As an older cyclist it’s a good idea to have at least one Vo2 session a week for longevity.
How do I incorporate this when using create my custom plan?
I’ve tried changing the plan with different goals such as Increasing FTP and faster group rides but although some weeks include a Vo2 session it’s not consistently doing one a week as wanted.
I think maybe that I create a plan and then substitute a ride with manually importing a Vo2 workout for most weeks, except the recovery week.
Any better suggestions?
could try a polarized build plan they always have a vo2 workout, instead of using custom plan builder
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Hey @chacho 
It looks like you’ve manually added a Specialty Phase with VO2 Max workouts!
However, I wanted to ask you if you’re training for an event or if you are training to maintain fitness.
TR plans are designed to take you through a Base>>Build>>Specialty Phase sequence, each designed with specific energy systems (zones) to improve upon the other and bring about growth to your fitness. This is why not all phases will include 1 day of VO2 Max. Think of training/fitness as stepping stones.
More info here on how TR builds plans: How TrainerRoad Builds Adaptive Training Plans for You
That said, if you still just want 1 day of VO2 Max like you have now, you also have the option to use TrainNow to recommend a VO2 Max workout for the day without having to manually set a plan and train as you go.
More info here: TrainNow Overview
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I don’t think this is a good idea, even if you want to maximize longevity. The structure of training plans is not accidental, there is a reason why the base and certain speciality phases do not have (much) VO2max work.
To meaningfully increase your VO2max, you need to work on your base first so that it can support growth of your VO2max. And you need to change the stimulus, doing VO2max all the time would lead to plateauing.
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Thankyou for your feedback @oreocookie . I base my research from Peter Attia who I respect enormously for longevity advice.
However he recommends a 4x4 protocol of high-intensity exercise, involving four minutes of high-intensity exercise followed by four minutes of recovery, repeated 4-6 times, incorporating warm-up and cool-down. While the intensity of VO2 max training should be very high (above 90% of VO2 max), Peter Attia suggests 1-2 VO2 max sessions per week for most individuals, alongside 1-2 sessions of steady-state cardio at 70-85% of max heart rate to improve aerobic endurance.
For me this is too much and even after performing VO2 sessions for a few months I rarely go above 1 minute hard intervals with 1 minute easy.
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Thankyou for your advice @Caro.Gomez-Villafane
I have been using the TrainNow facility but I feel I need more structure.
I think if I monitor my Vo2 sessions carefully and replace a hard interval with the Vo2 max every 3 weeks out of 4 and not for the recovery week, then I should be good to follow Peter Attia’s advice to perform at least one VO2 max session a week to improve my zone 5 which is the greatest predictor of lifespan.
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@Caro.Gomez-Villafane No I’m not training for an event, only to gain better healthspan as prescribed by Peter Attia by doing one zone 5 VO2 max session per week.
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I think you are taking advice meant for a different audience (≠ endurance athletes) and apply it to yourself.
- VO2max is positively correlated with longevity — as is having a strong grip and maintain good friendships.
- It isn’t a strong grip that makes you live longer, it simply is a good (enough) measure of overall muscle strength in the upper body. Hence, you wouldn’t want to focus on exercises that strengthen your grip, you’d want to hit the gym and do some strength training for the entire body.
- VO2max is a proxy for a good and healthy cardiovascular system, which is at the center of aerobic sports like cycling and running. Attia’s protocol is very primitive as far as training for cycling goes. It won’t maximize your VO2max nor overall fitness in general.
- If you are (relatively) untrained, VO2max sessions will improve your overall fitness … up to a point. However, a proper training plan will do much better, not least because you need to change your stimuli if you want to see positive adaptations.
- There are lots of recommendations for the general population that do not apply in the same way — or at all — to athletes. Most of us consume tons of pure sugar, for instance. But we also move a metric shirt ton.
If you want to live longer, I’d
- follow a proper training plan for cycling or running and
- do strength training,
- make sure I get good sleep and
- eat well.
- Oh, and I’d make sure to keep in touch with my friends.
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I’m hearing you and noted down, let me know who your friends are and I will contact them forthwith.
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All of this ^
Joe
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Bravo! 
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I honestly don’t think going from trained to a little better trained will improve your lifespan.
There’s a paper out there titled:
Survival of the fittest: VO2max, a key predictor of longevity?
In the abstract it says:
Cardiorespiratory fitness, as measured by maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), is related to functional capacity and human performance and has been shown to be a strong and independent predictor of all-cause and disease-specific mortality. The purpose of this review is to emphasize age-related physiological adaptations occurring with regular exercise training, with specific reference to the main organs (lung, heart, skeletal muscles) involved in oxygen delivery and utilization as well as the importance of exercise training for promoting life expectancy in clinically referred populations. As yet, it is not possible to extend the genetically fixed lifespan with regular exercise training, but to give the years more life.
