Hello, after some reading here on the forum I had a question.
My situation - relatively new to endurance training, going into 3rd year. 45 years old and for my entire life I have NEVER been and endurance type athlete. Always been in to general health and fitness and fitness was comprised of gym, circuit training, martial arts, social sports, … I would also say that I have always been more of a higher intensity, shorter duration type of person.
I have also always found it hard to hit my targets (set from ramp test) in trainerroad for longer duration threshold intervals (and some sweet spot) as well as the targets later in the workouts (e.g. if VO2 max).
From reading the forum I am learning that if you are a person whose fitness is at either end of the spectrum (e.g. all fast twitch or all slow twitch) the ramp test can over or underestimate your FTP respectively.
As I do want to focus on and build my endurance and sustained power (as I will mostly just be a gran fondo rider) I am curious if I should just do base and skip build and specialty (if I want to improve my endurance as fast as possible)?
Would this approach work and help to faster “re-wire” my body for endurance vs doing all 3 phases (base, build, & specialty)?
Would it work to just go back and forth between sweet spot base 1 & 2 for 6 months, 12 months?
Hi @vanbc - I’ve had exactly the same question recently, and came across a few threads on the forum.
This one seems to be the most relevant to your question, and worth a read.
There are a couple of others too and will post here if I find them!
You can cycle base and build indefinitely. Specialty adds some specific efforts and also serves as a taper towards your main event. If your main event is late in the year plan builder will suggest several cycles of base and build before taking you into specialty anyhow.
Maybe also have a look at your ramp test - what you describe can also be the result of a slightly inflated FTP. This happens if you don‘t use erg mode and push hard towards the end. Just compare best 1 min effort in your power curve of the Test to the target value of the last interval. If you are significantly above that value your FTP might be too high.