Advice on what to do after SSB

hey all, im about to complete ssb mid volume 1, what workout/plan should i do next?

im 100% mtb, and use TR to just get better on the bike. i have <3 years of mtb riding, and mostly a powerlifter/bodybuilder.

i “loosely” did ssb mid volume 1, meaning i didn’t ride the scheduled workouts exactly as planned out. sometimes i did 1-2 TR workouts a week. depending on my lifting schedule, sometimes my legs are too smoked after squatting and deadlifting, or sometimes the weather is nice and i actually rode trails. good thing weather is kinda shitty for the past 2-3 weeks, because it’s allowed me to focus on TR more.

i do have some decent leg strength, just not the endurance. high bar back squat in the mid to low 300s for triples, and a deadlift in the low 400s(albeit sumo).

i feel like i cheated the SSB mid volume 1 because i didn’t follow it exactly. im not sure why i chose ssb mid volume 1 because it has 5 TR rides a week. 4 rides would probably be easier for me to perform.

all my mtb friends have been biking for 10+ years, road and mtb, so they just blow me outta the water in terms of endurance.

my ftp was set to 140, tho i probably did the ramp test incorrectly. i’ll have to retest after ssb.

so what should i do next? weather is starting to get better too, so i will probably have normal trail rides regularly.

current setup is with a wahoo kickr 2018 with the cadence thing, and a hrm. i dont have any power or cadence data from my outdoor trail rides, darned crank power meters are so expensive.

overall goals wise, i just want to build better endurance to keep up with friends. i’ll probably be going to pisgah later this year, so i kinda want to be able to climb all the stuff needed for the fun descents.

as for immediate goal, i want to finish Fountainhead trail in northern VA without wanted to commit suicide. lol. it’s a 14 mile loop, and is mostly xc, with some punchy climbs. this place smokes me. according to mtbproject’s older data, it’s about 1200ft of elevation, with an avg grade of 3 and max grade of 15. i find it difficult, most riders will say it’s climby. Fountainhead Regional Park Mountain Bike Trail, Lake Ridge, Virginia

how should i balance 4 days of lifting, with TR and normal trail rides?

I’d lean more towards short power build over sustained but you can’t really go wrong with either. I’m curious what others would say as well, I’m only in SSB LV atm

And … [quote=“useport80, post:1, topic:12920”]
how should i balance 4 days of lifting, with TR and normal trail rides?
[/quote]

… with quality rest and a lot of food!

I dont really sed how you lift 4 days a week and get faster at the same time…

The only problem with that goal is as you get fitter, you’ll ride the trail faster… and you’ll still probably be dead at the end :wink:

Some TR tips on weight training & cycling training:

  • Try to pair your weight training within 12 hours of your intervals & preceding a rest/easy day. Ideally, you’ll do your cycling first, but if you can’t, just know that your riding will suffer since you’re training on pre-exhausted legs.
  • Try to adhere to an on/off schedule by following hard days with easy ones.
  • Try not to block your training. It’s typically far better to train then recover, train then recover, than to train & train then recover. Blocks can be productive, but they’re risky and best left for particular times of the year, and often enough, more advanced riders.

So in order to still have 1-2 full recovery days during the week, you’ll end up doubling up some days with lifting and TR on the same day sometimes. Rest/recovery days are important.

As for which plan next - as a mountain biker myself, I had great positive results of short power build my first year of TR - which directly translated to feeling better and getting faster on the trails. The first year of SSB and short power build however, endurance was lacking… but that comes with time and fitting in long rides when you can.
So I’d definitely recommend short power build. On top of that, it’s often suggested that if you can only train a couple times per week - VO2 is likely the best use of that time, ie: short power style workouts.

Also… might be worth considering a low volume plan if your schedule doesn’t allow you to adhere to the mid-vol plan. It’s a lot easier to nail the low volume workouts and then add in some extra rides when you have time.

2 Likes

Awesome post, @Wayne! :boom:

i definitely try to be mindful of TR rest days or light days and my light lifting days. i’ll usually try to pair a heavy upper body lifting day with a hard TR workout. if i dont feel recovered enough, i’ll take it easy on the lifting.

where do i find the VO2 workouts?

thanks for all the tips. i’ll try the short power build.