VO2 Max
110 min
High intensity
Push harder than a constant effort of the same length allows: six sets of two two-minute VO2 efforts at 112-125% of CP separated by only 30 seconds, for XCO and any event of high power and short recovery.
John Cox
Coach, Contour Endurance
VO2 Max
110 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.
John Cox
Why this workout
The breakdown
Inside the workout
A staple for Contour athletes targeting events that require high power with short recovery, which is the shape of XCO. Two minutes of high VO2 power, thirty seconds off, and two minutes again with heart rate still high, asked to go just as deep as the first.
Six sets of paired two-minute efforts at 112–125% of CP with thirty seconds between the pair and four and a half minutes between sets. The pairing lets the rider push harder than a constant four-minute effort would allow while prolonging the time at high VO2. A one-minute opener at 120% precedes the set.
In Vekta the pair is one structure with two efforts and a short recovery, written against CP; the W′ trace shows the thirty seconds barely refilling the battery, which is the intended state entering the second effort of each pair.
A VO2 block session, once a week, indoors or out, for XCO riders and anyone racing with repeated hard efforts and short recoveries.
VO2 Max
Stimulus
Advanced
Workout level
Indoors
Best ridden
Road,
XCO and MTB,
DISCIPLINE
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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Workouts to pair with this one
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