I ended up doing my Build phase a little bit early this year given life circumstances off the bike and now trying to make a logical plan heading into my first B event in early May.
Overall, sitting in a good spot with FTP +20w (@4.5wkg now) since October and did 4 weeks VO2 + 8 weeks Threshold already this year. Since I still have 2.5months I’m trying to decide where to head next and I’m debating two options:
Option 1: Volume overload doing 15-18hrs pw for 4 weeks → VO2 (like 1 sessions per week… not a block) + Race Specific Prep 4 weeks. Current volume has been like 11-12 hours pw so I think 15-18 would be a good overload and maybe bring a bump
Option 2: Try a suprathreshold block for 4 weeks focused on more Build (maybe start 5x6 @110% FTP and advance to like 5x9). I know this work is a little unorthodox but building some strength above FTP might help without killing myself for another vo2 block. Then follow into VO2 touchup + Race Prep stuff
I guess there is a world where I could go back to an intense VO2 block and probably get a significant FTP bump but frankly I lack the motivation and work stress is high right now.
My target events are long gravel events… 6-12hours for most but they tend to have some 10-20min separators which is why I could I see either endurance or supra as beneficial. I’m still pretty new to training and cycling so appreciate any advice I can get.
What sort of TTE have you got your sweetspot out to (bearing in mind long gravel races are your thing)?
I reckon you could make yourself pretty much bombproof if you did a block to stretch your Sweetspot out to, say, 2 × 45 or more, and then added a bit of top end polish in April.
Sounds like a similar plan to what I do. If I were in your shoes I’d work backwards from the race. Starting in May at the event working back:
2 Week Taper.
3 Week Race Specific Block - Build CTL, Lots of Z2, Tempo, Sweet Spot Intervals. Fartlek / TTE Rides with a little bit of VO2 Openers / Intervals sprinkled in depending on how much VO2 in the event.
1 Week Recovery
3 Week Race Specific Block - Build CTL, Lots of Z2, Tempo, Sweet Spot Intervals. Fartlek / TTE Rides with a little bit of VO2 Openers sprinkled in.
1 Week Recovery
Depending on when in May - That leaves you another block to play with right now - I’d do a Sweet Spot Progression with the time you have.
Depends on when the A event is after B, how well you recover / bounce back, and probably how much you care about the B event. I’ve done longer taper for an A with that type of Volume / Block leading in as it can beat you up pretty good (Late 40’s / Masters Athlete Here). And, I also advocate maintaining intensity during the taper so I don’t feel like you lose much.
But, if your A event is within 8 Weeks after, I might change it up some and effectively work backwards from the A Event and not taper so much for the B, and turn the B Event into more of a big training ride with less taper. (But for me, that also means not going all-out for the B Event)
Ok that’s helpful - so just target volume to build CTL and mostly Tempo + SS with some intensity sprinkled in?
I agree SS is very helpful for my races but my TTE is quite high already. I’m at 70min TTE at 100% FTP coming off the work I just did. That is why I was considering maybe one more hard Build block (intensive FTP/supra threshold) to bring FTP up a bit more before I get into CTL loading.
I just wrapped a threshold block and brought my FTP endurance out to 70min. I would venture I could easily do 2x45 @92-94% FTP right now. That is why I was considering maybe doing some intensive FTP before building a bunch of CTL. Obviously the risk I run is losing TTE before the event.
Again, this all depends on when your A Event is…. Basically all we have to work with is your B Race.
But, I’d build Sweet Spot / Tempo / Endurance TTE - probably not Threshold. Basically Durability and riding at those zones for hours and hours on end. During the event, you’re probably not going to be doing a ton of Threshold Riding and your threshold arguably matters less than being able to ride at high percentages of it for hours. You’ll probably have brief bouts of VO2, but mostly lower zones. (Basically - how long are the hard efforts during the race? Are you going to have to repeat 20 minutes at threshold multiple times? Or, is it going to be punchy climbs / shorter than that, like 5 minutes VO2 before back to Endurance/Tempo?)
That’s why the recommendation for a Sweet Spot Progression now (I go out to 4x30 @ 90% if there’s time) moving into Race Specific Durability / CTL Work.
Given a lot of time to your A event, if you just want to treat B as a training ride, you could go back and do another VO2 Block, followed by Threshold, SST / etc. again.
