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Vo2 power intervals - newbie question

renasrenas
in General Training Discussions

 Hi All,

I am on my first season of EN and just finished the week 9 of the Advanced OS Plan.

Yes, as everyone I realized that it's much harder than I thought, and yes it works. I tested myself and in 8 weeks I raised my FTP on 7% and shaved 30" on my 5k. The only problem is that is really hard and often impossible to hit the intervals at 120% after I raised the FTP.

I am able to do the 4x[5x30"(30")] at 120% of FTP but is just impossible to hit the 2x4'(4') during the Saturday ride. I can keep these intervals just few watts above my FTP and it feels like an all out pace for me.

Should I change the duration of these intervals until my body adapt to it or just keep the duration with lower intensity?

Thanks everyone.

 

Comments

  • Al TruscottAl Truscott

    Hello Renato! Great job on raising your FTP. But since you've done that, it seems like your top end power also needs a boost (VO2). So as to the question, decrease the power goal or the length of the interval, I'd vote for decreasing the length of each interval. By how much? Here's my thought: your target is to hit at least 110% of your FTP; take the 8 minutes total you want to do at that power (zone) and split it into small enough intervals so that you can complete the whole 8 minutes with an equal amount of rest. It might be 4 x (4 x 30/30) or 4 x (2 x 1 min/1 min) or whatever interval works to get you there. Then, next time, lengthen the interval a bit, by 30-60 seconds, until you get to the 4 x 4. That high end power responds relatively quickly to training, so jumping from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 minute intervals is feasible over a four week period.

  • renasrenas
    Hi All,

    Looks like a good plan, I will try to do that this weekend.

    Top end power have always been my "weakest point" , my mean maximal charts always looked pretty flat.

    Thanks.
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