It just depends on your goal. You can see improvements from just doing 1 very hard VO2 workout a week and sticking with your current weekly plan, especially if you haven’t been doing them recently, but that’s not really a VO2 block… If you want to do a focused VO2 block, do that and don’t mess around with adding other stuff that’s going to sabotage your VO2 block. A VO2 block is going to be focused and HARD.
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I would lean more towards this. And to be honest, Chilly doesn’t look like a very effective VO2 workout at all. 2x5min at 104% is Threshold, the third interval is probably too short to get much out of, and you’re really doing hard intervals until the last one, maybe the last two.
Peters is a workout I probably would only do during race prep. It’s not a great Threshold workout do to the short intervals, nor is it the best VO2 workout in my opinion (I’m not a coach so what do I know). I don’t think it would work for me at least. But for race prep where you’re riding just above threshold with short surges throughout, probably not a bad workout.
I don’t like erg because I want to go all out for 4-6 minutes. And power might fluctuate throughout or drop slightly. Erg will lock you in. And likely let you go too easy. Or grind you to a halt. It’s just unlikely you can target the interval perfectly to match erg.
@kurt.braeckel is an actual coach so he probably has way better insight, but that’s my take.
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I think 2 good vo2 intervals a week would be hard, but kurt is def better at this answer.
Some stuff TR says is vo2, isnt vo2.
I’m off the reservation. No plan, i’d start with 6 x 3’
Broadly, any work above threshold (with some obvious exceptions). If I’m training MAP/VO2, I usually use either 30/15s, 40/20s or 3-6 min intervals. Each of those is max repeatable.
I will typically prescribe a broad range of power like 105-130% in the created workout, but I am specific with my athletes that for “long” VO2 or max aerobic sessions, I’m looking for “max repeatable power”. That will decline as they go. The point is I don’t want someone to go out way too hard and not be able to do the workout. But I never prescribe a set power for workouts like this.
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@kurt.braeckel interesting. Sorry; can you explain what you mean by these three things above ?
I’d suggest going back and reading though this thread. There is a ton of good advice, and Kurt has been an active participant, along with a few others. I have learned a ton by taking the time to go through it all.
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Not Kurt but 30/15s and 40/20s are potentially vo2 intervals if you are very untrained but are better utilized for MAP and race sharpening imo. Your more typical vo2 intervals are 3-6ish minutes and done at a high cadence and all out. You can also make them hard start to bring up your respiration rate quickly.
I would give a read of the thread as well as a listen to the empirical cycling episodes on vo2.
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Couldn’t agree more. And the same thing can be said for the SS and threshold threads for me. (Although now I’m a little scared about my upcoming V02 block, because it is going to be drastically different then anything I’ve done before :))
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@Pbase thanks; you were right. I thought I was asking a direct question, about a single comment, but went back and re-read the entire thread, and it all now makes sense… and yes… .I learned an absolute metric F-ton. Yowza.
Totally new VO2 WO strategy for me, going fwd!! Thanks, all!
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Right? I felt like I had been doing it wrong my whole life. Nice to learn something new. And it works too.
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Glad you got it figured out, hopefully got your prior questions answered along the way.
There are a few good threads already mentioned that dive deep into some really effective training methods. Here are a few off the top of my head:
Sweet Spot Progression
Threshold Progression
Hard Start VO2max intervals
The SST progression is LONG, but really, really good. The Hard Start VO2max interval thread is kind of the OG VO2 thread that goes into a lot of the same stuff we’ve covered here, but in probably (painfully) more excruciating detail.
Those are among the many informative threads here, including some I’m not very active in but go through periodically because I learn a lot even if I don’t necessarily agree or use them in my training/coaching (the ISM training model thread, Lactate testing, Pro Training, among others).
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There’s some great advice in this thread, thanks!
I’ve just finished my SST progression with 5x20 @ 95% and looking to do a 3 week VO2 block next week. Planning 2 VO2 workouts a week.
When this block ends it’s 3 weeks left till my A event (Amsteld Gold Race tour version). Do you guys have any advice on what to do those last weeks? Maybe 2 weeks threshold or something? Would this VO2 block be soon enough to see the benefits at the event? I read it takes some time to see the benefits of a VO2 block.
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Typically 2-6 weeks or maybe a little more.
I usually give threshold after VO2, but in your case you’d benefit more from race specific training, whatever that looks like for that event. With essentially six weeks left to your A event, you’d probably be best off focusing your training on what you specifically need for the event.
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Awesome, thanks.
Events is mostly lots of VO2 efforts up 2-6 minute climbs with z2 in between. So guessing maybe I could extend the block, depending how I feel. As a somewhat older individual (just over 40) I need a bit more recovery.
Rather than focus on VO2max, just work on that power duration. (In other words, I wouldn’t worry about doing high cadence stuff necessarily). Just put the watts down. Given it’s that kind of event, you’re probably going to spend quite a bit of time around tempo, so you could do tempo/SST one day and MAP (2-6 min) intervals the other day alongside your volume.
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Hmmm, hadn’t thought about it like that. That’s actually great advice as it would also lower the risk of me burning out. Gonna go that route and save the VO2 block for later in the year to build up my FTP in preparation for a trip to the French Alps.
Thanks a lot!
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@kurt.braeckel thank you again, very much, for your time to reply, both above, and here. I will be reading all of these three threads, taking notes, and modifying as needed. Very sincerely appreciated. 
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I just finished up a VO2 Max block about 2 weeks ago and it was quite different than what I’ve done in TR so just sharing.
Week 1: 5 x 3’ with 6 minutes rest then 4 x 4’ with 6 minutes rest.
Week 2: 4 x 4’ with longer 8 minute rest with coach’s recommendation, 3 x 5’ with 10’ rest.
Week 3: 3 x 5’ with 8 minutes rest twice, but coach said I could’ve taken shorter 6 minute rest or longer if needed.
These were extremely painful in the beginning and became manageable during the last week although I still put 100% into them. I have noticed during the 3rd week that HR has come down a bit during endurance rides. Before and after this block I had complete 3 x 10 threshold and in the post VO2 Block workout, power was up 6 - 8 watts and HR down about 6 bpm, so a noticeable improvement. I think I’ll still see some benefits as time goes on.
A couple of takeaways and things I learned is that the benefit of longer rest periods allowed me to execute the efforts to get the intended stimulus which was the high HR, high rate of breathing, and high cadence throughout the intervals. All in all, while the sessions were brutal, aside from one tempo session in the first week, everything else was just endurance riding so I never felt cooked which was great. I still had some eagerness to get out and put some hours in the saddle between these workouts. Doing 3 of these a week would be a different type of crazy and I would probably have to cut down on the endurance riding quite a bit to compensate for getting more recovery.
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Planning my first VO2 block 2 weeks from today.
Going to start with twice a week, 6 x 3’ plus a bunch of zone 2. If weather is crap on one of the weekend days and I feel good, I’ll try a third vo2 day.
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