Done! Thank you @steveneal!
The workout portion is a little hard to comment on, the smo2 remains pretty stable around 20% during your work portion, which is likely a little low. Donāt usually use absolute numbers, but it is also stable. The goal of this type of session would be to ride at the wattage that first creates a stable or slightly rising smo2 trend.
Remember that my suggested range is 78-83% of max heart rate, you happened to try the top of the range. If you try this again, build to 75% in your warm-up, then do the first 15m at 76-78% (to see how you are doing on the day), then build a few % the next 15m, this way you can see how you feel and watch the moxy trend while still likely training at a beneficial wattage for tempo.
The one thing I can point out is the warm-up is too hard.
If you look below, the 138 wattage smo2 was trending up, but the next stage it was trending down, and all the stages to follow. So you should have stay at around 140 watts for longer, and let the power gently rise while not letting the smo2 fall. Just not long enough and too quick of a build.
Then after you did the short intervals, you need to wait, and ride easy here until you start the main part of the session. You used the short intervals to increase oxygenation, but then you started the main set too early and therefore the smo2 just dropped again.
Hope that makes sense.
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It does. Please forgive meā¦I was in a rush to get this in before apple pie for my sonās birthday 
This also made for 15 hours over four days, which is a lot for me. Iām not sure if that depresses SmO2 or not, but my sense is it can.
Your advice is awesome. I will try this next time for sure.
Hi, I forgot to add that you shouldnāt have tried this after a 3 hour ride later in the day 
Happy Birthday to your son!
Haha! Yeah, Iām stretched but will find time to try this again using a more careful approach. This feels akin to running a marathon (which I have done several times) - take your time walking up to that line, then keep it there for as long as possible. Yesterday I definitely crossed it before backing off.
I will pass your wishes along to Noah. He knows your name. He and his older brother have all been made to listen to training podcasts (yours included) in the car on the way to their sporting events for a couple years now 
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@steveneal just wondering about the XERT fat:carbs CIQ app on my Garmin. if I keep the fat side red does that mean Iām optimally burning fat to fuel the workout at that point? So if I target tempo power and keep the fat red Iām training at an optimal level to increase FATMAX? I noticed on my last road ride on the mtb that I was in low tempo power and the fat index was red. If I lowered power it went green and if I raised power it went uncoloured as was the carb ratio side. So if that is the case then thatās an easy way to optimise this kind of training - or am I over simplifying things?
Hello,
This is always a tough one for me.
The metrics in XERT at threshold and above are excellent tools.
All of my clients do have an account and I use this software for different reasons at different times of the year.
The LTP number isnāt always accurate relative to fatmax.
However, I think it is close enough and if you keep it on the right side and LIMIT the number of times if any you see it switch to carbs it should help guage the pace of your rides.
Riding on an mtb in hilly or punchy terrain will be tough to have a good fatmax ride however (but not sure of the terrain you were on).
Steve
Thanks Steve. Iām in Wales, UK and live on top of a hill so hilly terrain. But I have found as I build my LTP up I can ride up 1:4 road hills below VT1 albeit pretty slow! I do have a 25 mile road loop that is flat until the end so Iāll give it a go, looking at keeping the Fat score in red and see what happens 
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These workouts have been progressing nicely. I started off with 3x20min @ 185 watts but it felt a little too easy despite being right in the middle of my tempo zone. I continued on at 200 watts (low sweet spot) without too much difference in RPE. I did the last workout at 210 watts.
I made a spreadsheet tracking the interval efficiency factor like @steveneal showed above. When I started I was around 1.4. My last workout hit 1.59.
My DOMs from the first few workouts has gone away and I feel pretty recovered the day after.
My HR for these intervals is still only getting up to about 73% of HRmax.
My fitness is definitely up over 3 weeks. At the beginning of January I tested my FTP at @ 225 watts. I havenāt tested again but I did a 3 minute effort to populate my WKO5 testing residual and Intervals.icu scored my FTP at 256 watts. WKO5 only bumped the mFTP to 230 after that effort. I also tried the Trevorās 5x5 FTP workout and was able to do the intervals at 240-250 watts without too much bother. (That was also the day after one of these 3x20 tempo workouts. The legs felt good.)
