Long weekend endurance rides have been replaced with shorter Sweet Spot workouts across many Sweet Spot Base plans, and our high-volume Sweet Spot Base plans have been drastically reworked.
Which plans have been updated so far?
Roughly half of all training plans include long endurance weekend rides. Currently, minor updates have been made to Sweet Spot Base low-volume plans — this does not affect any weekend rides. Mid-volume plans have been updated with shorter Sweet Spot interval workouts in lieu of the longer weekend rides. Sweet Spot Base high-volume plans have been completely reworked.
Many Build and Specialty plans have been updated to replace longer endurance rides with shorter duration Sweet Spot workouts as well.
Why the change?
Unless your discipline demands you prepare for very particular aspects of a long-distance effort, Sweet Spot training is ideal. Sweet Spot workouts bring about most of the same adaptations as longer endurance rides, but allow you to rack up TSS much more quickly. Take the workout Longfellow, for instance. It takes 4 hours to pile up 181 TSS but Marcus Baker -1 does it in a fraction of the time: 2.5 hours.
By replacing longer weekend rides with shorter interval workouts, we’re able to keep your TSS where it needs to be while eliminating the need to end your week with a long, slow ride. At this time, only the newly updated mid- and high-volume Sweet Spot plans reflect this update.
What changes were made to the Sweet Spot Base high-volume plan?
High-volume Sweet Spot Base plans have been reworked to incorporate all “sub-threshold” work (i.e. intervals nudging at FTP). This means you’ll no longer see the mix of VO2 max intervals and other varying forms of work that mid- and low-volume plans include for the purpose of getting you fit in a time-crunched situation.
The nature of a “high-volume” plan changes this approach a bit, and our changes are meant to reflect that. To reduce some of your weekend load, we’ve distributed some of that workload throughout the week. In order to make sure you don’t overdo your training with that increase, some of the higher intensity work has been removed.
Should I stick to my legacy Sweet Spot Base plan or update?
If you’re starting a new plan, these workouts are already part of the plan.
If you’re currently in the middle of SSB I or II low- and mid-volume, Coach Chad recommends you finish it out as is. If you insist on accessing the new changes, your workouts from your legacy plan will not be automatically added to your new plan.
If you’d like to update your new plan with completed workouts from your past plan, you must stop your current plan and unassign the workouts from your past plan in order to assign them to the new plan. It’s recommended to delete your legacy plan to disassociate all your completed rides. This will allow you to more quickly assign those completed rides to your new plan.
If you’d like to do a longer, lower-intensity workout similar to what you’d find in the legacy mid- and high-volume SSB plans, you can find a description of the alternative workout under Week Descriptions (+Week Tips). Keep in mind that the quality of an indoor ride is about 1.5 times more effective than an outside ride, so you’ll usually need to spend more time outside to get the same training benefit.
Will all training plans be updated?
The following plans will not see any changes: All Triathlon (Base, Build and Specialty), Traditional Base and Century Specialty.
For riders on these plans, longer workouts provide value that goes beyond training stress. Long rides should be used to experiment with on-bike nutrition and hydration strategies, address changes in bike fit, grow accustomed to long durations on the bike and gain confidence doing longer distances.
Have a question about the latest training plans update? Leave it below or send our support team a message to support@trainerroad.com.
Editor’s note: this blog post was last edited on January 27th, 2017 to include training plan recommendations and additional information re: the change.
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The page above mentions that “Traditional Build” will not change. Does this actually mean “General Build”? Because I don’t think there is a plan called Traditional Build. I am in the middle of General Build right now, and am wondering if it is going to be changing. I’d love to shorten some of those 2-3 hour Sunday training sessions.
Hi Brent, thanks for catching that! The post has been updated. Your General Build plan will be updated soon, but for now only Sweet Spot Base plans have been updated. Coach Chad is working on Build plans now 🙂
I noticed this change in the Sweet Spot Mid 1 plan today and welcomed the change! It’s not always easy (or fun) to do a 3+ hour ride indoors.
