Threshold
110 min
High intensity
Build fatigue resistance at sustainable power, then teach the aerobic system to recover under load: an 18-minute threshold block, then VO2 spikes layered inside tempo efforts. Preparation for time trials and long climbs.
Juliette Berthet
Rider, FDJ United–SUEZ
Threshold
110 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.
Juliette Berthet
Why this workout
The breakdown
Inside the workout
A demanding session with two jobs: an opening eighteen-minute threshold block that builds fatigue resistance and time at sustainable power, then sets that layer short VO2 spikes inside tempo efforts, training the aerobic system to recover while still under load. Juliette Berthet's preparation for time trials and long climbs.
Set one is three five-minute threshold efforts with a minute between. Set two is two rounds of three repeats, each two and a half minutes at tempo followed by thirty seconds at VO2 max and a minute of recovery. The spike lands on a system already working, which is what a surge on a climb or a rise in a time trial feels like.
Vekta separates the threshold block from the spiked tempo sets in the analysis and shows W′ dipping on each thirty-second spike and recovering through the tempo, the shape the session is designed to produce.
A build-phase session, once a week, indoors or out. When the second round of set two matches the first, lengthen the threshold block.
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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