…and generally you might want to be in this area for a short while if feeling a bit burnt out so need to unload before starting to take on more load. Classic area for a mid or post season break.
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That is a good point.
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I just want to do something different, but I don’t want to spend 20+ weeks indoors this winter to come out next year with nothing to show for it, or worse yet with a loss of fitness. I’m looking to commit 10 hours a week roughly from November to end of March so whatever will give me the most bang for my buck is what I would like.
I feel like my base is already strong based on some of the rides I’ve done this year (back to back decent weekend rides such as 70mi moderate followed by a 107 mile century at 20mph the day after) but I also know “base can never be too big”.
The real goal this year is to do short power build MV, so whatever will set me up best for that. Those practice rides with the racers the intensity gets cranked up and I want to be able to drop the hammer over and over when it’s my turn to pull to wear those guys down a good bit before the finishing sprint
I just know when people do real base training it’s usually something like 15 hour weeks for 6-9 months, I don’t have that time commitment so the big concern is if Traditional Base MV is enough TSS and time in those zones to actually make any progress. The way TR pitches SSB, makes it seem like TB is a waste of time, but I know it isn’t really
Having done a 3hr Z2 ride this morning (big mountain), I was pondering this whole TB vs SSB thing a little. I’ll preface with the obvious that TSS is not equal, but in thinking about the time realistically available to me, I still can’t imagine myself sticking with a TB approach, mainly because real life gets in the way of being consistent on weekends. Like with my ride today, it was 142tss, but I could have done a really solid sweet spot workout with roughly equivalent tss in 2hrs. I knew I had a little more time this morning for a longer ride so I decided to do z2 rather than a shorter more intense ride, but I can’t always guarantee myself that I’ll have 4-5hrs for a really big ride. 2hrs is really my personal cap to be able to reasonably fit in my riding and not becoming an imposition on my family if we decide to go out and do something. So for me, SSB HV is going to tick the marks of time/intensity balance I can personally handle.
I’ve also re-thought TB time commitments. Most estimates are based off pro training, however, pros need to do that much just to induce adaptation stress. Most amateurs might only need 2-3 long rides a week, say ~10hrs a week, in order to create enough training stress.
This might be coming from a MAF-type world view where the athlete is fried and needs to spend a lot of time healing and reconstructing their aerobic endurance. Definitely pros, even as juniors, never spend 6-9 months doing “base”, so why would a healthy amateur?
Also never forget that even “short power” has a lot of aerobic contribution. Take the German 2000 Oly 4,000m track team who set a WR that year, they did TONS of Z2 type riding even though their goal was smashing out insane 2min power. That said, they also did a bunch of stage racing throughout the year which could account for a “short power” training block. And they only spent about 2 weeks doing true dedicated short power training before their A-race. Just something to think about.
At least you have a clear goal in mind of what you’re after.
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This. I would love to be able to do another 2-3month block of full-on polarized training but going back into semi-normal/semi-covid work hours kinda deletes that idea. I’ll probably stick with a couple ~4hr endurance weekend rides, maybe a couple weekday Tempo rides, and a VO2 session. 
I just signed up for SSBLV because I was looking for something to bridge weekends with the short dark weekdays here in Germany. I am able to ride nearly all weekends outside for 2-4 hours each day to get my long “base” style rides. About half of these are with a group and most of it is big rolling hills with longish Cat 3/4 climbs. I’m planning to reevaluate after block one is complete. I figure I can always add in sessions like Taku to extend my saddle time if i want more base tacked onto the higher intensity workouts. This would likely simulate my group rides as well.
I’m taking advantage of the Covid situation to fit in a slightly modified TBHV. I skipped TBHV1 and started at 2. We have to work from home, so I can always fit in 2 hours at lunch for a workout if I start work early and finish late (not an issue with no commute). Also, at the weekends, there’s not all that much we can go and do, so I’m not finding it too hard to find the time.
I’m finding the workouts a lot better than I first thought. In fact when a SST workout rolls around now I’m wishing I was cruising at 70%. I’ve got Netflix to distract and educate, which does help with the +2 hour stuff. I’m also starting with some strength stuff and it’s not killing me when I’m on the bike. Another advantage is that a 2 hour workout soon becomes not quite so intimidating length-wise.
I’m enjoying it, but won’t continue with loads of Z2 all winter once this 7 week block is up. I’m starting to add more SST now, and will probably do a custom 2nd base phase of mainly SST and maybe 1 long Z2 on the weekend.
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Last year, as COVID kicked in, I moved from SSB LV and added additional workouts, increasing my workout to MV level gradually. This was to reduce the VO2 work that I know can result in injuries. I then moved to MV either half way through SSBII MV or Build. It worked really well and I completed every work out.
End of last year, I restarted my season and the high intensity stuff smashed me. I kept picking up injuries and my failure rate increased. I would’ve been on SSBII MV now. So I’ve pulled back, working on the injury and going with Traditional Base MV to add volume and remove all intensity.
So I’ll see what the benefit is, but the intent is to avoid intensity for a bit here… as others have said, SSB can go a little too hard at that.
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Very interesting read, actually read all 300+ posts, but am still not sure what I should do next.
I am on SSBLV1 now, have added workouts so that my weekly tss is around 350-450 and about 6-8 h.
I feel quite well now, not too fatigued, but need to eat quite a lot and actually dont want that feeling of being pressured to fuel properly.
I am intrigued now to switch to TB plans, but looking at TRs TB plans i am rather disappointed. Ok, I could build my own plan.
So now I am thinking of going almost Z2 with some SS workouts per week. Any experiences of those who posted about this above?