For those of us who are already in a plan that was modified it would be nice to have a way to “Update” our current plan to the new one without the clunky stop and start recommended in the blog post. There should also be some sort of notification in the app of the updated workout plan.
I did reach out to TrainerRoad support who responded in minutes and it’s all sorted out now. To retain the already completed workouts I had to fully Delete the current plan to disassociate the workouts. Then start the new plan, and assign all my previous workouts to the equivalent spots in the new plan.
Joshua, we really appreciate the feedback. Thanks so much for getting in touch with Support. I’ll report back here if/when I hear we’re streamlining the process of updating to the new plan.
Thanks for info Joshua. It’s nearly impossible to figure out hour to assign workouts to different plans
If you have any issues stopping your plan and un-assigning your workouts before re-assigning them to the new plan, please let us know at support@trainerroad.com. We’d be happy to help ya out. 🙂
Thanks!
Couple quick questions regarding this update.
First, what is the reason for the switch to a 20min ftp test on the SSB high volume?
And second, I’m on week 5 of the old SSB high volume 2, would it be beneficial to do the new SSB high volume 2 after my week 6 before going into build, or should I resume as normal?
I’m going to peak early this year anyways so maybe that’s a good reason to do so??
Thanks!
Robbie,
Coach Chad found the 20-Minute testing format to be a better fit considering the entirely “sub-threshold” nature of this newly revised High-Volume version. But always know that these assessments are interchangeable and yield highly similar results. So if you’re used to one testing format and we prescribe another, stick to what you’re used to.
We also ran your approach of adding the newly revised High-Vol II into your training after completing the former High-Vol II. This would be a great way to spend 6 weeks consolidating the fitness you’ve been cultivating over the previous 12 weeks. Nice thinking! 🙂
Happy Training!
Awesome thanks!
Hi all,
Slightly related question: what does the +1 and -1 mean when it comes to workouts?
The +1 and -1 workouts are simply modifications to the base workout. A +1 workout will be a little bit harder, either due to it being a little longer, a little higher intensity or a few more reps, and the -1 workouts will be a little easier. So, if you like a particular workout, but just feel you need a little something extra that day, you can bump it up to the +1 version, for example.
Are the old plans archived anywhere? Not exactly practical to be on the old plan’s (sweet spot high volume I) week 2 with a weekly TSS in the mid-400s, and then jump to the new plan’s week 3 with a TSS of 582. I would love to be able to switch to the new plans at the conclusion of the training block.
I found them here: https://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/plans/archive
Thanks for posting. Old plans much more appropriate for my goals
I can’t seem to ‘unassign’ my previous workouts. I stopped my existing plan and started a new one. However, when I try to assign my previously completed workouts to the newly started plan, they appear as ‘assigned’ still. What am I missing?
Thanks,
Sanjay
Sanjay,
Sorry for the troubles here! Now that you’ve stopped your old plan, you’ll need to go through and “un-assign” those workouts that you’d like to “re-assign” to your new plan. We recognize that this is a little clunky and are already getting the wheels turning to make it less so. Let us know at support@trainerroad.com if you have any issues getting this done. 🙂
edit: you can also “delete” the old plan to avoid “un-assigning” each ride from the old plan. Then all those workouts will be freed up to be assigned to the new plan.
Thanks and ride hard!
Will the Build and Specialty plans be updated soon ? Because there is now a huge gap between the training volume of SSB High Volume II (640 TSS average) and a Sustained Power Build for example (460 TSS average). Don’t think it’s a good idea to decrease training volume so much across the season, am I wrong ?
We’ll be making changes to some of the other plans; however, certain riding disciplines necessitate particular aerobic benefits that should be achieved through those longer, low-intensity workouts. Not only that, but certain disciplines require you to get used to being on the bike for such extended periods of time. Though, most of the aerobic benefits can be achieved through the new revisions, but that’s why some plans won’t be seeing any changes.
