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the The best solution is obviously to perform a [[VO2max|V̇O<sub>2</sub>max]] test. If you're going to go through the pain and suffering of the maximal incremental stress test, then I'd recommend doing it at a lamp where they can measure your oxygen consumption. You could do a similar test at home with a cycling trainer, but obviously you won't know your oxygen consumption unless you have the budget for lab great gear. Getting the incremental steps right seems to be a bit of a dark art. Typically the steps are 60 seconds long and aim to produce exhaustion in 3-6 minutes. The increments need to be coarse enough to produce voluntary exhaustion, while fine enough to give a reasonable precision. I've seen steps of 25w used in research papers. You'll know when you've hit [[VO2max|V̇O<sub>2</sub>max]] when the power increases, but your heart rate does not. This deflection is considered the definition of [[VO2max|V̇O<sub>2</sub>max]], where work increases but oxygen consumption does not. Note that it's estimated that half of all subjects never demonstrate the heart rate/oxygen consumption deflection that's part of the definition of [[VO2max|V̇O<sub>2</sub>max]].
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** Women: Watts/Kg = ([[VO2max|V̇O<sub>2</sub>max]] – 7.0) / 9.820
* Example, for my [[VO2max|V̇O<sub>2</sub>max]] of 54, is ((54-7)/10.791), or 4.36 Watts/Kg.
* Multiplied by my weight in kilograms to get total power. Multiplying 4.36 Watts/Kg by 63 Kg gives 474 274 Watts.
This gives a starting point for HIIT. While it's tempting to aim for interval intensities above your power at [[VO2max|V̇O<sub>2</sub>max]], I'd strongly suggest you start somewhat lower and build up. You can build up the intensity either over several sessions, or have increasing intensity intervals during a single workout. You'll also find that as you get use to the cycling, the power you can output will increase quite a bit.
=Estimating Power At V̇O2max From Submaximal Incremental Test=
If you know your [Maximum Heart Rate]] from a running test, you can perform a submaximal incremental test on the bike to estimate your Power at V̇O<sub>2</sub>max. Knowing your maximum heart rate requires a stress test, as it '''cannot be calculated'''! But, if you do happen to know your maximum heart rate, perhaps from a running [[VO2max|V̇O2max]] test, or perhaps from a finishing kick during a short race, this is another approach to consider. Simply warm up, and then perform an incremental test, recording your heart rate. Make sure you don't get hot, as this will skew the results. I use to five steps going from 150w to 350w in 50w increments. The steps need to be long enough for your heart rate to stabilize, and you take the average heart rate from the last section of each step. For instance, my results were 150w/137, 200w/144, 250w/155, 300w/166, 350/169. Plotting that in Excel gives R<sup>2</sup> value of 0.98. This predicts my power at [[VO2max|V̇O<sub>2</sub>max]] to be about 455w, which is close to the calculation above.
=Measuring Power At V̇O2max =
=References=
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