I understand. I can do SST, threshold, even over/unders and they can be hard but very achievable. When I see a VO2 Max on the calendar I shudder, and there’s a decent chance I’ll fail the workout. Are you doing these indoors?
Without getting too ‘into the weeds’ regarding v02 sessions, you might also just need a bit of recovery. Fatigue generally brings about an increase in RPE along with a lower heart rate, which tends to be pretty evident in v02 sessions due to their cardiovascular demands.
A few thoughts…
Heart rate zones are generally recommended to be based off threshold HR. Not HRmax.
Classic 3+ min VO2max intervals are usually prescribed as max repeatable efforts. Because of the short interval length, and HR lag, generally speaking you won’t find these prescribed by HR.
I have two seasons with a lot of z2/z3 work, and during these seasons my HR rises slowly when doing max repeatable efforts. Its normal for me. And stated again, use of HR zones to prescribe efforts doesn’t generally work well above threshold.
Lack of ‘top end punch’ and other comments you’ve made is independent. It is possible to do a lot of z2 AND anaerobic intervals to improve glycolytic power/repeatability. These are often prescribed as 30-sec to 90-sec max repeatable efforts. This type of work is also referred to as anaerobic capacity/power.
I also seem to generate a lot of lactate and doing more z2 work really helps raise FTP and increases power/time above threshold. In other words, without a lot of z2 work I will quickly blow up when doing punchy efforts over threshold. From INSCYD testing my glycolytic power can be really really low, and I’ve found that working on increasing it also helps with raising FTP and ability to repeatedly punch out hard efforts.
In summary I wouldn’t recommend doing vo2max efforts by HR, do them max repeatable. And you can work on glycolytic power while also doing a lot of z2.
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Sorry, I don’t recall the specific workout names and don’t use TR any more. I think if you search supra-threhold or vo2max workouts you can find some 5x5min → 5x9min workouts and I just adjusted the intensity as necessary.
heart-rate and power aren’t always correlative. heart-rate response can vary according to the sport and the individual (my cycling heart-rate is 10-15 beats lower than it is for running or rowingt at a similar level of intensity).
your cycling max heart-rate may be lower than your actual maximum achievable heart-rate.
suggest you do a maximal cycling test (like a stress test or a ramp test) to establish your cycling max hr. use that value to re-calculate your heart-rate training zones. don’t use 220-age or karvonen.
remember, “cycling vo2” is a level of power intensity based on your ftp; it’s not heart-rate intensity. you are training to power, not heart-rate.
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