@steveneal , any thoughts on my progress. Should I keep on forging ahead as long as Iām seeing progress? Should I think about inserting a recovery week? My legs still feel pretty good after three weeks.
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slightly O/T but Iād like to follow up on your reference to MAP and Thibault. I did some Googling and found the MAP test and his model, but did you have some specific thoughts around the use of these 2 min intervals or a particular protocol in mind?
Using the Thibault MAP chart it obviously seems you can do 2 min intervals at various %'s of MAP, with a range of reps etc. Iām gusessing what Steve is talking about is probably in the 85-100% of MAP range if its between FTP and VO2?
Thanks
@steveneal can confirm if heād like but thatās up to him. My guess is that itās 3 x [7 x 2 min] @ 85% MAP w/ 2 min RBI and 5 min between sets. So, 21 x 2 min broken into three sets of seven. If you look at what Thibault says, 85% of MAP is best for endurance adaptations, and 100% MAP is best for MAP.
As an aside, Steve mentioned 21 x 90s @ MAP w/ 3 min RBI in one of the FLO podcasts. I have consistently gotten my best āmodeled time @ VO2ā in WKO using variants of this workout.
Also - be careful with the MAP test. There are loads of variations. I believe Steve uses three minute steps. If you do shorter steps, MAP will be higher making workouts impossible in some cases. See below.
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Hi
I was lucky enough to meet Guy as he was my Level 4 coach instructor.
What I really liked about him was he easy to approach and discuss ideas.
I am a big endurance/tempo coach and have had good success with this.
Many years ago (like too many) I really wanted to understand implementing interval training and Guy was having great success with some of my athletes competitors using only interval training ā so I was like hey, what a better guy to talk to intervals about
He was totally open and honest.
So, the workouts I use are only a few, with great success (and under the advice of Guy who did all of the studies).
also the following not on the chart.
Ultimate
3 sets of:
3x 40/20 ā 2m easy
3 sets of:
3x 30/30 ā 2m easy
3 sets of:
3x 20/40 ā 2m easy
+++
Ultimate Plus
9x 30/30
rest 1m
8x 25/35
rest 2m
7x 20/40
rest 3m
6x 15/45
done
+++
Lots 20s
1 - 2 or 3 sets (depending client and timing)
ALL ON intervals are 20s
First rest is 20s
add 2s to each following rest until at 20s ON / 60s OFF
+++
All above intervals are to be done by feeling without looking at any data.
+++
MAP test - for the first few sessions from Guyās interval model chart should be peak 1 minute power taken from a 3m step test.
Thanks @fazel1010
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My only suggestions are.
Take my builds slowly but it sounds like it is going very well.
It is very hard for me to say what you can handle, but I do go out to 2x45, 3x30 a few times a week before I start blocking.
The athletes are usually doing one hard session a week, this has to come firstā¦so you mention doing 5x5 after a tempo session, I would recommend you switch that so the hardest workout comes first in the week.
Steve
Thanks - appreciate all that and suspect Iāll add a MAP test to my test block next week then
Thanks @steveneal - thats really helpful and I really appreciate the details.
I was wondering if there was an āUltimate Basicā for us normal people though
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For those interested in Guyās interval prescriptions, he has an app on the app store (I guess Android too) called 3-2-1-go.
Itās in french but can be changed to english in the parameters.
His 17 favorites HIIT workouts are there.
The 2 first are free and the rest is 2$ I think.
It makes it easier to follow the shorts/shorts with colors and sound checks.
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thanks - nice little app. I do take issue with the claim on the front page that its designed to be āfunā though! 
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You do these at your current level of ability, so same workout for everyone in this case.
The reason you should do it by feeling is that it helps understand which of the durations might be improving, helps with your higher intensity pacing for short repeats, helps you understand where your mental state is at for hard pushes, among other things.
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