On the note of your observation of “declined” TSS: We’re working on the changes in Build now and Specialty changes will follow that. So it’s likely you’ll see things fall more in-line there. But it should be noted that, when it comes to doing varying types of training (e.g VO2 max intervals, tempo work, microbursts, Sweet Spot), it can be hard to boil everything down to just TSS. In fact, it can sometimes be misleading as particular types of training lend to different trends in TSS. So you could come out of a plan with higher TSS and enter into one with less, and still be getting stronger. It comes down to the types of stress, when you apply it, and how you manage it. Luckily we take some of the guesswork out for ya by following one of our training plans. 🙂
Hi, I wanted to continue with the updated mid volume sweetspot base plan, so I stopped it and started the updated version. Now I like to re assign the already completed workouts but can’t because they are still assigned to the stopped plan. How can I ‘unlock’ the assigned workouts so I can re assign them to the updated plan?
Many thanks
Resolved: Go to training plan, scroll down and click (small) link: plan history and delete.
Thanks for this explanation. This is how I resolved the update:
I first went to the online version of Trainerroad, stopped my current plan, went to the plan history and deleted my plan. Then I went to each individual workout and clicked on assign. I had to search for the name of the workout and then click on Assign.
Finally I went to Trainerroad on my iPhone, logged out and logged in again. The plan was updated … Not really intuitive 😉
This worked for me. Thanks. Yes – you have to go back in and (re) assign your old rides to the new plan. Then going forward you’re all set on the new plan. What I found useful is to have my Career up on my phone and the new Plan open on my laptop. That made it easier to cross reference the new plan to my past plan (workouts).
Like others, it does appear that the TSS has gone up. But the shorter duration of each workout will be a bonus and easier to complete given a busy schedule. I prefer to do the 2hr+ rides on the road, anyway. I trust TrainerRoad to know what they are doing. I don’t have an issue with the increase TSS. It looks like in the new plan they have created Wk6 of Base I medium to be a rest week.
I think the concern is that the duration of rides in SSB High Volume had gone WAY up, not down.
By cancelling an old plan and starting a new one, will completed rides under the old plan be deleted from my Career?
Just answered my own question by switching to a new plan – Career is unaffected.
Nice change! I did my first Koip last weekend and I was wondering if I’d have the time and patience to do that again.
I moved to the new plan. It wasn’t too hard, though luckily I had only just started week 2, so there wasn’t much to reassign.
Would be great if the process was automated, but I can see this is hard to do, especially when people didn’t follow the old plan exactly.
I don’t think it needs to be hard at all. TR just needs to update the remaining workouts in your current version of the plan to match the new plan configuration. No need to muck around with deleting plans and reassigning workouts.
What I propose is: When a plan has been modified and you start up TrainerRoad the next time, the app can prompt you with, “Chad has made some amazing changes to the plan you are currently on. Would you like to update the rest of your current plan to match the new workouts?” If you say yes, then all the remaining workouts are changed to those from to the new plan. If you say no, nothing changes.
Thanks for your guys’ feedback!
Happy Training!
I have started 2nd week of old SSB Mid Vol.
Can anyone give me precise details how to assign the ride I have done to the new updated plan please.
I have tried all the bits of info I can find but to know avail – this needs to be in words of 1 syllable.
Not very good as a cyclist or a computer user
* Go to your current plan and click the link to stop the plan.
* It will take you to a list of all the plans you have done. For the plan you just stopped, click the link to delete the plan. Don’t worry, your rides are still there.
* Start the new version of the plan.
* For the rides you have done, click the Assign button on the ride. Then start typing the name of the ride you have done and it will show you a list. Select the appropriate ride.
It really isn’t too hard. You are lucky that you are early in the plan. There aren’t too many rides to reassign.
Hi Ben
Thanks for that – the bit that I did not get was typing the name. I thought it was searching automatically!!
All seams clear as a bell now so again thanks
Gordon
Thanks for clarifying that Ben! Cheers!
Hi !
I am a bite confused , i am just in week 2 on short power build. Do i have to restarting if so how do i do that ?
No need to change anything , Oskar. 🙂 These changes were exclusive to the Sweet Spot Base plans. We’ll keep everyone posted on any changes to any of the other plans, and how to move forward with those changes.
Happy Training!
