VO₂max Training for Cyclists Over 40: What Still Works (and What Doesn’t)
By Ric Stern
Most cyclists over 40 have been told, at some point, that their VO₂max is destined to decline no matter what they do. It’s partly true — if you stop training it. But I’ve coached riders into their 50s and 60s who maintain, and occasionally increase, their aerobic capacity simply because they continue to stimulate it correctly.
The limitation isn’t age. It’s programming.
VO₂max is not just a “racer’s metric”. It underpins almost everything you care about: your sustained power, how strong you feel on climbs, how well you cope with surges, and how quickly you recover between efforts. Even if you never pin on a number again, raising or maintaining VO₂max keeps you riding at a level that feels enjoyable rather than laboured. Importantly, VO₂max is one of the strongest health predictors we have — higher values consistently correlate with better ageing and lower all-cause mortality.
So, yes — you can improve it. But only if you train it in a way that suits a masters athlete’s physiology and recovery profile. Let’s walk through what actually works.
What Really Happens to VO₂max After 40
Ageing does cause several predictable changes:
your maximal heart rate drifts downward, slowly
you lose some muscle mass unless you strength train
stroke volume can decline if you drop training volume
you become less tolerant of repeated high-intensity sessions without recovery
But the adaptations that matter most for endurance performance — mitochondrial density, capillary networks, lactate transport, and aerobic enzyme activity — remain highly trainable well into your 50s and beyond.
The biggest drop in VO₂max with age isn’t biological. It’s behavioural. People simply stop training the qualities that support it.
When those qualities are trained — consistently, progressively, and appropriately the decline mostly stops or slows dramatically. In some cases, it reverses. As an example I’m holding mid-60s mL·kg⁻¹·min⁻¹ for decades.
When to Train VO₂max (This Matters More Than the Intervals)
Most riders make the mistake of doing VO₂max work far too early in winter. It’s usually because group rides or Zwift races tempt them into chasing heart rate numbers rather than building the aerobic base that allows VO₂max training to be effective.
For riders over 40, timing becomes critical.
November–December: build capacity, not intensity
This period should be dominated by low-intensity endurance work and MIET (moderately intensive endurance training, aka sweetspot) sessions. Think engine-building, not “top-end sharpening”. A little bit of moderate intensity is fine, but structured VO₂max work can be counterproductive here — you’re still absorbing fatigue from the previous season, and strength training has just restarted, or you’re ramping it up (if you’ve been doing it all year round. You have been doing it all year, right, as a masters athlete?). Some occasional efforts are fine — for example, once a week on an endurance ride a few efforts up hill will be fine.
January: begin to reintroduce controlled intensity
Light VO₂max stimulation can begin here. Short reps, long recoveries, and the goal is a gentle re-introduction to structured VO₂max work. You’re preparing the system, not demanding full-on adaptation.
February–April: your true VO₂max block
This is the period when masters riders absorb VO₂max work best. Your aerobic base is in place. Strength training has given you more force production. You’re mentally fresh enough to work hard. This is where meaningful gains are made.
Race season: maintain, don’t build
A little VO₂max sprinkled into race-specific training helps maintain ceiling power, but big gains are rare. The work was done earlier.
What VO₂max Training Should Actually Look Like for a Masters Rider
The physiology of improving VO₂max hasn’t changed: you need work that is long enough, hard enough, and repeated enough to drive oxygen uptake to its ceiling. What has changed, once you’re past 40, is how often you can do it and what sort of recovery you need between sessions.
Masters cyclists generally need slightly longer recoveries between intervals and between sessions, and they respond better to a “quality over quantity” approach.
A typical session might look like:
three to five minutes at 106–112% of FTP
followed by equal or slightly longer recovery
repeated three to five times
These efforts are long enough to lift oxygen uptake, but short enough to stay repeatable without you falling apart halfway through the workout. Shorter sessions — such as a cluster of two- or three-minute intervals — are excellent early-season stepping stones. Micro-intervals (like 30 sec hard / 30 sec easy) can be brutally effective when executed well.
