That was the 'eye opener'. All my exercise is aerobic, found myself
sadly lacking in this department:
Anaerobic exercise - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This kind of training on a bike, is hard, but also kind of fun.....You warm up aerobically for 20 or 30 minutes, and then pick a stretch of road you will go at maximum pace for 2 minutes, then slow to maybe 17 mph ( resting pace but not stopped--your body should have to recover with some aerobics still going on) or so to rest/recover for 4 minutes, then another interval, followed by the 4 minute easy...for 4 to 7 intervals.( week one at 4, week 4 at 7 intervals)...
This builds new capilaries in the muscle beds of the primary muscles used for cycling AND for diving....it also teaches the body to convert the lactic acid into pyruvate, which it can then "burn" as a sugar ( think of this as the "second wind" you have heard about )....
Interval training is actually the best way to make your aerobic power greater, not just the power for 2 minute sprints..... A time trialist that wants to "break the hour" in a 40 km time trial--pretty much averaging over 25 mph all by themself for an hour....will train with 2 minute intervals for several months, to accomplish this...the ones that do well, can get close to 28 or even 30 mph for an hour( 30 being about the best possible ).
Speaking of sprints...Real sprints are not using the anaerobic power...they are 10 to 15 seconds in duration, and the body uses pure ATP for this 100% effort ( the interval is not at 100%, but paced as the most you can do for 2 minutes to end up with complete muscle failure at 2 minutes out).....So if a diver actually needed to train for a 10 second effort, at 100% of the speed they could reach, this would be using the ATP system..however, with drag the way it is in water, 100% with fins is not that much faster than 90% effort( which would be at the aerobic/anaerobic threshold)--or even not that much faster than a pure anaerobic effort a "trained version of you" could sustain for a minute....so there is some issue as to whether the dive emergency should be considered as to require Anaerobic speed, or ATP speed.....With either, the interval training will get you to recover much faster, but anaerobic training will not do much to improve your recycling or ATP, or of the absolute strength gains possible with ATP training....
Technically, a bike racer must train the ATP system one day each week, the anaerobic system one day, then the aerobic system for the LSD ride( long steady distance day), then usually an easy spin day, an aerobic day( not hard at all), then a race simulation day, where all energy systems get used....
Most divers ( or even cyclists) will not have the time or interest to train at this level, but when you understand what is really going on to get maximum performance from each energy system, you can take what you want and use it for diving better.
