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Is it possible to get a VO2 Max when cycling indoors on a Watt Bike?

I've started doing some indoor cycling on a Watt Bike and I've noticed it doesn't seem to calculate a VO2 Max after my workout so I'm wondering if it's just that the watch doesn't calculate VO2 Max for indoor activities or if I'm not giving it long enough. I normally do 20 to 30 minutes cycling and I always connect my watch to the Watt Bike sensors as well as wearing a heart rate strap and I generally keep my average HR during the workout fairly high (in the aerobic or threshold zones) so I would have expected it to calculate the VO2 Max for me - with running I can do a short easy run and it will give me the VO2.

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Christian999999 over 4 years ago +1 verified

You need to have at least 20 minutes of high intensity (https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/forerunner945/EN-US/GUID-E17003DB-1F26-483E-A8B4-BBF04B4E3A9B.html). For running, 10 minutes are enough.…

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0 Dr Phil over 4 years ago

You need to get the power measurement from your Watt bike to your watch to get a VO2max. Power is needed for cycling VO2max whether indoors or outdoors.

0 jdt80 over 4 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

Thanks. But I do link to all the Watt Bike sensors - both the Speed/Cadence and the Power sensors and not had any luck getting it to show a Vo2max so far

+1 Christian999999 over 4 years ago

You need to have at least 20 minutes of high intensity (https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/forerunner945/EN-US/GUID-E17003DB-1F26-483E-A8B4-BBF04B4E3A9B.html). For running, 10 minutes are enough. So maybe your 20 minute rides are a liitle too short.

0 jdt80 over 4 years ago in reply to Christian999999

Thanks - yes I suspect either the rides haven't been long/intense enough or I've not done enough yet as it does say a few rides are required to calibrate it

0 NickMN over 4 years ago

With running typically in the past it was noted to have a fairly steady strong effort for at least 10minutes. Could be that that the 20minutes of strong steady riding would be best. So maybe 5-10minutes of warmup... 20minutes strong (good opportunity to do a 15-20min strong Threshold ride (85-100% of FTP) or 20min at SweetSpot (75-90% iirc?)... with 5min cooldown.

0 DaveGaleUK over 2 years ago

Did you resolve this issue? You did mention connecting the watch to the sensors but did you create a power data field on a watch data screen? I note on my Fenix that the power data field does not appear by default. If I want a specific metric to appear in GC there often has to be an allocated data field active on the watch.