I wanted to share a quick visual comparison of another athlete trying the Hard-Start VO2max workout. This might be helpful for comparing your own data in Strava and dialing in your individualized workout targets.

The athlete wasn’t sure of his precise power targets, so he plugged in something reasonable and gave it a go. After 3x reps he was satisfied that it was hard, but he was still able to produce an extra interval at the end for 4x4min. He reported the session RPE was 8/10. Not bad… but I thought he could he could further optimize this workout.

I noted that his HR was rising through each interval and peaking in the high 180’s, suggesting that VO2 slow component was causing HR to drift higher through each interval.

The intent of the Hard-start workout is to reach near-maximal VO2 as quickly as possible, and decrease power to compensate for the VO2 slow component (a decline in efficiency over time at severe intensity above CP/FTP). Meaning HR should reach near maximal and plateau as power declines, rather than drift up toward maximal at the end of the interval.

Without knowing anything else about this athlete’s HRmax or VO2max, I recommended he try to raise HR all the way into the mid-180’s during the 90 second hard-start. Then dial back power to maintain HR in the mid- to high-180’s

A week later he attempted the same workout, with what I think were much better results:

This time he extended the hard-start intervals until he reached 185 bpm (showing very impressive consistency) then dropped the power to maintain 185 bpm for the remainder of each 4min interval.

Session RPE was 9/10 for only 3x intervals this time, and average power was actually very similar for each rep. I would guess he accumulated relatively more time >90% HRmax & >90% VO2max in just 3x intervals, than he did in 4x the week previously. But it would be nice to confirm that with the VO2master mask.

Interval Prescription Guidelines

If like this athlete you aren’t sure what your interval targets should be, basically just try something that sounds hard and see what happens. Then dial in your targets from there. The workout is nicely self-correcting in that way.

• 90sec Hard-start: Try aiming for your recent 2min or 3min peak power (peak power in the last few months, not your all-time max from 2 years ago…)
• It’s difficult to prescribe this workout based on (eg.) 120% of FTP, because of individual differences in eliciting and maintaining VO2max. Which is why we aim for a heartrate target and monitor RPE
• Hold that power until just before you feel like you’re reaching exhaustion, or just before you begin to hyperventilate
• Drop the resistance or shift down a gear and continue working
• Continue to drop resistance or shift down until you find the balance of maintaining the workload with HR remaining plateaued near maximum.
• Focus on full, steady breathing without hyperventilating
• If you reach a point where you can no longer maintain your HR target, or you begin to hyperventilate. End the interval
• I think 3-4x 4min is a good prescription to start with. If you can do that successfully for a couple weeks, go for 5min intervals. Extend the interval length rather than increase number of intervals