Can You Raise Anaerobic Power and Aerobic Power at the Same Time?
One of the most common questions cyclists ask once they get beyond basic base training is this:
Can I improve my 1-minute power while also improving my 20-minute power?
Or put another way:
Can I work on anaerobic power and aerobic power in the same 8-week training block?
The answer is yes.
Not only can you train both at the same time, but for racing cyclists, you probably should. The better question is not whether these abilities can coexist…the better question is:
How do you train both without turning every workout into the same medium-hard suffering session?
That is where most athletes get it wrong.
They try to raise threshold, improve over-unders, sharpen their attack power, survive short climbs, handle race surges, do long rides, hit group rides, and then sprinkle in a few “just because” tempo efforts on Sunday. Suddenly every ride is kind of hard, but no workout is truly specific.
You are not really building threshold.
You are not really building anaerobic power.
You are mostly just collecting fatigue.
So yes, you can train 20-minute efforts and 1-minute power in the same 8-week period. But the details matter.
Let’s break this down.
First, What Do We Mean by Aerobic Power?
When cyclists say “aerobic power,” they often mean a few slightly different things.
They might mean FTP. They might mean threshold power. They might mean the ability to ride hard for 20, 30, 40, or 60 minutes. They might mean the ability to sit near threshold, clear lactate, reuse lactate, and keep producing power without blowing up.
For this article, let’s keep it practical.
When we talk about aerobic power here, we’re talking about workouts like:
20-minute threshold efforts
Over-unders
VO2Max Training
Long tempo blocks
This is the kind of fitness that lets you stay present in the race.
It is what allows you to ride in a breakaway, follow a hard move, recover while still going fast, or sit in the group without feeling like every acceleration is slowly killing you.
It is also the base that supports almost everything else.
Even your anaerobic efforts are easier to repeat when your aerobic system is strong. The stronger your engine, the faster you can recover between attacks.
That matters.
A rider with a big 1-minute power number but a weak aerobic base might be able to follow one huge attack. Maybe two. But if the race keeps surging, that athlete is eventually going to run out of matches.
A rider with strong aerobic power can keep resetting between efforts. They can tolerate the pace. They can absorb the chaos.
That is why over-unders are so useful.
You are not just training “FTP.” You are training the ability to go over the limit, settle back down, and keep producing power.
That is racing.
What Do We Mean by Anaerobic Power?
Anaerobic power is your ability to produce high power above what your aerobic system can support.
Practically, for cyclists, this often shows up as:
30-second power
1-minute power
Hard attacks
Short climbs
Bridging efforts
Getting across to the break
Following repeated race surges (although as mentioned before, this is still very aerobic!)
This is not the same as sprint power, although there is overlap.
A pure sprint might be 5 to 15 seconds. A true anaerobic power effort in this context is usually longer and more painful. Think 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Think of the kind of effort where your legs flood, your breathing explodes, and you immediately question every life choice that brought you to that moment.
For a lot of amateur racers, 1-minute power is incredibly important.
Why?
Because many selections are not made by clean 20-minute threshold efforts. They are made by violent surges.
Someone attacks out of a corner.
The group strings out.
A short hill gets hit full gas.
You have to close a gap.
You have to follow a move before the race settles again.
If you cannot produce that power, you are out of position or out of the race.
But here is the trap: a lot of cyclists think they are training anaerobic power when they are actually training something else.
For example:
10 × 1 minute hard with 1 minute easy
That is a hard workout. It can be useful. But with short recovery, it quickly becomes more of a VO2max or repeatability workout. You are not fresh enough to produce truly high 1-minute power again and again.
If the goal is actual 1-minute power, you usually need longer recovery.
Think:
5 to 8 × 1 minute very hard
with
6 to 10 minutes easy between efforts
That recovery is not laziness. That recovery is the point.
You need enough recovery to hit the efforts with violence.
If your best 1-minute power is 600 watts, but the workout becomes 10 repeats at 430 watts because you only gave yourself one minute of recovery, that is not the same stimulus.
Again, that does not mean the workout is bad. It just means it is training something different.
So, Can You Train Both at Once?
Yes.
In fact, for racing cyclists, combining these two qualities often makes a lot of sense.
You need the aerobic power to stay in the race.
You need the anaerobic power to handle the decisive moments.
It is not one or the other.
