VO2 Max
92 min
High intensity
Sharpen the two-minute power that closes a gap when a race goes full gas: eight two-minute efforts at 125% of CP with equal rest, ridden on the flat.
Lawrence Naesen
Pro rider
VO2 Max
92 min
High
8 / 10
Intermediate
Indoors
The session
The workout
Written as a share of critical power, so it fits every rider. In Vekta it becomes your watts, with the W′ cost shown before you ride.
Lawrence Naesen
Why this workout
The breakdown
Inside the workout
Two minutes at 125% of CP is the effort that closes a gap when the race goes full gas, and Lawrence Naesen rides eight of them with equal rest. The purpose is not to accumulate time at VO2 max as cheaply as possible; it is to be sharp and confident in the short, explosive burst, and to know exactly what that effort costs.
The one-to-one work-to-rest ratio keeps every repeat honest: two minutes at 50% of CP is enough to bring heart rate down but not enough to recover W′ fully, so by the sixth repeat the effort is being produced on a draining battery, which is the race condition. Thirty-minute warm-up and cool-down make it a proper ride rather than a test.
Vekta writes the efforts at 125% of the rider's current CP and shows in the preview where W′ runs low across the eight; a rider whose battery empties by repeat five has the wrong CP or the wrong day. Afterwards each repeat is classified and compared, so a fade from repeat one to eight is visible in numbers, not in feel.
Ride it on the flat, as Naesen does, once a week in a race block. Indoors it works as well, which is where most riders will do it in the winter.
VO2 Max
Stimulus
Intermediate
Workout level
Indoors
Best ridden
Road,
DISCIPLINE
The stimulus
VO2 Max, explained
Short, hard repeats that push oxygen uptake to its ceiling and raise it.
What it is
Efforts of roughly one to five minutes above critical power, usually between 105 and 130% of CP, with recoveries short enough that the next effort starts before the body has settled. Formats vary from classic 4×4 and 4×3 to 30/15s and 40/20s, where the "rest" is a tempo effort that keeps oxygen uptake high.
Why it matters
VO2 max is the size of the aerobic engine. Everything below it, threshold, tempo, endurance, is a fraction of it, so a higher ceiling lifts every other zone. It is also the quality that decays fastest without stimulus, which is why the sessions are short, frequent in blocks, and brutally specific.
These are the sessions that change what you can hold for three minutes on a climb or after an attack. Expect to see them in blocks of two a week for three to four weeks, then a rest. They cost more W′ than anything else in the library and should be ridden fresh.
The variable that matters is time above 90% of VO2 max, not the number of reps. Short-interval formats accumulate it with less perceived strain; long formats train the ability to hold it. Watch W′ balance in the preview: a session that drains it in the first set has the wrong recovery.
Add the session to your Vekta calendar and the targets convert from % of CP into your watts. The preview shows where W′ will run low before you ride; the analysis afterwards classifies every interval and tells you how much of the session was actually spent above 90%.
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