Just when i’ve finished my base plan. Thanks :/
Alex,
Day late and a dollar short, ay? 😉 If you have enough time in your training season, feel free to stack the revised part II of SSB into your regimen. It would be a great approach before diving into your Build plan. Either way works, but just wanted to make sure you knew you could take that approach to try the revised plan. Let us know if you run into any other questions. Thanks!
Cycling is supposed to be fun too. Replacing a nice weekend ride with other people or even alone, to stay at home and be like a hamster, can make you hate yourself really fast.
Riders should feel free to take things outdoors. 🙂 And if it happens to fall on a day that you had a scheduled workout, maybe mix in some intervals while out on the road.
Hi !
I tried ..have a lock and it says “already assigned” ????
Oskar, let us know at support@trainerroad.com if you’re running into any questions or concerns. Thanks!
What happened??
I had just started sweetspot base II (high volume), so deleted that plan and re-started the plan, reassigning my week 1 rides no problem.
Now I look in more detail I cannot believe how much the plan has changed compared to the previous version. Where are the VO2 intervals and why has the overall time per week increased so significantly on the high volume base plan? The Blog and email said you were replacing the longer weekend rides with shorter interval work – that sounded great. What we actually have now is longer (minimum 90 minutes) intervals of endless sweetspot, with very repetitive workouts / little variation.
The blog also states that if we want to access the old workouts we can find them in the weekly tips – in fact all that is mentioned is an option to swap out a weekend ride.
In shortening the weekend ride you’ve actually increased the mid-week intervals so the weekly total is now 2hrs higher, and made almost all workouts in sweetspot zone with little variation for weeks. I could drop to the mid-volume which is less affected, but the difference in time per week is significant at 4 hours now.
I don’t get it, really disappointed and gutted that I deleted my plan before checking what had actually happened.
Just want to add I completely agree with Austin.
Further, the high volume base 2 peaks at ~700 weekly TSS while the high volume general build only peaks at ~500. This is a huge drop off and doesn’t make sense to me. Will the build plans be updated to better follow the base plans?
I agree as well. Based on the article above, and comments on the podcast, I assumed the long Sunday rides were just going to get swapped with a shorter sweet-spot ride of a similar TSS. I didn’t expect to see such massive changes to the entire plan. Very confused as to the intent of these changes, especially as they relate to the other, unchanged plans.
As it stands Scott I am considering dropping Trainer Road. I’ve been looking at trying to adapt the mid-volume base II instead, but frankly who needs that hassle, the idea was to follow a set plan. Training needs to remain interesting and doing endless sweetspot for 6 weeks is far from that.
And seriously, who has 90 mins to 2 hours to train mid-week?
do you want to have fun or become faster?
That’s a huge increase indeed but I am quite satisfied they did. The “old” version was a bit too low for me by volume and not so much different from the mid one as far as I am concerned.
However, I do agree that they now have to work on a new (high volume) Build and Specialty plans to make them more realistic. It’s important to get a constant increase during a season, phase after phase… but it’s not the case anymore at this moment…
Hope to hear from them about that very soon !
PS : Starting a new base plan today, hope they will do it within next six weeks…
Scott, re-workings for the High Volume Build Plans are on their way. 🙂
I agree as well. I’ll probably continue the old high volume 2 and then go to the new one. The new SSB looks more like traditional base to me.
Agree with Austin. There seems to be drastic change in the Sweet Spot High Volume plan. What is reasoning behind it?
Austin,
We’re actually going to make some tweaks to the post to indicate that our Head Coach’s recommendation is to stick to the former plan if you’re on the High-Volume, as it’s a bit too much of extra TSS to transition to (i.e. jump from old SSB I to new SSB II). Low- and Mid-Volumes are A-Okay to make this transition. It’s likely there are athletes who can make this leap in volume/stress with High-Vol as well, but for the sake of the majority we’d like to make that general recommendation to stick to the old plan if you’re doing High-Volume.
