More data…
Personally, I’m just following the science. Right or wrong, it seems to work for me. Maybe other versions would be better. I just hate the idea of being a Guinea Pig when this is the most important and most difficult training I do per year.
I just aim at minutes of quality. I start at 3x3 and build to something like 5x5 or even a 6x5 for the final V02 of a build. I also begin to up the power once I can handle the same power at 5x5 that I started with at 3x3. In context, it’s a massive increase in performance over a relatively short period of time.
I don’t bother with hard start, short short or anything too complex. I’ve found that old school sustained V02Max training is the most powerful stimulus for me. It’s without doubt the most valuable minutes of training an endurance athlete can engage in.
I absolutely go fully polarized for my V02 build. Everything else is secondary. Virtually all other riding is Z2. Easy Z2 at that. Sometimes, I’ll add in a threshold effort or two on one day to keep things running. I usually only do 2 V02 sessions per week, with as much separation as possible in the week. This year I’m going to attempt 3 V02 sessions per week for the final or final 2 weeks.
I’m also going to attempt doing it for longer than I’ve ever tried it. If I don’t crack (a big if), I may try 6 to 8 weeks total. It seems, if you can tolerate it, you really will continue to make gains for a long time. These gains will be smaller the more advanced your training history.
I try to do all of my V02 work outside, I generate more power, gather more minutes and I’m forced to generate power over varied terrain. I feel this is far superior in regards to race specificity than a robotic ERG controlled effort. Generally, I think indoor training is incredibly powerful, and vastly more time efficient. However, for V02 work, I feel it could actually be significantly detrimental.
Finally, I think the huge additional value of sustained effort V02 training over other short short options is the mental training. It very much simulates actual bike racing. These repeated 2 to 6min efforts are very often the selection points, in many forms of bike racing.
Being able to tolerate more minutes of this level of suffering will only reap rewards come race day.
I was curious if folks here also incorporate Rønnestad-like workouts to mix it up between the longer, steady state 4,5,6 minute intervals. With cyclocross just around the corner it’s got me thinking. A 30/15 workout is very applicable to cyclocross racing.
