VO2 Max
71 min
High intensity
Train the five-minute power and the repeated kicks that form the front group in an e-race: four five-minute blocks at 112% of CP with a 15-second surge every 90 seconds.
Michał Pustuła
Coach, MPCC
VO2 Max
71 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
E-races split during the repeated hard accelerations and the three-to-five-minute effort that forms the front group. This session trains exactly that pattern, and the number it targets, five-minute power, is a good marker of where a rider places in indoor racing.
Four blocks of five minutes at 112% of CP, each with a fifteen-second surge to 150% every ninety seconds. The blocks hold the rider just above CP; the surges push the aerobic system to its limit and teach the reaction when the pace jumps. Three thirty-second openers at 120% in the warm-up make the first block honest.
In Vekta the block and the surge are two targets inside one interval, written against CP, so the head unit shows the jump coming; the interval analysis afterwards separates the surges from the holds and shows five-minute power against the rider's history.
Built for the trainer. Once a week for Zwift racers, indoor crit riders, or anyone who wants more punch in fast group rides.
VO2 Max
Stimulus
Advanced
Workout level
Indoors
Best ridden
Indoor and e-racing,
DISCIPLINE
WHAT YOU NEED
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%.
The Next workout
Workouts to pair with this one
Free for coaches. Test with your whole roster during the trial.