Why VO2 Max Workouts?<\/h2>\n
As I discussed in podcast 66<\/a>, raising the ceiling on your fitness is important to ensure continued growth and improvement in your cycling fitness. VO2 max workouts are the perfect way to push your body beyond its comfort zone and force it to adapt and improve. \u00a0Here's an analogy for you: if you put a plan in a room with a 3-foot ceiling, once it grows into the ceiling it begins to spread out to the sides. \u00a0It never gets taller. \u00a0If you raise the ceiling to 10 feet, the plant has a lot more room to grow before it begins to spread out.<\/p>\n Your fitness is like that plant: if you never raise the ceiling, you'll never be able to grow. \u00a0That's why these VO2 max workouts are so effective at improving your body's ability to perform and raising your fitness level<\/a>: they force you to train where it hurts and push your limits. \u00a0Many cyclists don't like to push beyond their limits or train “where it hurts” so they leave those big breakthrough fitness gains out on the road. \u00a0By using the two VO2 max workouts included at the end of this article, you'll realize bigger fitness gains and more performance in under an hour per workout.<\/p>\n Click through the jump for two free VO2 max workouts, an explanation of why they work so well and a downloadable cheat sheet to follow when you're on the trainer!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The goal of this kind of workout is to deplete your anaerobic energy stores (or your W' as I discuss in this podcast<\/a>) and force your body to work hard to adapt its aerobic energy system.\u00a0 Specifically, you'll challenge your body with a number of different intensities and durations, starting with zone 5 and tickling zone 7 toward the end.\u00a0 You'll start with a modest 3 minutes at 105% of your FTP, immediately ramp up to a minute at lower zone 6 and then upper zone 6.\u00a0 The second set of intervals starts significantly harder, just above your zone 5 for a couple of minutes and ramps up to a\u00a0 full gas zone 7 effort for the last 30 seconds.\u00a0 Both intervals simulate attacks or climbs in a race or group ride and can be made harder by increasing the intensity of the 4 minute recovery between each interval set from easy spinning to sweet spot intensity.<\/p>\n You'll repeat each interval set 3 times for about 45 minutes worth of work.\u00a0 Here's what the workout looks like:<\/p>\n Repeat that sequence 3 times.\u00a0 Be sure to warm up and cool down appropriately.<\/p>\n A very similar ramp style workout as the 3221, this interval workout relies on longer duration intervals to achieve the similar W' depletion and aerobic benefit.\u00a0 The intensities are dialed back a little bit to ensure you're able to complete the efforts and the recovery intensity is cranked up a little bit to make sure your body can't completely clear out all the junk before the next interval starts.\u00a0 By the end of each interval, you should be fighting to stay with the intensity just a little bit, which is exactly how your body will be forced to adapt.<\/p>\n You'll repeat this interval set 3 times giving you about 45 minutes worth of effort:<\/p>\n Repeat that sequence 3 times with appropriate warmup and cool down built around it.<\/p>\n Take a look at the image below and you'll get an idea of what a 3+2 interval block and a 2+1 interval block looks like:<\/p>\n The above workout is a variation of the 3221 workout I listed above. \u00a0It is a double 3+2 and double 2+1 workout back to back. \u00a0Of interest to us here is the W' depletion and how much time is spent below 50% and 25% of W'. \u00a0If you look closely at the graph, W' drops to under 50% after the first 3+2 interval. \u00a0It dips again during the second interval, diving below 25% for the first time. \u00a0The 2+1 intervals serve to continue the trend of working below 50% W' for much of the rest of the workout.<\/p>\n The table at the bottom of the graph is just as telling, showing that about 19.5 minutes of a 45 minute workout were spent below 50% W'. \u00a0Four and a half minutes was spent below 25% W', meaning the body has very little anaerobic energy left to use and is stimulated to increase oxygen carrying capacity and utilization.<\/p>\nThe 3221:<\/h2>\n
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The 3\/3\/3<\/h2>\n
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What Should These VO2 Max Workouts Look Like?<\/h2>\n
![\"VO2](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/vo2variationworkout-1024x878.png\")
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