Probably not. I doubt your VO2 will move at all if you do a dedicated threshold block. You’re still a pup at mid-thirties. 
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I agree with Helvellyn on your SS progressions - fewer workouts but make them progressive/challenging. If you don’t have time for SS, do threshold?
Off-Topic:
Gym then endurance on Sat - go listen to AACC Pod 341/345. Chad said strength then endurance on same day doesn’t boost endurance. I don’t know what the source is & therefore quality of that advice. So maybe swap those workouts with a min 3hr gap.
If you’re doing gym once a week and it’s not your primary focus, perhaps drop the intensity a bit, or split into two sessions. If you’re getting trashed legs, you’re probably not progressing your strength or your endurance.
So the first week has been T, R, S: 1x30 min. Next week will be: T, R 1x41 min (20 min, stand 1 min, 20 min), S back to leg strength training + endurance ride. My legs really don’t recover from Saturday gym work until Wednesday, and if I want to ride hard twice a week it needs to be Tuesday and Thursday, but the VO2 intervals I did for 6 weeks just stagnated at 3-1/2 min intervals, so I’ll stick with these longer efforts. Don’t need to be fully recovered from the weights to push the lower power numbers and it’s still a very solid workout. Definitely takes concentration and effort, but doesn’t get anywhere near the eyes bugged out, teeth bared effort of the final minute of a VO2 max interval.
OT re: weights, I disagree with the assessment that strength training hinders endurance. I could go into why but I think many people watching this thread already know my thoughts on this and I don’t want to annoy them. I’ll just say that between personal experience in my 20s and the fact that studies are all over the place concerning this topic (there are innumerable variables involved and, to be honest, many studies incorporate terrible protocols), I know that a properly designed strength training program will increase pedaling power and endurance. Just needs to be done right.
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Which begs the question… what strength-training programs for cyclists – or ideally, triathletes – do experienced members of this community recommend highly as being “done right”?
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I got +10 watts out of my threshold progression. The block was four weeks. I think three weeks would have been fine as the last couple of workouts didn’t feel very productive. I actually felt that 10 watt bump after the first couple of workouts because everything afterwards seemed easier.
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It interesting to ponder about what type threshold training can complement better the training for someone doing a good sweet spot progression (90% ftp).
A. Classic long intervals at 100%
B. Short Intervals (4-5 min) at 105-107%
The argument for A is to learn to feel your threshold well and extend your TTE. While the argument for B is to pull your threshold up while doing the extensive work underneath with SST.
I see the merits to both positions 
Why not incorporate both?
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You missed… wait for it.
C. Over-Unders
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Not a bad idea, however it’s hard to add another progression on top of SST, THR, Vo2. I think your point is valid and I can stack a simultaneous threshold progression on consecutive weeks.
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Why?
I guess racers need to learn to handle physically and mentally lactate buildup. But for non-racers, are there any other benefits?
I usually try to avoid dealing with it:
- either stay on safe side, 95-97% of FTP and drag intervals as long as possible (a la 1x70min, or 2x40min), or
- for VO2max, go way above threshold and deal with lactate only for short duration (a la 5min intervals at 115%+ or even higher intensities with shorter intervals)
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Two and a half weeks after testing my TTE at 40min at 350W, I just completed 1x60. Did 2x25min, a couple hard 30/30 days and lots of easy z2 riding at 190-210W in between, so not that much progression needed. It seems that just riding 13-15h per week mostly easy is enough at the moment to see good gains in TTE
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stop being good, it’s giving your coach a big ego lol
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It’s easy to be good when someone else tells you how to train and I can just trust the progress.
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What would be a reasonably amount of intervals to do, with 2min rest?
Athletica.ai has me doing a minimum of 7 
Seems reasonable TiZ, just higher intensity and shorter rests I guess than your traditional…
32’ – 2x 16’
36’ – 3x 12’
40’ – 2x 20’ classic
Guess it depends on how big your W prime is and how quickly you recover, otherwise 6 and 7 are going to be grim.
Current situation:
Hold 1x60min 275w (two weeks ago), didnt really want to continue. One week ago did 1x90min 253w and didnt feel tired at all.
What i have been doing last 8 weeks; If I felt good, i did threshold and if i felt little tired or just didnt want to push it, i did sweetspot. Tried to get little progression every week.
So what do i do now? More time at threshold? Maybe vo2 block now?
Assuming 1 × 60 at 275w was near enough FTP, I’d probably take a chill week, maybe with some high cadence work, and then get VO2ing. 
Hey @kurt.braeckel,
It’s worth noting that we provide workouts of different intensities and “levels” in each training zone, not just VO2 Max. Many athletes won’t be able to complete workouts such as Spencer +2 without working up to it first. This is why we have over 4,500 workouts in our library. It takes time to build up to longer, harder intervals in any/all zones. All of the talk about time in zone between this thread and the sweet spot one can easily be applied to VO2 Max.
Let me just clarify that we don’t start athletes with lower-level workouts with the hope that training will be simply more enjoyable and in turn sell more subscriptions, but rather our goal is to set our athletes up for success with productive and sustainable workouts and adapt their future workout to meet their capabilities. As you mentioned earlier, intervals that are simply too hard for an athlete “will lead to inconsistency, burnout, and plateaus or just lack of progress.” Our goal has been clear from the very beginning – we’re here to make you faster, and we care about our athletes!
Training in the VO2 Max power zone isn’t all about riding at your VO2 Max. How do your athletes consistently monitor this? The same goes for LT1 and LT2 which arguably waver slightly from one day to the next. This is why training zones exist. You don’t need to ride right at LT1 to build endurance, LT2 to increase your FTP, or VO2 Max to increase your VO2 Max.
I’m curious to hear how “raising VO2 Max” and “VO2 Max improvement” are different. 
You mentioned that “there are multiple ways to train peripheral adaptations to VO2 Max” but in the same sentence say, “No… I specifically said “intervals targeting VO2max improvements””
Since VO2 Max can be improved by time spent riding in many different training zones, I don’t feel that it’s necessary or even beneficial for most athletes to find their true PVO2 Max to train at. As we’ve mentioned before oxygen uptake =/= performance.
As far as I know, VO2 Max won’t align with a specific power target on its own but needs a specific duration at a power target to be elicited. Therefore any power target (ideally above FTP) will result in working at VO2 Max at a specific duration. At that point, it’s simply whether you want to train at max intensity or max duration to reach VO2 Max…
As for @hubcyclist’s comment about working at a % of FTP, this is the best way to ensure a steady and sustainable progression across different workouts. We’ve found that sticking to the power targets for the duration of the workout brings better results than setting a PR on your first interval and then fading by 15% by the end of the workout.
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