Rowe & King

Give this session a go, to help improve your VO2max.

As a reminder, VO2 max, or maximal oxygen uptake, is a key indicator of your aerobic capacity and endurance performance. It measures how efficiently your body can utilise oxygen during intense exercise. Improving your VO2max allows you to sustain higher intensities for longer periods, which is crucial for cycling performance.

Three rules:
1. Pace it like a 3-set workout, not a 12-rep one. Hold something back for set 3. 120-140% is a range for a reason.
2. Don’t watch heart rate during the reps — it lags too far behind to be useful. Pace off power or RPE.
3. Try and stay seated during the efforts, and maintain composure. Fuel it.

Save this. Try it twice this week with 72 hours between, and watch your top end improve.

If Zone 2 builds the engine, VO2max sets the size of the cylinders.

VO2max is the second strongest physiological predictor of cycling performance after threshold (Bassett & Howley, 2000), and unlike threshold, which is largely a percentage of VO2max, it responds best to short, sharp, repeated intervals (the type of training that hurts).

Norwegian sports scientist Bent Rønnestad’s lab has spent the last decade showing that ‘short intervals’ (think 30 seconds hard, 15 seconds easy, repeated) accumulate more time near VO2max than longer 5-minute efforts, with less perceived suffering.

We use these sorts of efforts with every R&K client through the spring build.

Swipe for the why….

Next, we’ll post a typical VO2max session for you to have a go at.

Five signs you’re riding your steady (Z2) days too hard:
1️⃣Your heart rate creeps above 75% of max in the second hour.
2️⃣You can’t speak in full sentences on the climbs.
3️⃣Your legs feel sore, without riding hard.
4️⃣You’re hungrier than you’d expect on a 2-hour ride.
5️⃣Your next intervals feel harder than they should / maybe you can’t complete them?

Any of these resonate?

If so, they may be a sign you’ve drifted into the moderate-intensity trap, where every ride is ‘quite hard’. Pull it back. The endurance adaptation you came for happens under your first lactate threshold (LT1), not at it. Stay purely aerobic for the purest endurance gains.

💭 Note - there’s always space for good old fashioned smash fest on the weekend with your mates, but if you’re going to - be clear that’s what you’re doing, and that it’s not a pure endurance ride (which can still work).

Five signs you’re riding your steady (Z2) days too hard:
1️⃣Your heart rate creeps above 75% of max in the second hour.
2️⃣You can’t speak in full sentences on the climbs.
3️⃣Your legs feel sore, without riding hard.
4️⃣You’re hungrier than you’d expect on a 2-hour ride.
5️⃣Your next intervals feel harder than they should / maybe you can’t complete them?

Any of these resonate?

If so, they may be a sign you’ve drifted into the moderate-intensity trap, where every ride is ‘quite hard’. Pull it back. The endurance adaptation you came for happens under your first lactate threshold (LT1), not at it. Stay purely aerobic for the purest endurance gains.

💭 Note - there’s always space for good old fashioned smash fest on the weekend with your mates, but if you’re going to - be clear thats not a pure endurance ride (which can still work)

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Eight hours in the Alps. Thirty degrees at the foot of the Galibier. Two more cols after it. Your L’Etape, or any other super endurance Gran Fondo / Sportive, will be decided in part by what you drink - and most of us misjudge it.

Sweat rates on a hot L’Etape day commonly hit 1.5–2 litres per hour, with sodium losses of 500–1500 mg per litre. Over a full day that’s 12+ litres of fluid and 8+ grams of sodium walking out through your skin. Replace none of it and you cramp by km 100. Replace it with plain water alone and you risk hyponatremia by the final col.

What actually works (per Sawka, Maughan and Shirreffs):

▸ Start topped up. 5–7 mL/kg of fluid with 500–700 mg sodium, 2–4 hours before the start. Pale straw urine, not clear.

▸ 500–750 mL per hour during, with sodium 500–1000 mg per litre. More if you’re a salty sweater.

▸ Two bottles, two purposes. One electrolyte mix for drinking, one plain water for cooling.

▸ Drink to schedule, not thirst. Thirst lags 1–2% bodyweight loss - by the time you feel thirsty, you’re already paying for it.

▸ Heat acclimate 10-14 days out. The single highest-leverage thing you can do in the month before the event.

The numbers above are population averages. Yours are individual. Swipe through to slide 6 for a 90-minute sweat test that gives you your own.

Save this for race day. Tag the rider in your crew who’s training for L’Etape, the Marmotte, or any other super endurance, 5+ hour event - same rules apply.

Here's a challenge for you!

Don't have a power meter? You don't need one for Zone 2.

The talk test was first formalised by Seiler & Tønnessen and is still the gold standard for prescribing easy intensity in elite endurance sport. The logic is simple: above the first lactate threshold, ventilation rises non-linearly. You can't sustain a full sentence because your body is prioritising getting CO₂ out over making conversation.

So here's the rule for tomorrow's steady ride. If you can't complete this sentence in one breath — the sentence you're reading right now — you're going too hard.

Try it on tomorrow's spin and tell us how it goes - how well does it correlate to your Zone 2 power?

The most underrated session in cycling is the one most ride too hard!

— Tadej Pogačar’s coach — has spent two decades showing that long, steady rides at Zone 2 do something helpful: they build new mitochondria, the engines inside your muscle cells. More mitochondria means more sustainable power, better fat oxidation, and a higher ceiling when you do go hard.

One important caveat for time-crunched riders: with under 12 hours a week, you simply can’t accumulate enough Zone 2 volume to drive the adaptations the pros get from sheer hours. The answer isn’t to ditch the easy work — it’s to ride Zone 2 where you can, and supplement with structured high-end aerobic and threshold sessions to compensate for the missing hours.

You can’t ‘push’ every day - some days have to feel easy.

More on that across the next three weeks.
Swipe through for the physiology, then tag the friend who rides their endurance days like a race!


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LFG, G!

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Heat training - not just for those wanting to perform in hot conditions!

⬆️ vo2 max being the primary benefit, which is a key predictor of aerobic performance / endurance. As cycling is an endurance sport / super endurance for many, there are reasons to consider layering in some heat training in to your plan!

Read more here https://roweandking.com/cycling-coaching-tips-heat-training-for-cyclists/