Question about VO2 interval structure in OS plans
I have now reviewed the upcoming OS plan in quite a lot of detail…funny how copy-pasting 14 weeks of workouts into TrainingPeaks will get you focused on the nitty-gritty!!
One interesting thing in the advanced plan is that the VO2 workouts start out with 30/30, ramp up to 45/45 then to 1/1. Two years ago they were set at 2.5/2.5 and last year they were "user selected" and I went with 2/2, ramping up to 2.5/2.5.
What is the logic for the shorter intervals? Sure the 2x(8x1/1) is no walk in the park (although you don't hit that until really late in the plan). But my experience with 5x2.5/2.5 suggests that the longer intervals are certainly do-able.
I'd love to understand a bit about the training logic for the structure here. I thought it might be to make the workouts easier but then I see FTP workouts with z4 intervals of 3x15'(4) and 12(4), 20(4), 12(4) and those are harder workouts than any of the last 2 years' FTP workouts. So perhaps there is some training theory about how the z5 workouts are designed.
Thanks,
Matt
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Comments
My question was about the structure of the intervals themselves. I get the part about doing it acorss the whole plan. So based on the above the logic for the 3030, 45/45 then 1/1 is to do with folks' likely response to accumulated fatigue of the workouts? I will do them as written if that is what is suggested.
With regard to the length of the intervals, I've basically been changing them as I see fit. Started out with 30/30's and worked my way up to 90/90. IMO, these lengths probably vary from person to person, so it's hard to say what's the correct protocol other than not overextending and burning yourself out. 90/90 seems like a pretty good duration for me (the VO2 set starts out managable, but gets much harder towards the end) and I've been doing that for most of the OS. I think I could do a set of 120/120, but that might put me at risk of excessive fatigue.
I didn't do the bike focus plan but I my question came from a similar context...I've been doing 3x(5x1/1) once a week as my easiest of 3 weekly bike workouts and the only reason I haven't gone up to 1.5/1.5 or 2/2 is that I'm pre-OS just maintaining fitness. I think 30/30 sounds very short but then again in the context of some more challenging FTP workouts we'll see how these Thursdays actually feel. I will start as written and go from there.
I don't think you should be able to do Max VO2 beyond 90 secs....I think 2.5 is kinda long for the specific adaptions targeted in this work...I relate it too Interval training in running...if you read Daniels...the duration is short/measued...for a reason and recovery is short so as not to allow for full recovery
...I need to review that and try to correlate it back to this better...but I think there is a fundamental reason/rationale for the intervals length...(having to do with Lactate...) I will repost if I find the information I'm looking for and it makes sense.
I believe 1minl. is optimum...and the key thing is the recovery time...being not to full recovery..
...and the effort level in the recovery time; 65% is what we do, in keeping with the thought of not allowing full recovery (as we do in the run intervals). I've found that my IF for a set of, say, 5 x 1/1 will be 1.0 when I'm doing it correctly.
"At proper pace it takes two minutes to reach VO2 max"
For running "Run between 30" and five minutes per workbout with 3 to 5 minutes being ideal"
Daniel's was in front of me when I read this.
....So I wonder how that translates to the bike...ie. more or less time to reach VO2 Max...that would be the critical question...I have a Carmichael book on training or it may be in Training with Power...I need to peek.
We just use the term VO2max fairly loosely to mean intervals that stress this "system" and are of the sort of efforts that can be maintained for no more than several minutes.
If you are a big believer that "stressing energy systems" matters, you would argue that this is also why you would control the amount of rest between VO2 intervals fairly carefully. If you are a big believer that the only thing that matters is muscle recruitment, then it would be less important. That's beyond my pay grade. :-)
I know one thing , operating above FTP on the run or the bike and I am out of O2 in a hurry.