Regarding your observation of the changes in the new version of the High-Volume SSB plans, there’s a few reasons behind the differences you’re seeing: The nature of our changes to make more of a “High-Volume” plan involved an increase in weekly TSS. In order to do so, certain rides’ duration was increased. Some of that duration pulled from weekend work and distributed throughout the rest of the week. Since duration was increased, we had to also yank some of the VO2 max work as the high-intensity would make the rest of the week difficult to manage. If you do choose to use our newly revised SSB plans in the future, you can swap in similar TSS, VO2 max workouts to see if you can manage that stress. From our Coach’s perspective, that would be hard to handle for most riders.
The option for the old workouts in the ‘Weekly Tips’ can be found in the High-Volume only, at the moment. Our original thoughts on Mid-Volume was that athletes will need the sweet spot work on the weekend considering the rest of the week’s training. That said, we may add the option for the former weekend rides. Although, the largest difference is only 15 minutes. And Low-Volume doesn’t have long rides. 😉
We’re sorry for your frustration here, Austin. Again, feel free to hop back into the old plan by following the link above. Thank you for your valuable feedback, and please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at support@trainerroad.com if you run into anymore question or concerns.
I welcome this change, thanks! I also like the flexibility of knowing what the older, slow-ride equivalents are – for those Sundays when I want to go long outside. So I see where you say, “If you’d like to access the old workouts, you can find instructions for them under Week Descriptions (+Week Tips) in the training plan description.” I do find those references to the old workouts in the Sweet Spot Base High Volume week tips, but none in the Mid or Low volume plans. Oversight?
Thanks for your feedback! Not an oversight. 🙂 We just got the options entered into the Description for mid-volume, and the low-volume doesn’t have any Sunday rides with that option. Happy Training!
I’m also surprised by the changes. I’m in week 1 of SSB high volume II. Under the old plan, it was 496 TSS. New plan is 642 TSS. Would like to understand the changes.
It’s like a fourth level : the VERY high volume one. If the step is too high, keep the “old” version, you will still have great results. But this new Base plan is even more promising (and challenging!)… Hope to be able to get to the end 🙂
I agree. I think the way this is being implemented is a little messy and unfortunate, but I really like that they have this new super-high-volume SSB plan. I am only jealous that I finished the old SSB High Volume about two weeks ago, and didn’t get a chance to follow this new plan.
@Brent : no time for a third round of Base Plan ? By skipping few recovery weeks (I know, I know I shouldn’t…), we should still on time for A-summer-races…
Unfortunately, I plan for two peaks in the season, and the first is mid-May. So on my current schedule, I finish my specialty plan just before my first A race in mid-May. Then a recovery, rebuild and peak again for state championships a couple months later.
Trouble is, if you deleted the old plan to start this new version, you cannot go back.
Please post link to archive on Training Plan pages
https://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/plans/archive
Now I have found out you can still do the original SSB High Vol plan (via the archive plans), I’ve popped my dummy back in and all is well with the world!
Glad we’re back on track! 🙂 Let us know if you run into any other questions or concerns.
As a “less experienced”, and older rider, thanks for the changes. I had to drop out of the mid-volume sweet spot base plan – those 3 hour rides killed me. The low volume plan works, but i’ve been adding in an extra ride or two per week (or cross-training) to get some more work in. 350-400TSS/week is enough for me…
Still evaluating if I want to switch to the mid-volume plan, or just “borrow” from it to add to the low-volume plan.
It’s interesting to hear this! I almost exclusively focus on longer Gran Fondo type rides and the training involves more longer rides than short. Will definitely look to incorporate more of this.
SSB High Volume, TSS is much higher and requires 25% more saddle time. The blog entry is not accurate in that regard. It’s a complete plan restructure and not just the weekend ride.
“By replacing longer weekend rides with shorter interval workouts, we’re able to keep your TSS where it needs to be while eliminating the need to end your week with a long, slow ride.”
Thanks for your feedback! We updated the post to make sure we were clear that the low-volume plan sees minor tweaks, mid-volumes sees weekend ride changes, and high-volume sees complete re-workings—which includes weekend ride changes. 🙂
Cheers!
Why would similar changes not be made to the shorter triathlon plans (sprint/oly)? The rides in those races are pretty short and on bike nutrition is not that complicated (or even necessary for many) for the duration of those races.
