increasing V02 max

There's no simple answer to your question. A quick simple answer is ride hard as to Max VO2 training can be only accomplished by hard efforts above the anaerobic threshold note that aerobic conditioning doesn't necessarily translate as an increase of Max V02 .
you need to follow a program w a good combination of high intensity efforts for short periods of time and less intense efforts for longer periods of time.
A coach could be definitely helpful assisting you to gauge the intensity and duration of those efforts. 😉

bikeguy said:

Quite simply, I would appreciate some advice on how to increase my V02 max. Fire away, oh ye of cycling wisdom.

How are you going to test your VO2 Max to know if the training program is successful?

bikeguy said:

Quite simply, I would appreciate some advice on how to increase my V02 max. Fire away, oh ye of cycling wisdom.

intervals. try 2 minute intervals at your 4 minute TT pace. also, do 5 minute intervals at your 10 minute TT pace. make sure there are no downhills. keep the pace as even as possible without any interuptions. recovery should be about 5-10 minutes in between efforts. do 4 to 8 of these intervals per workout.
threshold work is also good - just longer intervals at your 1 hour pace.(not as beneficial as above workouts.

So the general consensus seems to be to ride like a madman for a length of time that first almost completely taxes your anaerobic system and then almost completely taxes your aerobic system.. like riding a 2-5 minute effort. Sounds like fun.

Gruppo, by V02 max lab testing, I already had one done, there's a thread on the bottom of this page about the results of my 1st test. It's about 60 ml-kg-min-1 right now.

Thnx for your advice.

Quite frankly if you want to build Vo2 running would suit the purpose more than cycling. Though most cyclists (me included) dont like to run for pleasure.
The idea is the same as cycling though you have do sprints where your heart rate spikes and muscles are taxed getting o2 .
Cycling: All out effort for 2-5 minutes on a flat , 3-4 min active recovery. Repeat .
Running: Sprint 1-3 minutes, 4-5 min active recovery. Repeat
The times for sprints , recovery vary by person according to current Vo2, max speed reached, peak heart rate, recovery heart rate.

bikeguy said:

So the general consensus seems to be to ride like a madman for a length of time that first almost completely taxes your anaerobic system and then almost completely taxes your aerobic system.. like riding a 2-5 minute effort. Sounds like fun.

Gruppo, by V02 max lab testing, I already had one done, there's a thread on the bottom of this page about the results of my 1st test. It's about 60 ml-kg-min-1 right now.

Thnx for your advice.

waveeq said:

Quite frankly if you want to build Vo2 running would suit the purpose more than cycling. Though most cyclists (me included) dont like to run for pleasure.
The idea is the same as cycling though you have do sprints where your heart rate spikes and muscles are taxed getting o2 .
Cycling: All out effort for 2-5 minutes on a flat , 3-4 min active recovery. Repeat .
Running: Sprint 1-3 minutes, 4-5 min active recovery. Repeat
The times for sprints , recovery vary by person according to current Vo2, max speed reached, peak heart rate, recovery heart rate.

i wouldn't recomend doing any running workouts if you are concerned with cycling performance. you need to ride the bike during these workouts so your legs can adapt too.

bikeguy said:

Quite simply, I would appreciate some advice on how to increase my V02 max. Fire away, oh ye of cycling wisdom.

specifically, you need to ride at an intensity that elicits or comes close to eliciting VO2max. however, work of a lower intensity will also increase VO2max. it would also be better to better to set a goal of increasing maximal aerobic power (MAP) as this can be measured with the use of a power meter, and could thus be easier (or more regular) than testing actual VO2max.

ric

bikeguy said:

So the general consensus seems to be to ride like a madman for a length of time that first almost completely taxes your anaerobic system and then almost completely taxes your aerobic system.. like riding a 2-5 minute effort. Sounds like fun.

Gruppo, by V02 max lab testing, I already had one done, there's a thread on the bottom of this page about the results of my 1st test. It's about 60 ml-kg-min-1 right now.

Thnx for your advice.

Efforts that will specifically target your MAP/VO2max, are efforts of at least 3-mins and up to ~ 8-minutes. The intensity does not need to be "all-out", for e.g., riding at 80% of MAP will increase MAP (and TT power).

ric

waveeq said:

Quite frankly if you want to build Vo2 running would suit the purpose more than cycling. Though most cyclists (me included) dont like to run for pleasure.
The idea is the same as cycling though you have do sprints where your heart rate spikes and muscles are taxed getting o2 .
Cycling: All out effort for 2-5 minutes on a flat , 3-4 min active recovery. Repeat .
Running: Sprint 1-3 minutes, 4-5 min active recovery. Repeat
The times for sprints , recovery vary by person according to current Vo2, max speed reached, peak heart rate, recovery heart rate.

There would be no reason whatsoever to do running intervals to increase VO2max, unless you wanted to increase your running VO2max. In fact doing running intervals to increase cycling VO2max, would be a waste of time, as some of the adpatations that occur are specific to the joint angle and velocity trained and are specific to the muscles that are used. For either running or cycling you really need a minimum "on" period of at least 3-minutes.

Heart rate is pretty immaterial, and in general it's best to keep a monotonic effort going measured by power output. if you keep power the same for each interval, it's likely that HR will continue to peak higher for each interval, and will most likely be in excess of 90% HRmax.

Speed has nothing to do with VO2max intervals unless you're doing running intervals (which *shouldn't* be done to improve cycling fitness)

ric

Thnx for advice, Ric and Velomanct. The reason I'm focusing on V02 max is because I think of all the training I can do, that this will yield the fastest increase in performance as MAP should scale up automatically as V02 max increases. I have done barely any efforts of 3-8 min length, most of what I have done has been 30 second sprints (not so many) and 20-90 minute rides at high intensity (20 min) to tempo (90 minutes). I won't be doing a lot of V02 max tests as they cost quite a bit, and a power meter is too expensive for me and I'm sure it needs to be setup correctly to get correct results + cost of software, so I'm not considering it right now.