Anaerobic
70 min
High intensity
Build the engine behind the one-minute effort that splits a race: two sets of five near-maximal minutes at 150% of CP with two minutes' rest, to make the attack repeatable.
Michał Pustuła
Coach, MPCC
Anaerobic
70 min
High
9 / 10
Advanced
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.
Michał Pustuła
Why this workout
The breakdown
Inside the workout
When a race splits, it is usually a sharp effort of about a minute that does the damage: an attack, a gap closed, a punchy climb. This session builds the engine behind that move, for riders who get shelled when hard becomes very hard, or who want an attack they can repeat.
Two sets of five one-minute efforts at 150% of CP with two minutes at 50% between them. The rest is enough to go hard again and not enough to recover fully, which is what stresses the glycolytic system and trains the repeat. Six minutes between sets resets just enough for the second set to match the first.
In Vekta the efforts are set at 150% of the rider's CP and the W′ preview shows the battery emptying towards the end of each set, which is the design; if it empties in the second effort, the CP is stale or the rider is tired. The interval analysis afterwards shows whether set two held up.
A race-block session, once a week, fresh, indoors or out. Do not add reps; extend the recovery if the fifth effort collapses.
Anaerobic
Stimulus
Advanced
Workout level
Indoors
Best ridden
Road,
DISCIPLINE
The stimulus
Anaerobic, explained
Sixty to ninety seconds flat out, to grow the reserve above critical power.
What it is
Repeated efforts of thirty seconds to two minutes at 130–200% of critical power, with recoveries long enough to repeat them but not to recover fully. These sessions target W′, the finite amount of work available above CP.
Why it matters
W′ is the battery that pays for every attack, every steep pitch and every closing kilometre. A bigger W′, and a faster recharge below CP, means more matches to burn and more attacks survived. Vekta measures both from your riding, and this is the work that moves them.
These hurt in a way VO2 max sessions do not: the effort is near-maximal and the recovery is short. Ride them when fresh, keep the number of reps as written, and expect to see the effect in your ability to follow surges rather than in your steady power.
The W′ balance trace is the coaching tool here: a well-set session drains W′ close to zero on the final reps and no earlier. If the athlete empties it on rep two, the target is too high for their current CP.
In Vekta the efforts are personalised to the athlete's CP and W′, so the same session written once fits every rider on the roster. The preview shows the predicted W′ drain rep by rep.
Common questions
What is the difference between anaerobic and VO2 max intervals?
How many reps?
When in the season?
Go deeper
Free for coaches. Test with your whole roster during the trial.