I’ve mentioned this in other threads. I started FasCat’s SSB2/SSB3 in February 2020 and despite doing shorter intervals went out and did something like a 1x50 threshold effort the end of March 2020, just nine days after a field test and FTP bump. Personally I’ve come to believe the minimum effective dose is a lot lower than many think. And that aerobic endurance (zone2) is underrated and continues to be thought of as boring and junk miles because who wants to go slow?
Here is some of my n=1 data that shows going heavy on zone2 over the last year:
Color coding:
- green is zone2/zone1
- yellow is tempo, sweet spot, and lower threshold
- red is threshold and above
A bit of leap of faith to go close to doing ~80% zone2 work. And it took a lot of patience - seriously who enjoys going outside for 2-3 hours and slow rolling on the flats at 15-17 miles per hour? Easier to do that outside vs inside, but the struggle is real #ZoneDiscipline
As an aerobic hard gainer, I was bouncing off the walls happy this past weekend after going out and absolutely smashing a climb:
my coach reviewed today and bumped FTP to 264 and we both believe this is just the beginning. In my mind that climb, & other recent short threshold efforts, served to reinforce the value of all the aerobic endurance work. Subjectively I feel this past last year has established a deeper foundation than the one achieved in early 2017 (leading to ~280W FTP). But memory is a funny thing, and while some power:HR comparison data is compelling there is conflicting data. Time will tell.
Coming full circle, about a year ago I came to the realization that ‘less is more’ = less intervals, more max efforts, and ‘fresh is faster’ = more zone2 supports higher power outputs. My data from averaging ~8 hour/week continues to reinforce that view.
The new TrainerRoad plans look better to my eyes. Experiment and see for yourself if less is more, if fresh is faster. Seems to me that if you’ve got a near term event then stay the course. Otherwise folks should give the new plans a chance. And if you mostly train indoors, do a block or two or three and then be sure to go outside/Zwift-not-Erg/RGT-not-Erg and put down some really hard efforts to test your fitness.