Adding some sessions to the SSBMV II plan

Hi all. I am currently about 2 weeks into SSBMV II and now have some extra time to train every day.

I think that transitioning to the high volume plan might be a bit much, so it seems like it would be better to add some extra training to the existing MV plan. My thoughts are to add a 30-60 minute endurance or tempo session on the days with harder training sessions.

Should I add short endurance sessions immediately after the hard sessions, or wait until later in the day and add longer tempo or endurance sessions? Or is my plan just a bit crap and there are better options?

Adding TSS via Endurance time tacked onto the end of a hard work is a common option and can work well. Some of the TR workouts already apply this with 15 to 30 minutes added.

You can do it in any workout by extending the cool-down the amount you want, and increase workout intensity up to your desired Endurance pace.

Or you can load a separate workout that is the pace and intensity you want.

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Hello @Yoborzen.

I’m doing the same plan and I’ve added Echo -5, Bays, Carter, West Vidette, Birch and Cheaha. I have about 1hr/morning to workout so adding more to the planned workouts don’t really work for me as I want to sleep too. :slight_smile:

By the way I’m doing all fasted in the morning.

I was training in the evening an hour after dinner, which brought its own challenges with motivation and belching. But now I have pretty much any time of day, until I get a new job, and that brings the opportunity to slap add one ride straight after the other, or spread them out over the day. Although, putting on cold, sweaty riding shorts a couple of hours after a workout doesn’t appeal.

Personal preference and subject to your shorts inventory quantity, but I highly recommend against reusing shorts between rides. It can lead to saddle sores for one thing.

Then my recommendation would be to go high volume plan and do the tougher workout in the morning then recover and doing a Z1/Z2 ride later in the evening.

I suppose that I could use two pairs in rotation: one pair for morning and one pair for evening. Stops the clammy crotch and the potential for saddle sores. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Thanks for the suggestion, but I think that going to high volume and additional rides is a bit beyond my ability to recover at my current level of fitness (and age). I think that I’d have to work up to that level of effort starting at SSB HV 1 first.

I’m currently doing this right now as I have found I have a bit extra time and can handle the added stress without issue.

  1. Doing +1/+2 etc. varients of the Tues/Thurs workouts, some increase intensity (shorter rest), some increase time. I pick and choose which one suits my schedule best depending on the week. Most of my weekday workouts are in the morning before work so extra time may not be accessible but i can certainly do more work with less rest.
  2. I’m tacking on additional TIME to the sat/sunday workouts. I’m careful with these not to increase the intensity but simply do the same work for longer. The varients often give a 2hr option which is good (usually adds an interval or 2 more), I also will tack on 30min @ pure endurance zone 2 power on the very end. This has really been helping a lot.
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@Yoborzen:

Absolutely the way to go is to make the sessions longer of the same type of work and then use the time between the MV sessions for quality recovery!

During the SSB phase, in addition to building FTP, the most valuable physiological improvement you can make is building your resistance to fatigue. Short term fatigue resistance is measured as Time-to-Exhaustion (TTE). It is a measure of how long you can hold your FTP. Generally 30-40mins is for an untrained athlete (perhaps even a lower %) or a well trained athlete that has just set a new FTP of ~5% or greater from the prior FTP. At the other end of the spectrum, 60-70mins is an athlete that has built up an extremely strong resistance to fatigue.

Fatigue resistance is built by doing progressively longer intervals within the zone you are training. You can track them by workout, by week, by month, etc. either manually or via certain apps that support it. The metric is Time-in-Zone (TiZ), Time-in-Levels (Coggan Classic training levels) or Time-in-iLevels (Coggan iLevel training levels). I think you will find the Training Peaks WKO webinar (link below) well worth your time given your available additional time to train.

Note: You can make your sessions longer, either by:

  1. Looking for the +1, +2 variants, as @RONDAL mentions
  2. Importing the workout into Workout Creator and duplication any of the intervals and rest periods
  3. Searching the workout database for similar workouts that achieve your progressive TiZ goals (e.g. more intervals, longer intervals, etc).

Building Fatigue Resistance Strategy Into Training

During the week I find it easier on my schedule to keep longer rides at around 2 hours. So I’d do that, a 30-60 minute low aerobic ride. Search “cycling two a days” and you’ll find interesting articles like a 2015 blog post from Coach Chad, and 2009 article from Friel.

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