - use it whole for maximum challenge, but you can use the principle of the progressive climb leading to a maximal interval or the other principle of maximal interval followed by delayed recovery and gradually decreasing steps of intensity towards recovery.
When to use: This is a very challenging interval, and therefore it's best used in the second half of a session - but due to the decreasing intensity towards recovery, it's best not to use it as the final challenge of the session as you'll want all riders to finish on a rather than a decrease.
What it does: Builds strength and endurance, at higher intensities.
Key teaching points:

• cueing: be clear about how long the climb is and how long the riders have left in each stage.
• give pointers in technique, particularly if the intensity is hard; you want to minimise swaying of the upper body as this creates momentum from bodyweight and reduces the training effect.
• be clear about what the next stage involves - is it an increase, a decrease, or a maximal interval? Make sure riders know exactly what to do next.
• be encouraging. As riders get tired, they'll want to hear encouragement more than anything else.
• this interval is great for strengthening muscles so they can go for longer, as well as improving aerobic fitness which enables fat burn at higher intensities.

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