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Depends,
What is your goal / purpose of your training?
What do you think your strengths, weaknesses and limiters are?
How much time do you have or want to comitt to training?
Can you recover, rest any better than you already do to help cope with more training stress per week?
I think the answers to some or all would help people given a more balanced contextual answer / advise.
^ Imo, that is a very sensible approach.
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Hi and thank you for the support:
Glad I asked, as for health, wellbeing and improved fitness verse pure performance I think most would give different advice, (although that doesnt necessarily always need to be the case.)
I have some thoughts, opinions, I’ll get back to you later when I have got a bit more time. There are some very knowledgeable people on here, more so than myself, so hopefully they will chime in as well.
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Did a 90min Pettit session on my rollers indoor today. Was actually harder than most 90 min SS sessions… mentally it was challenging, almost boring. Physically it was not challenging, but it was challenging to keep the watts and speed on the rollers as low as the sessions asked for without falling of the rollers. The slower you ride the more difficult it is to stay balanced on the rollers.
I doubt that I would be able to make it through 2-3h of Zone 2 indoors.
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I’ve been doing 1hr version of the same, on rollers. Definitely need the distraction of something to watch while getting through back to back sessions of z2. Practice different cadences with low wattages, I like pushing my cadence as high as comfortable, then switching to my preferred cadence and below. Practice standing, and even one legged drills and no handed riding - it doesn’t necessarily to outside skills but it helps occupy the mind.
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@ rentagreement So if I understand correctly you are current doing SSBLV1 and adding in other sessions/rides which gives you a weekly TSS around 350 – 450.
If I am correct you are adding extra sessions, I assume Z1 and Z2 steady sessions, that increases the TSS of the SSBLV1 by 120 – 220 TSS, this higher number is almost double the weekly TSS of the published SSBLV1 plan?
I am going to assume that you want to train almost every day, but even if you don’t want to train say 6 out of 7 days, I think my suggestions still make sense as you can add or delete sessions based on the combination of plans that you chose.
I think there are a couple of ways you could go that I would suggest based on how you answer the questions asked. Personally, I would choose depending on the sessions you are enjoying and how well you think you could tolerate or even enjoy the longer low intensity sessions on your rollers. If you do not think you can stick to 2hr-2.5hr on the rollers then I would not go traditional base.
TRADITION BASE – Maybe look at TBLVI, LVII, LVIII, (I don’t think I’d suggest mid volume as some of those session are very long to do inside, repetitive and to be honest boring, even if you are very good at switching off, although it would fit in with your goals.)
Suggestion: TBLV and add in two (x2) Z1-Z2 30, 45 or 60 sessions (probably not two 60-minute sessions though.) Examples might be something like Carter, Taku, Pettit.
Optional: Also consider adding one Tempo/Low end SST interval session, intervals that are not too long or over about 87% if you think you handle the training stress and this might push your limits, not sure of your endurance background, so disclaimer do this with caution. If in doubt just add a third Z1/Z2 session if you want to add three sessions.
If you only only to add one session to TBLV then make it a Tempo/SST interval session
If you do not fancy the sessions over 120+ minute you could replace them with a Tempo/SST interval session as just suggested.
I am not sure I would recommend TBLV without adding some additional sessions.
The other option is to continue with what you are doing SSBLV + add-ins, I think this is a good approach, as you develop and greater aerobic base you could when you are feeling good slightly increase the IF or duration of the sessions you add-in.
Whatever you decide, listen to your body and take rest and recovery as needed, it is much better to do slightly less consistently than crash and burn.
Hope this helps or at least gives you something to think about, good luck and enjoy the training.
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Thank you very much for this detailed analysis and your suggestions. i will think about it. So far I guess I will move on to the SSB LV2 after I completed LV1 and will add sessions to get to about 8h per week and appropriate TSS.
Thanks a lot!
For what it is worth, as another type 1 diabetic:
I went to TB MV2 (and subsequently 3) after completing SSB1 MV - mostly because the intensity was too much for me in week 4 and 5 of SSB MV, the constant SS and OUs really pressure my blood sugar low and I had to temporarily abort many sessions to eat sugar - this is not very motivating and I lost motivation completely since I knew before the hard workouts that it was a 70% risk to fail. I have tried SSB1 LV before, for me I lost fitness due to too little work (for me!) but still had the same problems with blood sugar during SS/OU days.
Now I’m done with week 1 of TB MV and I like it so far, yes it requires a lot of Netflix, but I do not have to fuel anymore than just making sure I had a decent breakfast (oats or similiar) and preferably a carb rich lunch before the saturday session. Then add about 40g of carbs/hour during the work out and my blood sugar is really stable. I’m still tired after one week, there is a lot of Tempo in there, but not the kind of tired that makes me nervous if I mess up my sleep even a little bit.
Also should add that I enjoy intensity, but mostly above threshold and Vo2 efforts: Those suit me as a person, but they are also easy to manipulate with sugar since they are not sustained over hours constantly pushing you lower.
My 2 Euro cents and some food for thought.
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Great, thank you for sharing your experiences. Did you not feel to loose some fitness with so much less high intensity workouts in TB? I feel like my muscles really are triggered to grow doing many SS and higher effort session and fear I will feel less of that doing lower effort workouts.
Too early to tell at this moment. However I’m not really worried about that, the intensity is lower but the TSS is about the same or higher and there is more time in the saddle. It is a different kind of tiredness. And it is easier now to add some gym work with heavy squats now that I do not have to be hypervigilant about recovery or feeling bogged down by SS.
To each their own though, if the SSB’s work for you and your T1 do not mind them (like mine does) then I see no reason to change.
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