Question on Coggan Power Level 5 (VO2max)

[frenchyge]

http://www.peakscoachinggroup.com/PowerTrainingChapter.pdf

Page 16, 3rd column describes an L5 Average Power (% of FT) as 106-120%. Does that column indicate the average power of just the work portion of the interval, or the average power that should be maintained for the entire workout (work + rest periods), minus warmup and cooldown?

In other words, is it possible to get the benefit by just including ~5 min periods of 106-120% of FT power in an everyday ride, or is it necessary to have a shorter, high-intensity, recovery deprived *workout* to produce the desired adaptations?

 

[acoggan]

Work periods only - if you include the rest periods as well, the average power will be significantly less than 100% of functional threshold power (and the normalized power will be ~100% of functional threshold power, at least if you're hammering yourself the way you should be ).

Any continuous effort of 3 min or longer at (or above) the indicated intensity could be considered a "VO2max interval". IOW, you don't necessarily have to do these as part of a shorter, structured workout with specific rest periods. You *might*, though, be able to train at a slightly higher intensity and make better progress if did do them that way.

BTW, here's a couple of recent articles that are semi-related to your question:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...d&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16177614&query_hl=1

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...d&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15387806&query_hl=1

(I found these interesting because 1) my long-standing habit has been to take just 2.5 min rest between 5 min intervals, since that "felt right", 2) the fact that blood lactate levels in the 2nd study were close to the OBLA level of 4 mmol/L, which is in keeping with the normalized power concept, and 3) the total work duration in both studies was 24 min, which is consistent with my experience that doing 6 x 5 min at such an intensity is a lot harder than doing 5 x 5 min.)

 

[frenchyge]

Great! Thanks for the clarification Andy.

Part of what drove my questioning was whether a shorter (<1hr), higher interval level, and higher *NP* workout would produce greater results. I'll take a look at the studies.

 

[Spunout]

Work periods only - if you include the rest periods as well, the average power will be significantly less than 100% of functional threshold power (and the normalized power will be ~100% of functional threshold power, at least if you're hammering yourself the way you should be ).

Any continuous effort of 3 min or longer at (or above) the indicated intensity could be considered a "VO2max interval". IOW, you don't necessarily have to do these as part of a shorter, structured workout with specific rest periods. You *might*, though, be able to train at a slightly higher intensity and make better progress if did do them that way.

BTW, here's a couple of recent articles that are semi-related to your question:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...d&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16177614&query_hl=1

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...d&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15387806&query_hl=1

(I found these interesting because 1) my long-standing habit has been to take just 2.5 min rest between 5 min intervals, since that "felt right", 2) the fact that blood lactate levels in the 2nd study were close to the OBLA level of 4 mmol/L, which is in keeping with the normalized power concept, and 3) the total work duration in both studies was 24 min, which is consistent with my experience that doing 6 x 5 min at such an intensity is a lot harder than doing 5 x 5 min.)

Good question, and good response. This supports a lot of VO2Max training ideas of reducing the rest interval as one gains fitness. I made it to 6:3 (four intervals) this season, and if you ask me another three minutes of recovery would just be boring and would lead to cooling down.

 

[whoawhoa]

Good question, and good response. This supports a lot of VO2Max training ideas of reducing the rest interval as one gains fitness. I made it to 6:3 (four intervals) this season, and if you ask me another three minutes of recovery would just be boring and would lead to cooling down.

I've always done 5:5, going from 4 intervals to 5 more recently. Would I gain something by decreasing the rest as I get fitter before notching the power up?

 

[frenchyge]

The first study addresses that question. The work period level didn't improve appreciably with the longer rest, and the work VO2 was slightly higher with the 2-min rest (vs. 1 or 4 min rests).

From the study:
"CONCLUSIONS: Under self-paced conditions, varying rest duration in a range of 1 to 4 min had limited impact on performance during repeated 4-min high-intensity exercise bouts. Approximately 120 s of active recovery may provide an appropriate balance between intracellular restitution and maintenance of high VO(2) on-kinetics."

 

[yzfrr11]

There is one important factor that the studies did not address. Mental stress is much lower (for me) with a 1:1 ratio for level 5 work. Total VO2 is only slightly higher with shorter rest intervals.

 

[frenchyge]

There is one important factor that the studies did not address. Mental stress is much lower (for me) with a 1:1 ratio for level 5 work.

Sure it does: (from the first link) "...peak RPE was slightly lower during the 4-min rest condition (17.1 +/- 1.3, 17.7 +/- 1.5, 16.8 +/- 1.5, P < 0.05)."