+1 ??
I’m two workouts into the fourth week of the Sweet Spot Base High Volume II. Honestly I’m on the fence about changing over to the new plan. Seems like a very labor intensive process to delete the old plan sign up for the new one and assign the old rides to the new plan. Truth be told I’m not sure I understand how to implement the changeover.
Still mulling it over.
I’m 3 weeks in to SSB High Volume 2, just started the 3rd week. I wouldn’t bother with the remapping, because it just doesn’t map.
The old High Volume 2 week 3 is equivalent to the new SSB High Volume 1 week 1, and the old High Volume 2 week 4 is equivalent to the new SSB High Volume 1 week 2. Just start over to if you really want to, or continue on and then go to the new SSB High Volume 2.
The TSS is too different to try to continue on with SSB High Volume 2 and assigning prior workouts.
Don’t know why everybody focuses on the rise of volume. For me, the most important change is about intensity. All the SS workouts have been lowered by a few percents and it makes a huge difference ! There are much more manageable/repeatable now. When “Valleys” were around 95% of FTP, there are around 90% for example now. As far as I am concerned, this is what sweetspot is supposed to be ! By staying most of the time between 88% and 94%, we hit the target with less fatigue. Don’t be afraid by the volume, I am sure we will get it without trouble !
The reduction in intensity is a key observation. Thanks for pointing that out. I agree that this will make a significant difference.
It’s not volume. It is the TSS which is a composite of both volume AND intensity.
Coach Chad agrees with me. The TSS jump is significant, possibly too much so. Some can, most can’t do it, and will get demotivated, IMO.
“If you’re in the middle of, or are about to complete SSB I high-volume when these changes went into effect (Jan. 24, 2017), access the archived version of SSB II high-volume here. Coach Chad recommends users finish out the archived version, as the rapid jump from the old SSB I high-volume plan to the new SSB II high-volume plan could be too stressful for most riders”
Let me explain why this new plan allows us to get further with less fatigue :
Compare Leconte (“old” SS) and Carillon +1 (new plan) for example. There are both criss-cross workouts, last 90′, but have different intensity/TSS… When I do a Leconte (123TSS) one day, I need an easy ride the next day (50TSS) to recover. After two days, I compiledaround 175 TSS, with 60′ of high-range sweetspot intervals.
On the other hand, I am almost sure to be able to complete workouts like Carillon (103TSS) every single day ! It’s much more manageable, thanks to a (bit) lower intensity. If I amable to do it two consecutive days, I will have 206TSS in my basket and performed 60′ of mid-range sweetspot… TWICE !
I entirely get what you’re saying, but what you’re saying is not applicable. Let’s take a look at the actual plan, instead of pulling random exercises out.
The old SSB High Volume 2, week 4, as indicated by OP compared to the new SSB High Volume 2 week 4.
old vs new
Tuesday: 77 old vs 134 new
Wednesday: 95 old vs 104 new
Thursday: 80 old vs 130 new
Friday: 39 old vs 73 new
Saturday: 124 old vs 143 new
Sunday: 143 old vs 129 new
Week Overall: 558 old vs 713 new
Where, in this plan change, do you see a decrease in TSS to be applicable to what you’re trying to suggest? It is a huge increase in TSS.
Now take my suggestion, continue on with old SSB High Volume 2 and switch to new SSB High Volume 2 after *or* go back to the new SSB High Volume 1, week 2.
Tuesday: 77 old SSB HV2 week 4 vs 102 new SSB HV1 week 2
Wednesday: 95 old SSB HV2 week 4 vs 71 new SSB HV1 week 2
Thursday: 80 old SSB HV2 week 4 vs 103 new SSB HV1 week 2
Friday: 39 old SSB HV2 week 4 vs 32 new SSB HV1 week 2
Saturday: 124 old SSB HV2 week 4 vs 127 new SSB HV1 week 2
Sunday: 143 old SSB HV2 week 4 vs 117 new SSB HV1 week 2
This is much more comparable, and hence my suggestion to go back to the new SSB HV1 instead OR tack on the new SSB HV2 after completing the old SSB HV2, which is what I plan to do.
