Adam Pulford's Favorite Bike Workout
VO2 Max workouts are challenging, but effective for increasing performance at the right time in the season. I find many athletes who have been consistently training since January have good fitness and well-developed threshold at the end of Spring season, just before heading into the summer or some of your goal events of the year. That’s a good place to be, and if you are there, adding in a block of VO2 Max training can be what you need to elevate your performance even further.
What is VO2 Max?
The term “VO2 Max” is very familiar for most people, but the effort and duration needed to train it effectively is commonly misunderstood. So, before we get going with the workout, let me first describe what goes into a VO2 max effort. First, let’s quickly recall what VO2 Max is: It is the greatest amount of oxygen (usually expressed in L/min or ml/kg/min) that an athlete can fit into their lungs & use during maximal exercise. Simply put, we’re talking about aerobic capacity, or how much air we can fit into an athlete’s lungs with hard efforts. And if we can improve that, we improve performance. In order to train that, we must go hard enough and long enough to be effective and understand some pacing that will go along with it.
Based on what we know in the laboratory setting with how the human breathes and makes power on a bike, we know that around 90 seconds, event at near max efforts, most athletes are using the aerobic energy system & we start to elicit a good VO2 response. The longer we go, the better, up until around 5-6 or even 8 min for experienced riders to achieve VO2 Max. After that, an athlete usually starts pacing down into more of a threshold effort if they continue going hard, so going a little shorter for VO2 intervals is advised. When working with athletes, I generally stick with about 2-5min interval durations. I generally want an athlete to have about 15min minimum and 30min maximum of total time in zone at VO2 for total duration of intensity per workout. (i.e. 5x3min= 15min total time in zone) of at VO2 Max Zone to make the workout most effective. For beginners, start on the low end of that, or even lower if you must (i.e. 5x2min VO2 Max) and just work to complete it and build from there. For more advanced riders, start with about 20-25min total time in zone and adjust from there.
Now, what effort is needed? Remember, this is VO2 MAX, so it’s going to be hard; however, going too hard and causing too much fatigue is not as effective as pacing yourself slightly and accumulating more time in zone during a workout to effectively overload, or properly fatigue, yourself for VO2 workout. When working with athletes, I talk in terms of RPE (rating of perceived exertion) scale and use their power meters to keep us on track. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being a max effort and 1 being the easiest effort on the bike, I tell athletes to start around 9 for each interval and finish around 10 if possible, on the final interval. If I have good data with an athlete and their FTP is set up properly, the power I use for their VO2 Max Interval range is between 106-121% of FTP. This can vary pending on athlete phenotype, so RPE is a good universal language for hard efforts.
The Workout:
6x3min VO2 Max Intervals with 3-4min recovery between
Don't forget to take one capsule of AltRed 1 hour before the start of the workout!
The Warm Up:
Start with 15-20min easy to moderate endurance riding, then work in 2-3x20 second “openers” with 1.5-2min easy spinning between. Openers are short, strong efforts (around 8-9 out of 10 RPE) to get all energy systems firing and the body ready for a hard workout. After your final opener, spin easy for 3-4min, then get into the main set of the workout
Main Set:
Start your first interval by pedaling hard, getting speed up and checking in on your RPE: it should be around 9 out of 10. Check the power after about 30s, is it in your VO2 Power range? (remember, this should be ~106-121% of FTP). Every 30s, do a quick check in with your internal self for RPE and check your cycling computer to make sure you’re in the VO2 power range. These are quick checks, no staring at your computer or dwelling on effort. Focus on the task at hand, breathing rhythmically, going hard, doing quick checks to stay on task. Once the 3min interval is done, start your recovery by sitting up, coasting for a bit, getting your breathing back to normal, & spinning easy for 3min. RPE for this is around 2-4 out of 10. Power should be below 50% of RPE, but really, again, it’s best to focus on RPE. If doing these workouts for the first time, you can take 4 or even 5min between intervals, but I find a 1:1 work to rest ratio is most effective for VO2 Max Interval workouts. Once your recovery is complete, repeat just like you did prior, and knock out another VO2 interval by checking in on RPE and Power with quick checks as you go.
A quick note on cadence: Normally, I let the athlete self select cadence for the first workout, then adjust if needed. If you’re doing your VO2 Intervals between 85-100rpms, this is fine. If it’s a little lower, you may not be getting the full benefit of these intervals, because a higher leg speed will put more stress on the cardiovascular system, eliciting a higher HR and ventilatory response, thus a higher VO2 response. And in the end, that’s what we’re looking for.
Cool Down:
After your main set is done, your work is done, so enjoy the small victory for the day, head home, and recover for the next day.
Give this one a try!
