I’ve been seeing very solid steady improvement during my VO2 sets lately. My weapon of choice for the last build cycle was 5x5’x5’ at 112-115%. Although I’m sure not all of the gains are from actual fitness, I’m surprised by how much they have gone up 3 weeks in a row. Here is the progression:
March 17th: 283W/283W/280W/286W/283W = 283W Average
March 25th: 303W/302W/299W/305W/303W = 302.4 Average
April 1st: 310W/315W/314W/308W/312W = 311.8 Average
That’s almost 10 Watts per week gain on these. Although the first round on March 17th was slightly under estimated (I came out of doing these a little too fresh I think) the next two rounds were very painful. I could barely make it home after the 2nd one and the 3rd one really hurt as well.
This week will be a true test since I’m coming off 3 days of rest last week, totally of the bike Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Although this weekend’s workouts were quite hard (SST and 2x20’ FTP work) I’m still thinking I’m more rested this week and ready to really go hard on the 5x5’x5’s. I thought about switching up to another VO2 workout I’m curious what kind of gains I can see this week. If I hit 320 watts average for the 5 intervals I know I’m onto something good.
Here's how a 5x5'x5' looks in WKO+.
Here's how a 5x5'x5' looks in WKO+.
Not commuting to work on the bike is really lowering my junk miles significantly. It’s most likely the reason I’m able to get a quality 10-12 hours a week and see such gains.
On a side note, this weekend was the first successful set of 2x20’s in over a season. I hate steady state intervals and I was able to complete both @ exactly FTP. I will shoot for 102-105% FTP next time for maximum adaptation, but just doing them @ FTP is putting a smile on my face for now.
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