Tomorrow I have Kaiser planned as my VO2 session which is 6x3 min 120% with 3 min rests between each interval. Last week was Spencer which is nearly the same as Kaiser but one less interval. I struggled to complete Spencer and added a few more minutes of recovery before the last two intervals.
So my question is, is there a variance of adaptation that will occur if I substitute Kaiser for Dade -1 which has 3 sets of 3x2 min 120% with 2 minutes of recovery between intervals, and each set has a 6 minute recovery afterwards. Both workouts have 18 minutes at 120% but one just adds more recovery. Is the variance less than say, a workout with 3 mins at 120% but longer rest between like 4 or 5 minutes?
If it were me, I would repeat Spencer and if I could complete it as planned (unlike last week) would skip off feeling pleased with myself afterwards, and more confident about the next workoutâŚ
Do Huffaker - it is a good baseline Vo2 workout. If you canât complete it, youâre going to struggle with any Vo2 workout. Keep at it until you nail it, and then move up.
Anytime you donât think you can make it - bail out of the interval for 10-but-no-more-than-12 seconds (Chad has covered this in podcasts before and IT WORKS). Donât let your heart-rate start coming down - which it will if you go longer than 15 secs. Youâll still be tasting metal in your mouth and will be able to hear your pulse in your ears, but your muscles will slightly recover before your aerobic system knows it doesnât need to supply as much oxygenâŚand then pick it right back up and finish the interval. If you do this, go all the way to the end. Donât bail on the workout â just bail on the intervals for 10 secs at a time.
It will yield a different adaptation but still be useful. However, if it was the 3 minute intervals I was struggling with, I would personally want to revisit that particular effort in order to keep my self confidence up rather than reduce to 2 minute intervals. As mentioned above, even if you include a short 5-10 second backpedal.
An example not based on VO2max efforts - doing 3 x 20 Sweetspot efforts definitely has a different effect than 6 x 10 SS efforts but most importantly for me it is the âknowingâ that I can get through the 3x20 that makes me believe Iâm stronger, which Iâm pretty sure reduces RPE in future workouts.
Makes sense. Iâll likely try to complete the 6x3min workout and see how I feel. Another thing I thought about, if you increase recovery time to 10 minutes it makes everything easy, so there is definitely a difference with the shorter recovery valleys.
I hadnât thought about Huffaker in this way, but I think youâre right about it being a baseline VO2Max workout. I would add that even this you could reduce the intensity of the workout by up to 4-5% and still be getting the intended training benefit. Below 95% intensity, I would start to question if your FTP is set too high.
Getting on-top of the gear for VO2 max intervals is crucial.
i.e. not rocking up to the work interval from the recovery valley with a cadence you might use for slow force work!
Having to create an extra 25-30 rpm to lift yourself back to that 90-100 rpm range is going to zapp any punch out of your legs pretty quickly at 105-115% of FTP.
Not only this but cruising in at 90-100rpm means the first 20-30 seconds of the interval will hurt a lot less than they would otherwise.
For me a VO2 max interval starts 15 seconds before the recovery finishes.
I found that technique to be very helpful too. Spin up to 100-110 a few seconds before the interval hits. In my case, I would struggle with the last 30s though. I am training for a fairly demanding ride up some hills so I will need to really work on my 3-5 minute power. Outside it still seems easier.
I rode either a semi-compact or compact on a 28t for about 3 years. Perfectly manageable but on some of the grades around here it made things unnecessarily muscular when that wasnât the purpose of the ride.
I put a 32t on for a trip to Spain, for shallower but longer grades, and kept it on ever since.
Power output isnât any different but that extra 5-10rpm makes a world of difference for longevity. When out of the saddle unless the pitch is over 20% it can still feel quite comfortable.
Unfortunately Iâm limited to 30t rear with my current derailleur. I may put on a 34t inner ring and hope I can shift to my 52t big ring. Thatâs about all I can get without totally changing my drivetrain. Right now on these hills Iâm spinning around 55 rpm on 30% grades.
I had the Mills VO2Max workout today. What I âlikedâ about it was the 2 minute intervals were descending after the first 45 seconds at 120% and then 1:15 down to 110%. I was able to finish the workout and felt like it was a good one. Something to consider.
Note that the warmup is very quick - only one minute.
How did this end up? I found this post because I was about to ask the same question and was redirected here (pretty cool feature). I had to backpedal during the last 2 intervals of Spencer today. My HR hit 194 and I was in a world of hurt.
So, I decided to go ahead and try to do Kaiser (6x3min at 120%) and my legs would immediately flood. I made it 3 intervals before quitting. I thought maybe my ftp setting was too high but not long after testing it I did 3x16 over-unders and it felt actually kind of easy.
My best guess is that I havenât done efforts like these in a while and that Iâm building my base into my ceiling and the gap is closing moreso than earlier this year when my ftp was lower but VO2 Max was well above 120%. I could probably stand to take a rest week as well.
Looking back I would have liked to do the 3 sets of 3x2 minutes. I think that third minute really puts me in a bad spot.
