In the old Kolie Moore Podcast Wisdom thread, there was some really good information about the Hard Start vo2 max efforts that he suggested, and that I believe a large portion of people in this thread are referring to. I’ll put some info here, even though it’s not a Vo2 thread, per se, and a lot of this may be common or repeated knowledge (the hard-start thread isn’t the same protocol, but it’s similar…). There was a lot of good info lost in that other thread…
The key points were getting total time of efforts around 20mins. Can progress by shortening interval durations rather than extending (going harder):
- Higher than average cadence (110-120rpm unless you have an unusually low rpm)
- Start hard, and go all-out. Power will fade, but don’t worry about it.
- It may take a little bit of getting used to. It took me into my 2nd session before I didn’t start too hard. I might recommend starting out more conservatively on the first 1-2 and then continue to go “all-out”. Remember this is all-out during not only the sets but also the entire workout. If you do a “max effort” you would (should) be cooked. So keep the entire workout in perspective.
- Cues are in your breathing. If you are breathing like a fish out of water, then you are doing it right. If by the latter intervals, you are pushing just as hard but not breathing as hard, you probably need to start less hard next time.
- Recovery for as little and as much time as you need. The longer RBI the more anaerobic contribution you will likely have on your next interval, so keep it as long as you need but not too long (don’t worry too much about this… I did 1:1 personally, but it’s okay if it’s longer or shorter)
- Use HR as a description rather than a prescription during the workout. Cadence, breathing, feeling like you’re going to pass out (
) are better cues than HR or power on how you are doing.
With all that being said, I think the best quote is from the Hard Start thread :
Anectdote/note re power: Personally, I found my power ends up around 120+% of FTP for the =<5min intervals, but during the interval I didn’t look at power at all. Just kept cadence high and kept pushing as hard as I could. Kolie Moore said that some people have power end up below FTP, but that’s not what matters in this case…
Here are a couple of my workout files. These are all descriptive, the only thing I personally paid attention to on my device was cadence. My FTP at the time was 280 if I remember right
