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VO2 power number not matching VO2 HR

Brenda RossBrenda Ross
in General Training Discussions

Hi PnP peeps. This question is from a friend, who just started working with power. Since I to have just started working with power in November, but never came across this issue when I was doing my VO2 work  I could not help her out. I thought I might post the question here to see if anyone has an explanation.

She is not coached by EN but is using some of the phyilosophy that we get here in the house. She listened to the short course stuff that RnP put out and has just finished 6 weeks of Zone 4 work and is now doing the VO2 work. She did a bike test  the other day so she got her new FTP number. Her new FTP is 179, so 205 is 120% of that.

She did a three  VO2 intervals at 120% of her FTP on Friday in her bike. She hit each of the intervals at the prescribed number, but did not feel that it felt like Zone 5 and her HR came up with Zone 3. What should she think of this.  She uses a Garmin TCX. When looking at her charts after the ride what number should she be looking at. During her intervals she came up with an avg power of 207, 207, 211. Should she be looking at avg power, or maybe something else like:

xpower

max power?????

I use power agent so i am not sure what to tell her.

Any advice?

I asked her if in her test the other day she pushed as hard and she could and felt that the number she came up with was accurate and she said yes, (I guess 8 weeks ago she was at a FTP fo 162 or 160) so it confuses me that if her FTP is 179 and 120% of it is 205 that she would be able to ride at that number and not feel like it was hard.

I know that my VO2 intervals were brutal.

Oh one last thing. She did the intervals for 1m30sec, not 2m30sec like us and it looks like her recovery was 2m30sec. Would that make a difference?

Comments

  • Coach RichCoach Rich
    Simple: push the watts and ignore heart rate. HR won't have time to rise anywhere near a Vo2 level on these intervals.
  • Brenda RossBrenda Ross
    Thanks Coach R, I will let her know.
  • mgraffeomgraffeo
    One other piece, Brenda. Most coaches across sports recommend that, when doing VO2 work, you keep the rest intervals to equal to the work intervals, so if your friend is doing 1:30 sets, the rest shouldn't be longer than 1:30. Too much recovery ends up meaning that you don't get as much benefit from the workout.
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