VO2 Max
120 min
High intensity
Improve hill-climbing power three ways at once: VO2 max efforts on steep climbs at 60-70 rpm, torque targets of up to 1 Nm/kg, and the pedalling efficiency that steep gradients demand.
Andy Turner
Coach, ATP Performance
VO2 Max
120 min
High
8 / 10
Intermediate
Outdoors
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.
Andy Turner
Why this workout
The breakdown
Inside the workout
Three things that decide hill climbing, trained at once: the VO2 max power the efforts are ridden at, the high torque that low cadence on a steep gradient demands, and the pedalling efficiency that steep climbs teach. Andy Turner sets torque targets by body weight: around 1 Nm/kg for men and 0.80–0.88 Nm/kg for women at the highest level, with cadence adjusted to reach them.
Four four-minute efforts at VO2 max at 60–70 rpm, each followed by sixteen minutes easy at 90–100 rpm. The long recoveries are the reason the torque and the intensity can both be held; shorten them and one of the two is lost.
Vekta's torque tab shows Nm/kg per effort, which is the number this session is actually judged on, and the interval classification confirms the efforts landed in the VO2 zone rather than threshold. Targets are set from CP; the cadence band is in the structure.
Once a week in a climbing block, on a steep climb. Not an indoor session, unless the trainer can hold the gradient.
VO2 Max
Stimulus
Intermediate
Workout level
Outdoors
Best ridden
Road,
Hill climb,
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%.
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