But all of these rely on a simple rule: you must finish the session having completed the work, not blown to pieces halfway through. VO₂max adapts best to consistency, not hero efforts.
Once per week is generally enough for most riders as a starting point. Some progress even better with a 10–14-day cycle. However, it is possible to do more (sometimes up to three VO₂max sessions per week), but this depends entirely on your goals, training background, age, and overall health. These are the kinds of considerations that should be discussed in coaching. As a general guide: start with one session per week and make sure recovery, fuelling, and overall training load are dialled in before increasing frequency.
How Strength + MIET Fit With VO₂max
One of the biggest mistakes masters cyclists make is trying to combine hard training days without a coherent structure. If you want to get the most out of VO₂max sessions, MIET, and strength training, they need to be arranged logically.
The model that consistently works best is this:
Do the hard bike sessions first, and schedule strength later the same day.
The bike session — whether that’s VO₂max, FTP work, or MIET — is the primary stimulus. Strength work is supplementary. If you reverse the order, neuromuscular fatigue from strength training often flattens your power output and undermines the ride.
By placing strength work several hours after the ride, you:
compress your high-stress work into one single day
protect your quality on the bike
give yourself a true recovery day afterward
avoid the “wrecked legs” problem of doing VO₂max after squats
reduce interference between training modalities
There is a cost: you must fuel properly. This is non-negotiable for masters riders. You’ll need carbohydrate and protein immediately after the bike, more protein after the gym session, and a proper meal inside an hour or two. It’s the difference between adapting and just accumulating fatigue.
What You Should Expect to Improve
If you time VO₂max work well and execute it consistently, you’ll see:
higher power during the intervals themselves
lower heart rate at submaximal intensities
smoother MIET and threshold sessions
an increase in FTP without specifically targeting it
better ability to cope with surges and climbs
It usually shows up within four to six weeks. And, crucially, it stays with you far longer than people think. Masters riders can maintain VO₂max very effectively with only occasional top-ups.
What Causes VO₂max Training to Fail
Almost all failures come from the same three factors:
doing it too early in the season
doing it too often
doing it on tired legs (especially after strength work)
There’s no magic interval if the timing is wrong. You can’t out-interval poor periodisation.
When to skip VO₂max work entirely: If you're sick, chronically fatigued, or nursing an injury, VO₂max sessions will dig the hole deeper. Recovery always comes first.
A Simple Four-Week VO₂max Block (Masters-friendly)
This is an idea, not a prescription — but it’s a useful way to structure things:
Week 1:
4 × 3 minutes @ 110% with 3 minutes recovery
Week 2:
5 × 3 minutes @ 110% with 3 minutes recovery
Week 3:
3 × 5 minutes @ 108% with 5 minutes recovery
Week 4:
A lighter week: 6 × 1 minute @ ~115% with equal recovery
Then reset, adjust, and repeat as appropriate.
Final Thoughts
VO₂max doesn’t crash at 40. It doesn’t disappear in your 50s. And it doesn’t “stop responding” unless you stop stimulating it. For some riders you’re preventing or slowing the decline, for others you’re building VO2max.
For masters cyclists, the key is timing and recovery. Build the base first. Introduce intensity gradually. Do the hard training on days where you can fuel, recover and absorb it. Put strength after the bike, not before. And keep your VO₂max block to a sensible, focused part of the season.
Do that, and you will maintain — and in many cases improve — the thing that drives almost every aspect of cycling performance.
Three ways to structure your VO₂max training:
Training Plans ($95-225): 16-week base plans with progressive VO₂max blocks built in. [Shop plans →]
The Collective ($75/month): Group coaching with structured plans, monthly Q&A to discuss timing and execution. [7-day trial →]
1-to-1 Coaching (from £125/month): Personalised VO₂max blocks tailored to your age, recovery, and goals. [Learn more →]