I had a similar result with the SSB mid-volume 2 plan–a 2 watt gain. A couple of things that I think could explain this in my case. 1) I repeated the SSB-MV2, and probably just ran out of room to see a meaningful expansion of my FTP from that type of training. 2) I was cutting weight during my base building, which will always make a challenge to build power.
I then started into the sustained power build plan, and had fits and starts as I battled illness for the about a month–head cold into a sinus infection, with probably too much eagerness to get back into training. After the past two weeks being challenging to get back on the bike, and having struggled with a couple of VO2max workouts in the midst of coming off antibiotics, I decided to do another Ramp Test and just accept the results. I was stunned when my FTP actually went up by 11 points versus going down by that amount–going down 4-5% is what I expected.
I have two hypotheses for this: 1) I was rested and recovered from illness and the modest amount of work that I was able to do over the past month (about 2 to 3 workouts a week) allowed my fitness gains to finally be expressed, or 2) some significant gains can be made very early on, once VO2max workouts are introduced. Or, possibly some combination of those two and a poor test last time. I’ll see how this week goes and see if it sticks…