Any benefit to Traditional Base vs Sweet Spot?

Training
87

There are a few reasons:

  1. Lower VI is more efficient for burning calories. Average power burns calories, but normalized power is more in line with the “difficulty” of the workout. If you look at interval workouts, like in SSB, difficult workouts have relatively low average power*. TB workouts are very low VI.
  2. TB workouts are roughly similar in average power to SSB workouts (so similar calorie burn rate), but they’re easier, so you can do more volume.
  3. You can survive TB workouts with less fueling than SSB workouts. More calories can go into satiating meals instead of sugar for your workout.

(* The dense Sweet Spot interval workouts actually have pretty high average power, but 1.5 hr of that is a lot more taxing than 2 hr of Z2.)

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