Threshold
120 min
Medium intensity
Thirty-six minutes around threshold in a race-specific pattern: three twelve-minute blocks alternating 80 seconds at 95% of CP with 40 seconds at 105%, to raise sustainable power and clear lactate at race intensity.
David Van Orsdel
Coach, Devo Performance
Threshold
120 min
7 / 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.
David Van Orsdel
Why this workout
The breakdown
Inside the workout
A threshold session with a dash of lactate clearance, written to match the stochastic nature of surging races. Thirty-six minutes around threshold in three twelve-minute blocks, but never at one steady number: eighty seconds at 95% of CP, forty seconds at 105%, and repeat.
The under is long and the over is short, which keeps the block sustainable while still crossing the line every two minutes. Eight minutes between blocks resets it. David Van Orsdel progresses the ratio over a block, towards ninety seconds at 95% with thirty at 105%, then 60/60, then forty seconds at 95% with longer overs, as the rider adapts.
The efforts are written against CP in Vekta so the boundary tracks the rider's current threshold; the W′ trace afterwards should show small, regular dips that never reach the floor, which is the signature of a session pitched correctly.
A build-phase session, once or twice a week, indoors or out. Change the ratio, not the intensity, to progress it.
Threshold
Stimulus
Intermediate
Workout level
Indoors
Best ridden
Road,
Time trial,
DISCIPLINE
The stimulus
Threshold, explained
Sustained work at the edge of critical power, to move the edge.
What it is
Intervals of eight to thirty minutes at or just under critical power, the highest intensity the body can hold in a steady state. Over-unders, stochastic threshold and long sustained blocks all belong here; what unites them is time close to CP without draining W′.
Why it matters
Critical power is the number every other target is written against. Raising it by ten watts raises the ceiling of every climb, time trial and breakaway, and it is the adaptation that responds most reliably to structured work.
These sessions feel controlled rather than desperate. If you are gasping in the first block the target is too high; the goal is to finish the last interval at the same power as the first. Two a week is plenty.
Threshold work is where an accurate CP pays off: a stale CP makes the session either a tempo ride or a VO2 session. Vekta recalculates CP from every ride, so the targets track the athlete's current state rather than a test from spring.
In Vekta the intervals are set as a percentage of the athlete's live CP and converted to watts on their head unit. After the ride the session is classified, and the CP model updates if the effort showed a new ceiling.
Common questions
What is the difference between threshold and FTP work?
How long should threshold intervals be?
Can I do threshold work on consecutive days?
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