I dread Vo2max sessions! How can I learn to love them?
There’s no certainty in this world except death, taxes and – for us cyclists – torturous Vo2max sessions. ere’s no escaping the fact that top-end work, however deeply unpleasant it might be, is a
training essential. Usually completed sparingly towards the latter part of a training block, Vo2max workouts turbo-charge your performance, giving you a potentially race-winning edge on the big day. But before we start dreaming of podium positions, we’ve got to actually complete these intervals in a way that yields the greatest possible dividends. Here’s how to approach those dreaded red blocks of work…
In layman’s terms, Vo2max intervals are short bursts of very hard work (approximately 106120% of your FTP, or Zone 5), which stimulate adaptations that enable you to tolerate so-called oxygen debt, climb better and ride harder for longer. ese intervals pull your threshold power up from above, adding the icing on the cycling tness cake.
In terms of duration for each block of work, the range is between one and ve minutes. Efforts of less than two minutes are liable to make you just go too hard, leading to fewer cellular changes within the muscles. My favourite, therefore, is three-minute efforts at rst, building up to four-minute efforts. ese are optimal because you get everything out – long enough but not too long. Depending on experience, aim to complete between three to six of these intervals.
Hard, harder, ha-argh!
Training at this intensity starts to smart more or less from the outset. e rst minute is Okish, you can do it and you might even feel like you’re going too easy. After a minute, the biochemical byproducts of the hard effort begin to take hold, causing discomfort. In the third minute, you’re pulling funny faces and hanging on in there. And then in the fourth minute you really want to stop.
If you’re new to Vo2max sessions, you should be wary about how you go about them – manage your expectations. is form of training is hard, as it must be, since cycling is a really tough sport. It’s about endurance. You’ve got to give it time and be patient. As with all things, practice makes perfect. e more you do, the better you become at them. Physically you will be better equipped and mentally you’ll be more resilient and better at pacing your efforts.
In general, people prefer riding
“YOU NEED TO MANAGE EXPECTATIONS THIS IS REALLY TOUGH”
outside but completing this high-end work indoors will garner the optimum outcome, crucially in a safe manner. It’s easy to lose yourself in the heat of a hard effort and be distracted from external factors (like cars!). Training indoors also gives you the choice to pick out some of your favourite high-energy tunes and drown out the sound of your groans of distress with some loud AC/DC.
Embrace the pain
ere’s no silver bullet, no short cuts – Vo2max intervals are by denition very demanding. If you don’t experience acute discomfort throughout the session, it’s time to increase the power. But there are coping strategies we can employ to make Vo2max a little more tolerable. Embrace the discomfort, as it’s a natural part of pushing your limits. Focus on the present interval, not the whole workout. Break the session down into segments in your mind and focus on one interval at a time, not the time remaining in the session. is helps keep you mentally engaged.
Nutrition is very important for these workouts, as maintaining stable blood