Influencers that have jumped on the vo2max craze with Norwegian 4x4 bandwagon have incorrectly interpreted this. Researchers measure vo2max because they need some metric to measure. They measure a whole population and they find that the people that have a high vo2max correlates with fitnes and that correlates with a longer life and healthspan. It’s a ‘no duh’ finding.
It’s also a double correlation. One could have an naturally high vo2max but smoke and never exercise. That person is not going to have the longer lifespan/healthspan. They are probably going to get cancer or heart disease and die younger than normal despite their high vo2max.
The problem is that the influencers have incorrectly taken this to mean that they need to specifically train vo2max.
They also don’t mention that basic endurance training also increases vo2max. Sprint interval training increases Vo2max. All exercise increases vo2max until you plateau. To increase healthspan, you just need a life filled with exercise. You don’t need to see how high you can push your vo2max with Norwegian 4x4s.
Attia is a bit of a bio hacker and most definitely an optimizer. He does his vo2max workout and his 3 hours of Inigo San Millan 2mmol of lactate zone 2 (really tempo zone 3) per week and he does that because he thinks it’s the best bang for the buck exercise regime. Attia is also the super A type. His workout routine sounds a bit souless. It’s all indoors. He would be just as healthy not trying to super optimize on an bike trainer by getting outside and doing some sport - running, cycling, hiking, basketball, sculling, whatever.
My point is that if you want to be the best cyclist you can be, then just follow a TR plan. You don’t need to bio hack it to Attia’s preferences. It’s not going to gain you lifespan by doing vo2 instead of threshold work or whatever TR might have served up.
Here is that article:
It says:
Although the VO2max has a significant
genetic component and is affected by the aging
process, it can improve significantly at any age with
regular endurance training by approximately 15–
20% or 0.5.l/min, depending on exercise intensity, in
healthy sedentary/recreationally active humans (23).
Note the key word “endurance training”. They don’t mention vo2max training.
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I like that distinction of healthspan vs. lifespan. 
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Thanks @AJS914
I appreciate your response with the linked research papers and will take a closer look.
We are all looking for the magic bullet and sometimes people like the much respected Dr Attia comes along and provides it for us.
His book outlive is such a good read and the VO2 theory is backed up by so many others.
I will carry on with the researching and you have opened my eyes a little wider for some more investigation and thank you for that 
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Don’t get me wrong. I actually like Attia and most of what he says. I wish I had someone like him as my doc. But, I don’t understand why he’s fallen so hard for the Inigo San Millan “zone 2” and the vo2 stuff and cycling workouts. (I guess he is presenting it as an optimzied hack for cardio fitness.)
Let’s face it - if health and wellness were the #1 goal, we wouldn’t be riding a bike. Yet, here we all are on a performance oriented bike forum.
A bike is a contraption that mostly exercises the front side of the legs (single plane) with no eccentric contractions. There are no lateral, side to side movements. We all know the story of the very fit cyclists that decided to go for a run and then ends up wrecked for days afterwards. How is that good general fitness for life?
The best life fitness would probably be farm fitness. Lots of lifting and strength, being on your feet all day doing constant low intensity exercise. In the modern world lifting weighs and playing tennis or basketball is probably better general fitness than single plane cycling.
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This is a really interesting thread and one close to my heart. It’s interesting to read other aspects of Burtscher et al work. I’ve found this one on Mitochondrial stress and mitokines in aging particularly interesting in light of what structured training purports to achieve. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acel.13770
I’ve also heard about optimising healthspan as primary goal, and that’s my aim.
It’s absolutely soulless. I’m not laser focused on maximizing my healthspan. I want my exercise to be at least somewhat enjoyable not just the equivalent of taking my morning multi-vitamin.
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Also, focusing on improving vo2 max because influencers tell you it will improve your lifespan is not dissimilar to improving your grip strength for the same reason.
Being healthier overall is good, focusing on singular metrics is missing the overall picture.
Still not sure why people landed on 4x4 either but it works fine I guess.
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But is it really the best? I can think of so many reasons why it isn’t, and I reckon it is just easy for him to do without diving too deep into one particular field (here: cycling).
- Focusses on a proxy (VO2max), which seems very unscientific to me. Like several people have mentioned, you wouldn’t prescribe grip exercises only just because grip strength strongly correlates with health and longevity. It seems dumb.
- Easy to stagnate due to not switching the stimulus.
- No proper periodization and progressive overload.
- Focusses on only two types of stimuli, which means other systems in your body aren’t adapting (as much).
- Monotonicity would kill motivation in many people.
I said that he thinks it’s the best. You should send your arguments to Peter Attia.
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