The mistake is thinking of the energy systems as completely separate boxes.
Your body does not say, “Today I am only using the aerobic system,” or “Now I am only using the anaerobic system.” These systems overlap constantly.
During a 1-minute effort, your anaerobic contribution is high, especially early in the effort. But your aerobic system is still working hard. During a 20-minute over-under workout, you are mostly targeting aerobic power and threshold durability, but the surges above threshold still create anaerobic demand.
The systems interact.
This is why training both in the same block is not crazy. It is actually very realistic.
The issue is fatigue management.
Anaerobic power requires freshness. Not perfect freshness, but enough freshness that you can actually produce high power.
Over-unders require control, durability, and repeatable pressure.
If you are too tired for the 1-minute efforts, they become mediocre. If you are too cooked for the over-unders, they become sloppy survival efforts.
So the goal is to place the workouts in the week in a way that protects their purpose.
Don’t Let Everything Become the Same Workout
Most athletes do not fail because they include both anaerobic and aerobic work in the same block.
They fail because every workout drifts toward the middle.
The anaerobic day is not hard enough to be true anaerobic power.
The threshold day is too hard to be controlled threshold development.
The endurance rides become tempo rides.
The group ride becomes a race.
The recovery day becomes “just a little spin with a few efforts.”
Now you are stuck in the middle….time and time again.
Everything is kind of hard. Nothing is truly excellent.
If the workout is supposed to be 1-minute power, then the efforts need to be hard. Really hard. You should need real recovery.
If the workout is supposed to be over-unders, then you need to stay disciplined. The “unders” are not recovery, but they also should not become a second version of the “overs.” The goal is controlled pressure.
If the ride is supposed to be endurance, then ride endurance.
This sounds simple, but it is one of the biggest differences between athletes who absorb training and athletes who just survive training.
How I Would Build an 8-Week Block
For most amateur racers, I would start with a simple structure:
One anaerobic power day per week
One over-under or threshold day per week
One long aerobic ride per week
That is the foundation.
You can add more depending on the athlete, but this alone can be very effective.
A basic week might look like this:
Monday: Off or very easy
Tuesday: 1-minute power workout
Wednesday: Endurance or easy spin
Thursday: Over-unders or threshold work
Friday: Easy or off
Saturday: Long endurance ride, race, or group ride
Sunday: Endurance, skills, or recovery depending on fatigue
The important thing is that the 1-minute power day comes early in the week when the athlete is relatively fresh.
Why?
Because anaerobic power needs quality.
I would rather see the athlete do the anaerobic workout on Tuesday and the over-under workout on Thursday than the other way around.
Threshold work can often be done with a little fatigue in the legs. It may not feel amazing, but it can still be productive.
True anaerobic power, though, gets compromised quickly when the athlete is carrying too much fatigue.
If you are trying to hit big 1-minute efforts but your legs are flat, you are probably not training what you intended to train.
How Do You Know It Is Working?
There are a few signs.
For the anaerobic side:
Your best 1-minute power may improve.
Your repeatability may improve.
You may recover better between hard surges.
You may feel less panic when the race gets violent.
For the aerobic side:
Your over-unders become more controlled.
You can ride closer to threshold without feeling desperate.
Your heart rate and breathing settle faster after surges.
You can keep producing power late in the workout or race.
But be careful with testing.
If you are in the middle of a hard block, you might not set a new 1-minute PR every week. You might be carrying fatigue. That does not mean the training is failing.
Look at the trend.
Are the efforts getting more repeatable?
Are you handling the same workouts with less drama?
Are you recovering better?
Are you racing better?
Those things matter.
The Bottom Line
Yes, you can raise anaerobic power and aerobic power in the same 8-week period.
You need the aerobic engine to stay in the race. You need the anaerobic punch to handle the moments that decide the race.
But you have to respect the purpose of each workout.
The 1-minute power day should be high quality. Give yourself enough recovery to actually hit the efforts hard.
The over-under day should be controlled and productive. Do not turn it into a random smashfest.
The endurance rides should support the hard work, not secretly become extra intensity.
A simple structure works:
One day of true anaerobic power
One day of over-unders or threshold work
One long aerobic ride
Enough recovery to absorb it
That is the recipe.
Do not overcomplicate it.
Train the engine.
Train the punch.
Keep the hard days hard.
Keep the easy days easy.