Holmer says 2 minute intervals beat 30 second sprints

Brady Holmer says the single most important thing about a VO2 max workout is how long you spend at a high percentage of VO2 max (the ceiling on how much oxygen your body can use). On that logic, he rates intervals of two minutes or more above sprint intervals of roughly 30 seconds or less.

His reasoning is about the lag in your own plumbing. Oxygen uptake does not jump to the ceiling the moment you start running hard, it climbs. A 30 second rep ends before the climb finishes.

"30 seconds is too short for oxygen uptake to rise near VO₂ max, and by the time you get there, it's time to recover," Holmer wrote in the post.

Brady Holmer

@Brady_H

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30 seconds is too short for oxygen uptake to rise near VO₂ max, and by the time you get there, it’s time to recover.

What it actually means

This is a claim about one specific target, VO2 max, not a verdict on short intervals in general. Holmer did not say sprint work is useless or that it does nothing for a runner, only that it is the wrong tool if the goal is raising that ceiling. The time at or near the ceiling is the dose, and a rep that ends before you get there delivers very little of it.

It is also worth being clear on what this is. Holmer posted the claim without a study attached, and nobody has pushed back on it in public since. Treat it as one physiology writer's read of the evidence rather than a settled finding, which is roughly how his other posts have landed, including his recent arguments on carbs and durability.

The practical version is simple enough. If a session is meant to lift VO2 max, build it out of reps long enough for oxygen uptake to actually get up there, which by Holmer's framing starts somewhere around the two minute mark. Shorter, faster reps are a different workout aimed at something else.