But compare the core of the workouts ! In the older version, Huffaker is a strong one, Darwin very tough and Leconte above everything… You spend a lot of time at the limit, or just above the limit, and it will make you feel tired, trust me (I just ended this fourth week before moving to the new version). I never thought that I would be able to do any of this workout two consecutive days.
In the newest version, you never get higher than 94%. Some people will say that there is no big difference between 99% and 94%, but THERE IS ! That’s a huge gap if your FTP is accurate. This is what sweetspot is supposed to be, ranging from 88% until 94% of FTP, not less, not more. And if you calculate the time you spend in this key-zone between the two versions, you will see why the (but manageable) rise of TSS get you a huge rise of SS work !
The assignment process is very easy.
I stopped my current sweet spot plan and started a new one but the new one still has the 90 minute rides. What needs to be done to get the updated plans?
Depends on which volume you were on. Low-volume sees no tweaks to weekend rides, mid-voume sees Sweet Spot work swapped with the former longer rides, and high-volume sees complete re-workings which include changes to weekend rides. 🙂
it would be extremely helpful to list the names of the new sweet spot intervals rather than talking in general about them
i’m currently in week 4 of the old SSB 1 high volume plan and I’m planing on doing the old SSB 2 high volume plan as recommended by coach Chad. I have viewed the new SSB 2 high volume plan but I’m unable to see the old plan work outs in the +weekly tips section as stated?
Is there another way of getting the old SSB 2 high volume plan (I hope to start this in 2 weeks) ?
Ricky, you can access the original SSB plans from https://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/plans/archive. Also, you’ll only find a substitute for a longer, low-intensity workout in the Week Tips for mid- and high-volume plans. Not the entire original plan — I updated the post to make sure this is clear. Thanks and happy training!
Hi. Similar to other people, I would like to continue with the original SSB high volume part 2. You mention below and in the blog post that you have instructions in the weekly +Tips section but I cant find any. Why dont you just publish the names of the workouts in a long list so that we can load them manually like we used to before you could follow a plan? Thanks for any help.
Access the original plans from https://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/plans/archive. The Week Tips includes the option to substitute a longer, lower-intesnity ride for your Sunday workout in mid- and high-volume SSB plans. I updated the post to make sure this is clear. Thanks for your feedback and ride hard!
After finishing the first two workouts in week 4 of the old SSB HVII I decided to switch over to the new version. I think I will be able to handle the increased volume, at least I hope so, since I have been adding on additional saddle time after I finish most of the workouts now. I’ll just pull the plug when the workout actually ends
I think I’ll get more benefit from the longer SS intervals so while it may not be easy it will be more beneficial, at least for me. I’ll just add that I’m an old guy and may run into more difficulty with the high intensity workouts but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.
I have to give a chapeau to the support staff. I was having a problem assigning the rides from the old plan to the new one. Sent an e mail for help and received a reply almost immediately and was walked through the process. Thanks Corey.
Saw a lot of comments. I agree with some not so much others. For the record I think there is a place for both plan types (old and new) and I hope to see the old sweet spot come back in a form for Utlra cycling and for the +40 crowd that get a big bang for buck for the added V02max and aerobic rides. I’m sure they are working 1 plan at a time.
But some key points that the Trainer Road staff probably can’t be pointing out
1) Time To exhaustion matters. A 350 FTP with a TTE of 30minutes is way different than a 350 FTP w/TTE of 58 minutes.
2) IF you take on the new high volume plan you gotta suck it up and take the new 20 Minute FTP test and accept your result no matter what it is. Swallow your pride. If you have always been an 8 minute tester 90% of the time your FTP will be lower on the 20minute one; but the number you get will represent a higher TEE. FTP was never 1 hour power; that’s an over simplification the cycling masses made. For best results you need an assessment that matches the plan so you get proper scaled workouts.
3) A Properly accessed FTP that’s more in line with a TTE nearing 1 hour will cause these workout to scale to a level you can finish and that will make you faster. Coach Chad didn’t put the 20 minutes test there on accident. Do the 20 minute test.
