Your VO2 will determine your ability to both suffer and also recover qwikly. Within this session, you will put yourself firmly in the hurt box and then recover and see what your capability is with a short but hard set of intervals after a recovery period. This session will help you develop that and is great for all cyclists including triathletes (especially draft legal athletes) and mountain bikers.
Each Wednesday I’ll post a Windtrainer Workout that you can do in about 60 minutes to enhance your cycling. See a previous post about training intensity (Levels) to know how hard to work. If you are working directly with Coach Ray he will in most cases prescribe either a Power Zone or Heart Rate Zone to work within if you are training with these tools.
The inspiration for this session comes from Watts On Zwift. I’ve modified it a little bit. You can read the full article here.
2020 Zwift Academy VO2 Capacity
- 9min WU Level II;
- 2min Level I;
- 3min Level III;
- 2min Level I RI;
- 2min Level IV;
- 6min Level I RI;
- 4min Level V;
- 11min Level I;
- 4x 2min Level V, 2min Level I RI;
- 10min CD Level II;
- 10min Stretching
Start the workout with a nine-minute Warm-Up (WU) riding at Level II, followed by two minutes at Level I. Keep your cadence above 90Rpm for the warm-up.
Next up is riding at Level III for three minutes, also keeping your cadence up, this time above 95Rpm.
Take a Rest Interval (RI) next for two minutes at Level I with your cadence above 90Rpm, before going into two minutes at Level IV with your cadence above 95Rpm.
Next up is a Rest Interval (RI) for six minutes at Level I, keep your cadence above 90Rpm.
Ride as hard as you can maintain next for four minutes, this is the key effort in this session. Give it everything you’ve got, hold nothing back.
After this effort, you’ve got eleven minutes of Recovery riding at Level I. The team as Watt’s On Zwift breaks this down further with the first 30 seconds mega-easy, before a minute super-easy, then eight minutes regular-easy and then finishing off with another minute & a half super-easy. Keep your cadence above 90Rpm from the start of the eight-minute segment.
The key set will see how well you have recovered from the four-minute effort earlier and involves two reps of two minutes duration at Level V, with a two-minute Rest Interval (RI) at Level I.
Conclude the intervals with ten minutes of riding at Level II for your Cool Down (CD).
Finish with ten minutes of stretching to assist with your recovery.
If you would like further advice feel free to contact me.
I am the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi – Endurance Sports Consultant.
I specialise in assisting first-timers and recreational athletes to achieve their sporting goals. I can be contacted at coachray@coachray.nz and 021 348 729. Make sure you sign up for my informative newsletter.
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