VO2 Max
86 min
High intensity
Develop VO2 max, aerobic power and lactate tolerance with three twelve-minute blocks of 30 seconds at 115-125% of CP and 15 seconds at 70-80%, minimal recovery keeping oxygen demand high.
Pinnacle Performance
Coaching team
VO2 Max
86 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.
Pinnacle Performance
Why this workout
The breakdown
Inside the workout
Develop VO2 max, aerobic power and lactate tolerance by sustaining high oxygen demand through repeated short efforts with minimal recovery. The classic short-interval format, with a recovery long enough to keep the surges honest and short enough that oxygen uptake never drops.
Three twelve-minute blocks of thirty seconds at 115–125% of CP and fifteen at 70–80%, with ten minutes between: thirty-six minutes of micro-intervals in under ninety. The fifteen seconds at tempo rather than at rest is what makes the block accumulate time near VO2 max.
Written against CP in Vekta; the interval analysis afterwards reports time above 90% of VO2 max per block and shows whether block three held the same power as block one.
A VO2 block session, twice a week for three to four weeks, indoors or out. Progress by adding a fourth block before raising the intensity.
VO2 Max
Stimulus
Intermediate
Workout level
Indoors
Best ridden
Road,
Indoor and e-racing,
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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