4) High volume is high volume; this new sweet spot plans Mid and High now align a lot better with what the Traditional Base Mid and High volume represented to a rider. They target riders of equal levels and demands. With the new plans you have to be real in your self assessment, are you a truly a high volume rider or are you really a mid volume one. Both plans work, don’t let ego put you in the wrong plan where you get less results. Better to be a mid volume rider get maximum results than a high volume rider getting poor results
Until they get us the Aging Rider Plans the old ones still rock for that and for Ultra Cycling base. They left them for us to access just like all the old plans from years past. They just made them too hard to find; and that’s really the only thing they made too “hard”, not sure if you can use the plan manager with the legacy stuff that would be nice; silly to through away perfectly good plans just because there are new ones.
https://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/plans/archive
I totally agree with you.
They should give us a fourth link on the bottom of the base, build, specialty choice for the archived training plans.
Thanks
Thanks for the perspective Bob.
It definitely seems like the new plans are targeting a more specific set of energy systems whereas the previous SSB plan had more of a mix with the VO2max and other rides like Keeler.
Hi, I’ve just completed 12 weeks of SSB High Vol 1 &2 and was about to start Sustained Power Build Hi Vol. When is going to be changed? Shall I start the current plan or do other sessions whilst I wait for the new plan ?
This is my first go round with TR and from reading the comments I’m not sure if I got something wrong. I’ve been following the Sweet Spot High Vol base II plan. I was under the impression that either you would follow SSBT HV I or HV II. Is the plan designed so that your supposed to do both for a 12 week base plan? Just a bit confused.
This is my first go round with TR and from reading the comments I’m not sure if I got something wrong. I’ve been following the Sweet Spot High Vol base II plan. I was under the impression that either you would follow SSBT HV I or HV II. Is the plan designed so that your supposed to do both for a 12 week base plan? Just a bit confused.
Within a level High, Medium, Low. The plans are phase I then II and sometimes III; do the them in order I,II,III. And don’t worry you are in good company being confused by that.
Thanks for the clarification. BTW apologies for the double post.
So now that it has been determined that I was supposed to do both parts of the SSBT HV plan I’m wondering how I should proceed now. As I mentioned I thought it was a choice between High Vol I and High Vol II rather than a progression and I jumped in at HV II. Is it advisable to go back and repeat what I had just completed or do the first 6 week block or just push on. Time is really not an issue for me but I would just like to maximize what the plan has to offer. To recap I’m on the second workout of week 5.
Thanks
Since time not an issue, Go back now and do Block I of the new plan SSB HV which is slightly hard than what you just did 542 TSS versus 503; then after that Block II. Should build nicely. Understand the plan is now different; take the FTP test at 20minute format; use that new FTP for the restart even if it says your FTP went down; 20minute test is just different than 8 and so is the new plan. Over reach and you ride buddies will be picking you up off the floor.
Thanks for the quick reply. Since I’m half way through the 5th week I think I’ll complete it do a recovery week, which I think I could use, and then go back and start with week one of the new plan. After the recovery I should have a better FTP test since the week I’m doing now has a ton of volume and I’m beginning to feel it.
The updates are great except the font size of the guidance instructions in the plans are too small. Please consider an option to allow riders to change the font size as needed. Thanks
Hi. I’m about a fortnight out from finishing base training and wonder when the revised build plans are going to be ready. There seems to have been lots of comments asking the same question. I take on board your comment about not being hung up about TS numbers, but the jump between the revised base plans TS and those in the build plans are rather big. Any news would be appreciated
I agree, build/specialty plans require an update… VERY quickly ! 2017’s depends on it !
Hey Dave,
We’re gearing up to release these revised Build plans come next week. Stay tuned!
Not sure why you would assume that people have more time in the work week than weekends. That should be a personal choice for new users, IMO, that does not require hunting for archives. If you feel compelled to warn them that they are sub optimal plans, OK fine.
Thanks for these changes. I like these plans a lot, but 2-3 hours on the trainer on a Sunday was a bit taxing.