Hey all.
i just “finished” the 1st week of a 2 week VO2 max boost program (Zwift workouts: VO2max booster program » Week 1 » Day 7 | What's on Zwift?)
in the last workout of the week, there was 4x 20s (@VO2Max power) +20s (@50% VO2Max power). these 4 blocks dont have any rest between them, only the 20s after each VO2Max block.
I could reach half of it, and i could push perhaps a little more, but somehow just by looking what was ahead i stoped in the middle. Heart rate was steady at 90% of max but legs could resist a max of 3-5 blocks (out of the next 20).
My question would be if this is normal in VO2 max training or some rest is missing between each 20x blocks? Th first 6 days were quite ok with a good level of effort, but this last one…hollymoly
Personally, if one lacks expertise to manipulate the plan, I wouldn’t follow any of the Zwift plans at face value.
Generally speaking, a workout to be classified as Vo2 max:
Lower end of VO2 max effort: 105-110% of FTP
Upper end of VO2 max effort: 115-120% of FTP
What I see in the screen, it looks like threshold Effort: to improve your sustained power/lactate threshold. It’s tough, but manageable for up to an hour, so you shouldn’t need a lot of rest.
I’m not intending to stir up trouble, but if this workout seems too challenging, perhaps your FTP is set too high. Consider examining your 1-hour power effort, which should be close to your actual FTP.
According to the workout series’ designers, this workout is meant to let you find your “almost” failure point. You’re supposed to stop when you feel you could not complete one more interval. There’s a link at “What’s on Zwift” to the designer’s training site where they describe each workout in more detail.
So it looks like you approached it pretty much as intended.
Sorry i forgot to mention.
in this program, you are have to adjust your FTP to your VO2Max power (5min).
so the workouts are then based on this altered FTP
Hi.
I took a look at the link and you are right.
in this particular program, someone just added the 4 blocks but not mentioning that you should do it untill failure…:P.
now makes more sense.
thanks