Yeah that is a fair point. There are some punchy 3-8min climbs that will separate the group but I think my VO2 is good enough to keep up since people aren’t typically completely hammering given length of event. If I can ride for hours at 4wkg (~90% FTP) that probably will get me a pretty good result.
A race is a bit in flux right now. It was supposed to be 3 weeks later but I now need to miss that event. That makes my new A in August so I’ll have a lot of time to continue to build after this B event.
I might get back to VO2 after this event depending on my motivation level. Still scarred from my last block despite how effective it was.
If you work backwards from the race, you could start another VO2 Block Now, another couple threshold Blocks, then move into Sweet Spot and Race Specific Stuff. Basically, another full build cycle. I’m targeting an August A Event using this approach, and I’m in the middle of my VO2 work now. But - I’m not sure I’d want to do that more than once in a year personally - it’s tough.
Or - Just Peak for the May Event using the approach above, Rest a little bit, and then do another round of Race Specific and Volume Building from May through the race in August.
My event in August is much longer (~240miles) and my motivation to do a second dedicated vo2 block is low haha. I will probably follow your advice and get after sweetspot, build CTL, then see if I can get a good result in my B event.
Lots of good advice in this thread, not much to add other than erring on the side of not burning out. Whenever I get in a position that I feel like my trajectory might be too steep too early in the season, I tend to fall back on building CTL in a way that I enjoy and keeps me motivated. That’s usually a mix of tempo, sweet spot, and some O/U’s mixed in to keep a little intensity in the mix. I know I only have about 2 blocks per year in me of highly motivated quality vo2max work (~12 workouts that I truly dread), so I place those in the season where I feel they will be most effective for my highest priority event. Last year, my A event was Unbound and I knew I couldn’t completely ignore intensity in the final runup, so I worked in a bunch of 30/30’s in the month prior (and a couple tune up races as well). It worked well to keep me sharp enough to hang during the surgy first couple hours of the race, but the 30/30’s didn’t beat me down with fatigue like proper vo2max work might have leading up to the race. My plan this year is similar.
For me, it’s really hard to justify optimizing or bending my training for any race prior to my A race. It’s basically either A (all in) or C (let it fall as it falls while I’m optimizing for my A race). But that would be tough if the A race isn’t until August. May to August is really enough time to treat both of them like A races, peak in May and totally rest/rebuild for another peak in August. For me, the hard part would be motivation to go through another build block for the second race, they just beat me down (probably more mental than physical).
Very good observation yes first time doing it and “fun-ish” sounds right. I’m optimistically hoping for a top 10 finish but I have some work to do. If I can get CTL up through the summer and maybe stretch FTP/LT1 just a bit more I just might have a shot.
Thanks for sharing your experience and seems to be right where I’m at. I love building volume/CTL so that is probably my best path (with maybe a SS block) since I peaked early. Just curious, when do you usually time your 2 VO2 blocks and how do you usually structure them?
Yes motivation will be lacking to go through Build again, but who knows. It always pays off and another 10-20w on FTP could be a massive game changer.
Nope, I’m doing Leadville instead. But I had considered doing Chase’s gravel series (and therefore the damn again). I’d be much more inclined to do it again now that you can easily hire a ride and sag service. The logistics of the event are such a pain and my family has no interest in driving all across the state in the middle of the night to support a silly bike ride for me.
My build blocks (all my hard vo2max) are March and April for Unbound (end of May/first of june). I’ll be absolutely flying by end of April and finish off my build block with a huge “overload” week in Emporia pre-riding the unbound course along with a 2 day stage race on tired legs at the end of that week. Then, it’s a month of race-specific stuff (30-30’s mainly) and I’ll do rule of 3 (~8 hour race) 2 weeks prior. Last year, I dropped my CTL from 140+ down to 120 in the month before Unbound and I’m always freaking out about losing fitness, but I was feeling like a caged animal on race day and had good legs all day (and nabbed a podium despite a bad mechanical). I honestly don’t know if I’d do better if I held a little more volume during the taper or not, I may play with it a bit this year.
Leadville is my A-/B+ race in early August, I basically do zero structure training and just ride my bike a bunch between the 2 events but get my CTL back up to ~130 before tapering again into leadville. I plan to work in some structure this year before leadville, just depends on my motivation after Unbound.
This is the way.
yes first time doing it and “fun-ish” sounds right. I’m optimistically hoping for a top 10 finish but I have some work to do. If I can get CTL up through the summer and maybe stretch FTP/LT1 just a bit more I just might have a shot.