My INSCYD report

Yepp, I think @abalakov got it right, as you can see here

The talk is in German:

Thank you!

What do you mean? 4min PR?

Sorry, Iā€™m trying to be helpful and Iā€™m not sure Iā€™m succeeding :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:. Iā€™ll let the grown ups talk now hahaha

In the power based test, VO2max is (largely) determined by a overpaced 4 min effort. So technically not a max, but not too far off. Wondering if you could ballpark that and then compare to your test. Wonā€™t be the same of course, but might tell you if something is really off.

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:joy:

Do you mean the tests offered by @Mikael_Eriksson at https://scientifictriathlon.com/testing/ ?

@tofel Yes, that protocol.

So, up to now my takeaways for future INSCYD tests are:

  1. Either test solely relying on power data
    or
  2. Get the whole picture by including Spiroergometry

Coming back to my original post. What are your most effective ways to boost your VO2max? Simply training as much time as possible at your aerobic maximum and do as much base volume as possible? How effective are threshold intervals in this regard?

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Long steady distance rides Z2 or VO2max workouts (not going into the anaerobic zones) or a combination of both. The effectiveness of each depends on your own physiology. Fast twitch guys tend to respond better to the VO2max intervals, slow twitch to the Z2 rides.

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This is a great compilation, thank you!:ok_hand:Number one sounds very much like Olympic Triathlon Build (Mid/Hi-Vol). Now I know why this particular plan worked so well for me in the past (and obviously still does)! :blush:

This is a very interesting post. I wish I understood most of it. However I do find the concept and the testing very much of interest.

I did think from @Mikael_Eriksson site that the various protocols would be done separately to each other and not all in the same session.

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By the way, I just realised I completely misread your first post, then replied with a Joe Friel link above thatā€™s actually for raising VLaMax, when you were asking about VO2Max. So just ignore that (unless you change your mind and switch to track sprints or something).

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From what I learned from the Bora-Hansgrohe talk above, the advantage of the method is that you could split things up over seperate days, because your values wonā€™t change much, but you donā€™t have to.

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Ah, I thought this was just a random link to his site, and that there is something on VO2max somewhere else. Thank you! :star_struck:

But I think raising VLaMax is not too much of a bad idea!

Iā€™m sure Joe Friel has got an idea or two up his sleeve for raising VO2max as well, yes!

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:joy:

@tofel Just a quick answer, I need to dig into this thread more thoroughly later but here goes:

How to increase VO2max:
1. Training volume. In general, the best way to increase VO2max is to increase training volume. Potentially this could be especially true for you given your extremely low VLaMax which indicates you are very far on the slow twitch side of the muscle fiber distribution spectrum.

2. Intervals maximizing time @ VO2max. Do intervals in your aerobic maximum zone that maximize your time at 90+ % of VO2max. Of course you wonā€™t be measuring VO2, so my suggestion is to shoot for the lower end of the aerobic maximum zone, but also do longer intervals (think 3-4 minutes, maybe 2 when youā€™re starting out), and make sure you get in at least 20 minutes of work at that intensity. Once you can handle those intervals, you can start playing with recovery duration and intensity to further increase T@VO2max (shorter recoveries and higher recovery intensities for the same intervals). Analyse your heart rate retrospectively to get an idea of how effective various intervals are (e.g. how much more time is your HR at a level higher than LTHR if you decrease recovery duration from 3 to 2 minutes in a 6 or 7 times 3-minute VO2max workout.

Muscle fiber type probably plays a big role, yes, but the good news is that you should be able to increase VO2max very well with the muscle fiber profile you seem to have.

Also, be aware that I think many athletes have a skewed perception of how high a ā€œnormalā€ VO2max is for at least a couple of reasons:

  • Most of the time when we see ā€œbenchmarkā€ numbers for sedentary, recreationally active etc. individuals, those are measured while running, which tends to give higher VO2max values.

  • These benchmarks are at least historically measured in a young population, college students. So they havenā€™t yet experienced the decline in VO2max with age. AND, their relative VO2max (to bodyweight) tends to be higher because historically (this may be changing now with the obesity epidemic) this population tends to be fairly lean.

  • Also, if you tested in the aerobars this will be another factor that lowers power output and therefore VO2max. Likewise, you would likely have tested higher outdoors. So VO2max is very contextual.

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I agree with Base, try to get in a lot of volume in this zone.

Medio, I would not recommend. I think itā€™s only going to reduce the quality of your hard workouts. And I see no reason not to start doing the VO2max work right away.

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Thank you, @Mikael_Eriksson! I hoped youā€™d answer, you have the most experience with these tests.

What do you think of lactate shuttling with the prescribed power values of the report, 2-2min? This would lead to a lot of volume in the aemax-zone.

I agree that something seems off. But theoretically this could be correct. The highest lactate value doesnā€™t directly impact VLaMax, itā€™s how quickly you can accumulate lactate (so doing the sprint test would be highly recommended), not how much you can accumulate. That 15.7 mmol was accumulated over 3+ minutes, not 13 seconds.

Agreed, something is off. I wonder why they didnā€™t do the sprint test? That could have solved this I would think.

Or at least get the lab to also do the sprint test with lactate.

Yep, thatā€™s the main idea IMO. For VO2max intervals, try to do mostly longer ones, at least 2 minutes, but building to 3-4. I would also consider adding longer intervals in the range between your AT zone and AeMax zones (see @tshortt s response on supra-threshold intervals) . Think 30, maybe building to 40 minutes of work total, in 5-8 minute intervals. But I would monitor HR there to see if it looks like you can achieve a high HR and a high accumulated time at a heart rate level clearly above your AT.

Nope, they can (and typically are) done in one session. But in the critical power protocol at least itā€™s important to take a full recovery between tests.

I would agree, it is very low if this number is correct. But get it verified first.

Absolutely a good idea, but again, given the uncertainty of that VO2max-result, get it verified first.

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Can you say something about @DaveWh and @Bioteknikā€™s remarks. They found it contradicting that my INSCYD aemax target (pVO2Max?) is at 271W and that I could hit a 368W 1min power in my latest TR ramp test.