Has anyone done one?
Should I do 4 vo2 work outs in a row or 6?
How much recovery will I need after this?
This is what Hunter Allen prescribes: Hunter Allen Power Blog: What to Do Next: A VO2Max Intensive Plan
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thanks, ill give it a read
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Here is additional information, with follow-up plan:
Because of work, I’ll be chained to indoors next week, going to try it as well.
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Dillman did it prior to CX nats also.
I think I can squeeze a week in right after a race and this will be perfect for my next event thats 6 weeks away.
Reading the prescribed workouts sound awful to do but if you can hit those numbers and then rest after, sounds like it has shown potential.
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I did one a couple months ago. 3 weeks of 3 workouts per week followed by a rest week. Started at 6x3 and 5x4, finished at 7x3 as fatigue started to build.
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I usually do 2x per week for a 3 week block. 5x3 working up to 5x4. Done on resistance mode indoors - max effort for the time.
Other three rides are - EASY endurance outdoors or indoors and one ride with buddies on Sunday that’s whatever it turns out to be. I will say these tend to crush me and make me more fatigued than threshold intervals within a block - and by the last week I have trouble getting within 10-15 beats of my max heart rate due to fatigue. But if you’re breathing like a fish out of water you are still getting the benefit.
Good luck
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Whats your background fitness level? How many years have you been training?
How do you think it worked for you?
I think you know the answer, but I think it worked great for me 
Posted this soon after I finished that block:
That’s far from the only thing that goes into it, but since the beginning of February, I’m now up conservatively 15W in FTP, probably getting closer to 20W now.
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Great! Sometimes the retrospective a few months later is different, but I agree from my end. The response we saw is about what I expect for that style of block, which is kind of the “intermediate” style of VO2max block and has worked well for busy people with a strong training history in my experience. You can get really crazy with this stuff, and it works too… but that’s the rub: what’s the minimum effective dose?
FWIW, I typically prescribe three styles of these blocks:
2 workouts per week, back to back days.
3 workouts per week, usually MWF, but I have stacked them before too.
Crazy 5-6x per week, 3 sets in 2 days, etc.
All maintaining volume of EASY riding alongside it, usually in a declining interval length pattern as you said, while maintaining or even building TIZ. All hard-start/high-cadence max effort style.
The last bit I would add is that WHEN you do these blocks is as important (maybe more) as HOW you do them.
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Me?
Cooked up plan:
Will try to push 1st week as is (indoors unfortunately). Might decrease or drop completely intensity from 3 followup weeks, depending on feeling. But will keep pushing Z1/Z2 volume.
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Yep! Answering your question depends on training history, etc.
LV Short Power Build
Gotcha
I’m a former cat 2, age 40, been racing 15 years
Last year I was at 90% of my best peak power
This year I’m at 80% best peak power
Was off bike 10 weeks due to injury and back on it 6 weeks now.
Usually have little issues eating tss. Have noticed back to back days impact me a tad more this year. That might be due to the 10week or 8 weeks I was off.
I have a race in 8 weeks and want to do well at so trying to coming up with an idea to make up for limited time on bike
Probably wouldn’t have you do a VO2max block, but instead work on bringing up threshold under what you currently have, and then do some top end the last 4 weeks.
Likely you aren’t able to handle the same volume as before due to the time off and having a little bit less of a base established this season, and yeah, probably a bit of a drop off in VO2max from the lower volume.
8 weeks from race time, you may not see all the benefits of doing a block, but it’s not the worst timing in the world. Typically I get better results from people who do some extensive work near threshold first.
Depending on your daily schedule, I’d have you do 3x per week probably MWF, especially because you don’t have the deep base to really support doing more than that. The rest of your volume all very easy, like 55-60% of FTP and maintain your normal riding volume if you can.
That’s my $0.02.
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Thank you.
I went hard Tue and wed this week and will race Sunday, body didn’t like the idea of intervals today with a b race in 2 weeks.
The shortened season for me is weird to handle. I’m use to having around 80-100ctl right now and I’m at 40
Stuff happens. I was north of 70 until a crash, got going for a few weeks and now upper respiratory thing… it’s been a season like that for me, too.
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