Well, I’ve been cycling consistently since I was a toddler. Competitively…4-5 years. I think I’m in my 4th year of trainerroad now. It’s been a very consistent wall I hit every time in either late SSB2 or early Build, where I start going backwards. I’ve solved this in the past by just repeating SSB1 perpetually, or subbing in group rides for the workouts I know I have no chance of completing.
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My $.02 as someone who successfully did Low Volume plans (with manual adjustments to add volume) for 5 years, I found SSBMV2 almost broke me. The volume of threshold intensity is a lot in my opinion so that workouts that I had done in previous years in isolation were very difficult as the weeks wore on.
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Some thoughts … I think many of us have struggled with this I’ve the year:
(… and yes, age matters. I’m 48)
— Is your FTP too high? If basing on a TR ramp test, try taking 72% of your 1 min lower vs. 75% — that number always felt more real for me personally.
Or…
— Take the a day of intensity in the plan (over-unders, threshold or higher) and do a Z2 or Tempo ride to the prescribed TSS of the high intensity workout.
Or …
— If your plan calls for 3 weeks on/1 rest week, do two weeks on for every rest week. You can manually manipulate this in your calendar. You might even find you can dose the intensity higher during the “on” weeks if doing this,
I’ve done all of this before at various times on my training journey and they work.
Good luck🤘
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Woah, that really does sound too hard! Yes, later phases should be harder, but still doable. I think maybe age (you’re not that old!), but probably more the length of time you’ve been doing these plans without much of a break from what I can tell. Maybe now sounds like a good time for a break, even! The cx season is a long way off.
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Thanks all. Yea part of my plan this year was to insert a mid season break, something I’ve not done in the past. I plan on taking 2 weeks off/easy after Barry Roubaix in April to reset, then ramp up training for cross season.
I’ve scrapped the last week of SSB2, and starting a rest week today. I’ll start SSB1 again I think leading up to Barry to make sure I’m in decent form for that, as I’ve always had good success with the plan, and I think a lot of long sweet spot work pairs up nicely with that race. But yea…I think after my mid season reset, I’ll try going base-build-specialty again, but delete/replace one of the days of intensity .
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I’m going to 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) the advice above to look at LV - treat those as your 3 key workouts a week, then top up with Z2, so ultimately similar volume (in hrs) but likely less intensity. Got to be worth a go I would think?
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Well…the thing with low volume is it’s NOT less intrnsity…it’s basically the same plan, minus the wed zone 2 ride, and the sunday easy sweet spot/long zone 2
I actually wish low volume WAS a plan specifically designed for a bit less intensity volume…as I think that would be ideal for me. But I typically do ride extra zone 2 as well on top of mid volume…dropping from low to mid wont really change any workouts.
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Correct, it REALLY isn’t LESS intensity.
What I have found works well (for me) as I creep closer to the old 5-0 in a couple months is to replace one of the intensity days on the LV plan with a Z2 ride (and supplement other Z2 rides throughout the week). This would generally be the middle of the week ride (which as I have my schedule laid out would be VO2). I don’t do this every week however. If i’m feeling good on a particular week, i’ll keep the VO2 session in… A typical week for me (i’m wrapping up a build phase at the moment) might look like this…
Mon: 60m Threshold
Tues: 60m Z2 (supplemental)
Wed: Off
Thurs: 60m VO2 (or swapped in Z2 ride)
Fri: 90m SS
Sat: 90-120m Z2 (supplemental)
Sun: Off
For those VO2 days, if I know i’m not up for the schedule workout, i enter a time off annotation then use Train Now to grab an endurance suggestion…
YMMV, of course.
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Thanks, this had been what I’m leaning towards. I really really have made a pre-determined decision this year to be a bit easier on myself…and shift towards riding what I want to ride. So yea…if I’m not feeling one of the tough but always doable weekday intensity rides, I’ll just skip it, or more likely sub in an easy hour on the trainer, or 30 miles zone 2 on the bike path.
If I’m not feeling the Saturday ride after skipping a weekday ride…maybe just take a rest week? This whole doing what I feel like doing (listening to your body? I still dont quite grasp that 
) is totally a foreign concept to me.
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What distance?
The 60 something miler…I think it’s 62. Will be the third time I’ve done it. The 100 is an awfully big commitment if it’s 30 and raining like last year lol.
Agreed. For medium I actually sub the second threshold workout out or reduce the intensity.
I’m also ok skipping if I’m tired and have a little fatigue in the legs.
I’ve tried low volume and it does the trick also. However, I miss the time on the bike.
Why? If you have less hours available (time constrained), you have more recovery time and can ride at higher intensity without affecting the next workout.
If the plan feels too hard and that is affecting compliance then you can manually decrease %intensity/FTP. Or swap workouts with alternates. that may hit the ego, but if it leads to better consistency you’d win in the long run
TBF the “old” plans had weekly tips that suggested replacing the 90 minute weekend ride with a longer outdoor ride, which is effectively what’s being proposed here. That changed when they brought in the plan builder, but the logic should still hold.
If your heart rate is maxed out, it sounds like an all out effort. Do you mark these rides as such in the post ride survey and accept AT adaptations afterwards?
If I finish them, I mark them as ‘very hard.’ All out seems like it should lead to failure at some point in the workout
I think if you reach your maximum heart rate it is by definition an all out effort, @mcneese.chad has a table with descriptions of the effort level (his own and official trainer road) maybe he can post them
Hmm that would be helpful. I will say though that it seems the adjustments the software makes seem to be pretty solid. If I’m feeling good but can’t complete a workout…the adjustments always bring things back in line very quickly. Though I tend to see this more often for higher power intervals like VO2 work.
When I fail threshold workouts…it is usually a case where I can sense my fitness just going wildly backwards for some reason. Once I fail one…I’ll fail the next one, even if a large downward adjustment is made in workout levels…the difficult level doesnt really matter at that point.
I dunno. Maybe this is the way that overtraining manifests itself in me?
Here is a great resource that @mcneese.chad put together. I use the All Out if I back pedal at all or need to lower intensity to allow me to finish the workout. Nothing wrong with doing either of those things…
Oh…lol, well by this metric every saturday workout from week 3 SSB2 and beyond has been all out for 4 years