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Running workouts

VO2 Max Intervals: Raise How Much Oxygen You Can Use

Your app calls it a VO2max Run: warm up, then run four to six 3-minute reps hard, breathing through your mouth, with 2 minutes of easy jogging between.

Why it works: Chapter 26, How hard intervals grow your heart

The workout

39–49 min

VO₂max · Aerobic ceiling, peak oxygen uptake

  1. Warmup

    11 min

    RPE 3/10 · HR 65–80%

    Breathe in and out through your nose. You could keep this up for hours.

  2. Strides

    6 × 20s

    RPE 6/10 · 40s jog between

  3. Intervals

    4–6 × 3 min

    RPE 8/10 · HR 92–100% · 2 min recovery between

    In and out through your mouth. You could hold this for a few minutes.

  4. Cooldown

    5 min

    RPE 3/10 · HR 65–80%

    Breathe in and out through your nose. You could keep this up for hours.

The lesson

  1. 1

    What it trains

    VO2 max is the most oxygen your body can take in and use in a minute. Minutes spent close to it train your heart to pump more blood with every beat, which is a big part of what raises it. Every effort below it then feels easier.

  2. 2

    Warm up, then six strides

    About 11 easy minutes, then six 20-second strides with 40 seconds of easy jogging between. Your breathing takes a few minutes to climb, and the strides get it moving before the first rep.

  3. 3

    Run four to six 3-minute reps

    Three minutes is long enough for your breathing to climb near its peak, and short enough to run the last rep as well as the first.

  4. 4

    Jog 2 minutes between

    Easy jogging, not standing still. It is deliberately not a full rest: your breathing stays partly up, so the next rep reaches its peak sooner.

  5. 5

    A few minutes at most

    Ask how long you could keep this up: a few minutes at most. If it feels like you could only last thirty seconds, you are going too fast. Breathe in and out through your mouth, three or four words at a time, about 8 out of 10. Heart rate 92 to 100% of your maximum.

  6. 6

    Make the first rep feel easy

    Run it at an effort you are sure you can repeat. Run rep one as hard as you can and reps four to six fall apart. Finish with five easy minutes.

Watch for

  • Chasing the heart-rate number early in each rep. Heart rate lags, so you sprint the first minute to see the number and fade in the third.
  • Running it on a hilly or windy route by pace. The effort spikes on every climb; pick a flat loop and hold the effort, not the pace.
  • Adding reps past six. You add tiredness, not fitness, and pay for it in the days after.
  • Doing it more than once a fortnight. It is the most demanding run in your week, and too much of it leaves your easy running tired too.

Questions

How often should you do VO2 max intervals?

Your plan spaces them for you: at most one a fortnight, counting VO2 max runs, rides and swims together, and only once your body handles threshold work. It only pays off when you arrive fresh enough to run every rep well.

How hard should VO2 max intervals feel?

Hard but repeatable: an effort you could keep up for a few minutes at most, three or four words at a time. If it feels like you could only last thirty seconds, you are going too fast. If the last rep is your slowest by far, the first one was too hard.

Do intervals really raise your VO2 max?

Yes. In trials, hard reps of a few minutes raised VO2 max more than the same amount of easier running over a couple of months. How much it rises varies a lot from person to person, and the fitter you already are, the less there is to gain.