So, I’m on the fifth week into MVSSB 2. I did my last Thursday threshold workout on Friday because I was super unmotivated on Thursday. That resulted in my so far first bail from yesterdays workout. I did 2 min at threshold and felt that this will never happened.
So I got on Zwift instead just to ride around and after 15 min I just called it quits to save my legs for todays last workout of the 5 week phase.
Today I’m lying in bed, looking out the window where it is pouring rain and I certainly don’t feel like doing 2 hr with 3x30 min sweet spot on the trainer.
I’ve nailed every workout so far on these 5 weeks but this last week has been tough. I would really like to go out with a good feeling this last day but I’m so not up for it.
I somewhat get you. I’ve been sick the entire week and had a bad sleep last night (neighbours partying until 2am). Also, I scratched my car this morning. I totally do not feel like training… so I suggest a challenge. I do what I have planned for today (slightly easier, though as I am on SSBLV) and you do yours and post it below. How is that for motivation? Provided you are not suffering from injury or overtraining, you never regret a completed workout.
The last week of the plan is always the hardest. Stress is at its highest and motivation is at its lowest because you’ve really beat your body up. In those moments, I just force myself to put on bib shorts and get on the bike and start the workout. Once I’m on the bike and moving, I generally am able to mentally get myself through it.
Make sure you’re listening to your body and adjusting the plan as necessary. There is no prize to finish each plan exactly, you must be your own coach. For instance, look at the “Tips” for SSB2 week 5:
“How you tackle your second hard workout this week depends on your rate of recovery, and the same goes for Wednesday’s easy ride - skip it if the fatigue feels excessively high. If you’re still tired come Thursday, dial things down to Sweet Spot with a 10-15% reduction in Workout Intensity. Just a little off your game? Try a 5% drop and stay just below your FTP today.
Finally, your week is capped off with yet another twist on over-under intervals in the form of mildly varied under-segments and short but equally varied over-segments after which you’ll close the week with long Sweet Spot intervals mentioned earlier. As always, you have a long-slow alternative, this week in the form of Big Mountain or Mount Cook.”
I am guessing that means you rode on the trainer three days in a row, Fri, Sat, Sun? I would have done Pettit or similar on Saturday, bumped Mary Austin to Sunday and skipped Tallac. As for today, just finish up Wright Peak into your recovery week and take it for what it is. Save Leconte for another day.
Moving forward, consider doing what I did, which is move down to Low Volume. It gets rid of the Wednesday butter rides which you can optionally add in anyway. It also gets rid of the Sunday SS rides. I ride outdoors on Sundays so my overall TSS with LV is higher than that of MV. If it rains on Sunday, I could either throw in a SS workout or just chill on the couch. No pressure either way.
I watched that motivation/discipline video from Vegan cyclist and just got on the bike. Did my 2 hours with 90 min Sweet spot. It was hard but I managed it. I even smiled during the last 10 min because just after 15 I wanted to quit but stuck to it for another 1:45 hr.
Proud of my self and now I feel that I can enjoy the recovery week.
Good for you!
I finished my workout as well. Actually, I saw your post the just before I started and decided against doing the -1 version and did the full 3x20 minutes sweet spot that is the Eclipse – kind of similar to what you did.
The quote on never regretting a completed workout really struck home for me.
BTW, now you have to change the title of this thread.
Nice job to the OP! Not hitting the last workout at the end of such a tough 5 weeks wouldn’t be a good way going into a rest week.
I did eclipse this morning too. I’m at the end of week 4 of SSBMV1, so far so good! Those 3x20m are mostly mental IMO, unless you are just cooked and not recovered from previous workouts/life. I’m glad to tick that one off, even though I didn’t find the wattage too bad.
I’m pretty much in the same boat – I have Spencer +2, tomorrow, and I am somewhat dreading it. I remember doing it, last year, and that each interval was me wondering how the heck I was going to get through one more second of it.
Granted, my fitness is a little better, but Spencer stands on in my mind as one of the hardest workouts.
Also, I’m not looking forward to 3x30 Sweet Spot on Sunday
You can manage it, I know it’s hard but you’ll get plenty of rest in between. I decided to watch some race footage on YouTube for my 2hr Sunday sweet spot fest and that helped me through the first hour. The second hour I turned to Eurosport to look at some cycling and last I looked at some live performances on YouTube with good energy.
Can’t say much about Saturdays ride since I didn’t do it
HTFU?
Speaking for myself, I noticed that actually I treated myself too lightly in the past year i.e. not doing a workout because of “listening to your body” and “needing rest”. In most cases there is no reason not to do the workout. I think it is waaaay too easy to say any of the above. At the same time, is not that easy to hurt yourself doing a LV plan. So being more strict in following a plan is something I am working on this season. This and better fuelling.
I would have to agree with you here! Ive been coached for the last three years and now turned to coaching myself. I loved being coached and having someone to talk to and have as a ballplank.
But from doing 6 weeks of this plan with a set FTP that I really do believe is “accurate” this is so much harder than what Ive done before. Not at the point where it isnt doable but to the point where it really hurts some times and you just have to man up.
When you only have your perception to go on, “Hard” might be much easier than it should be becasuse “hard” for me might be something completely different than “Hard” for someone else. With a program based on power and FTP you get a feeling of what Sweet spot, Threshold and VO2max should feel like.
So just from these weeks I could go back to my coach and make whatever she tells me to do much harder because now I know what it should really feel like.
Conclusion, to train hard might just be harder and tougher than you think
TR workouts should always feel hard but doable. That’s what I’ve come to realize and it’s a really magnificent setup because I’ve felt many times that no way I’ll manage this workout and by the end of it I feel like “hell yeah I did it!”. And that’s how it’s supposed to feel.
Don’t know if you’ve tried their outdoor-workouts but those are really eye-opening. I did some this summer in my speciality-phase to build up for XCM-nationals in Sweden and they were amazing.
Agreed! Ive never been more satisfied from workouts as I’ve been from doing the hard TR once.
Ive done some of the longer weekend workouts outside. I do believe that they are easier but that is probably just because it mentally easier to do hard work outside because your not that focused on the pain itself as indoors.
I’ve never done longer threshold-intervals outside though. Mostly 2-5minute VO2Max-work. But that was a lot easier doing outside than indoors, got higher wattage and lower RPE even though my Stages reads lower.
