VO2Max Time To Exhaustion

TLDR: What can you get from this musing? How to use your maximal aerobic wattages to get a solid VO2Max Workout completed without the normal “do X watts for Y minutes”. It’s refreshing.

I like to call this workout a VO2Max TTE, and it is highly individualized based on your recent performances. Shouldn’t all workouts be this individualized? Well, yes and no, but that’s maybe another musing for another day.

Before we jump too far into this VO2Max training musing, while I will be basing the information off of WKO5, you could get a good estimate of your initial target by looking around at your power curve on Strava or Training Peaks…maybe you search for power best around 4-6 minutes and select the wattage that you feel you could rail for 5 minutes plus or minus…then add 10 more watts to it—put a carrot out there!

As you can see under the Performance Markers tab, I can select my PVO2Max. This is a current snapshot, but when I last performed this workout pre-injury, it was 480W…

So let’s get into it.

Here’s the power file:

Notice the more spikey nature as opposed to a flatter power signature due to the fact that when the power starts to fade a touch, the brain is hyper motivated to dig in some more, WITHOUT EXPLODING! This is such a great skill to adapt to—going hard, someone stronger turns the screw a bit, and we stay attached. 

We know we can do it in a race because we’ve been there in the dojo.

We clocked a lot of VO2Max Training Time with 4 efforts—over 20min TIZ, which is not the highest quantiy of Time in Zone…a classic 5x5 would possible be substantially more, but a huge highlight of this form is the huge amount at 100% VO2 and over 20min at 85% max VO2:

Not to mention, the fact that the first one was 7 minutes at 484W! If you told me I had to do that on paper, I don’t think I would have even tried….too hard I’d say. But the carrot was put in front of me (a carrot of watts over duration), and it all just flowed.

If you don’t have WKO, try 115-120% FTP as your carrot, and even if the number isn’t super precise, you are going to get a very similar workout and really make gains from it!!

Some Other Things:

Thank you to BIKE TIRES DIRECT. While I prefer to support my Local Bike Shop, it’s impossible for them to ALWAYS have the exact tire I need. Check out BTD for a HUGE selection.

Current Challenge: dialing it down after a fun end of season build (huh? Had to be following on Strava to get it), and time to focus all on the strength gains and torque work.

What am I listening to? There have been some cloudy days, so this.  Drake, Peak.

What am I reading?   A book by Questlove.

Coffee: Hatchet’s Colombia Pastor Ordonez Pink Bourbon. 

Enough for now….flying back from my season break. Can’t wait to start training!!! Tickets booked for Feb Arizona start of 2025!!!!