VO2 Max: The Staggering Difference Between Average and Great

Although we have covered this topic in the past I recently was browsing YouTube for bicycle race results when I saw this video with the above name from a very engaging lady who goes by Century Ride. So I had to check it out. Very well done!

Of course once she introduces content from none other than Dr. Peter Attia (I reference his work frequently) I knew this was going to be great. Home – Peter Attia

So your assignment now is to watch the video. I have a few notes below. 

Pay attention to the Line of Independence, Dr Andy Galpin segment. Basically once your VO2  Max declines below a certain level you are no longer able to care for yourself. 

A high VO2 Max Reduces your risk to the Four Horsemen of Death – by 5X. Nothing comes close. Certainly no medicines, pills, supplements, procedures, surgeries. So exercise. Even brisk walking makes a difference.

As a reminder we covered the Four Horsemen a while ago. 

The Four Horsemen of Death – Keep Riding! 

If you liked that video consider subscribing to: The Signal from Century Ride

Also look up Dr. Attia’s podcast The Drive and weekly newsletter. Fantastic materials. 

For those cyclists/ runners keeping track the 80/20 plan breaks down very easily. 

Four rides a week. Three at Zone 2 and this means holding it between super easy Zone 1 and Easy Zone 2. Yes, you may do a short excursion into Z3 to clear a small incline but only be a few heartbeats. 

And one Interval / hard training day with a lot of Zone 4 including periodic bursts into Zone 5. Those will be short. They should come at the end of your four to six minute Zone 4 effort. Then recover for the same amount of time as the block before tackling the next one. 

Something like this:

1 ride of 5 x 5 intervals 

Or 4 x 4 / 6 minutes at Z4 to 5

Norwegian 4×4 training

I do 5×5 making for a near perfect one-way effort to Starbucks in Newport Beach. 

15 to 20 minute warm up. Mostly Z1 to Z3 with one or two quick bursts to get the cardio system and legs ready for training. 

5 minutes On at a steady Power. Much like Dr. Attia describes in the video at first it doesn’t feel like much. But don’t then overdo it as once you blow up from over exertion your entire 5×5 is over. 

So here is the real math as 5×5 is not 25 minutes. It is 50. 5 at effort and 5 at Z2 to recover. That is 10 minutes each set. 

20 minutes warmup plus 50 minutes of intervals and you have been riding 1:10. As I said for me that is home to Starbucks roughly 23 miles. 

One mental trick that helps. If you are using a power meter / HRM like the Garmin Edge 830 (my current platform) create a Power training screen with Time, Cadence, Power, Heart Rate. 

That’s it! No speed. No distance. Neither of these matter when you are training for Power. 

Guess what? Your average speeds will Increase. Quite a bit. 

Happy riding and training. Wishing you a very healthy VO2 Max. 

Yes, you earned it!