It was a 4 hour ride with 1/3 of the time spent in or above threshold. Might be that my FTP is set too low. Before I performed the Ramp Test, TR set my FTP 20 Watts higher based on past rides. Inexperienced with ramp tests and the lack of a fan to cool me down might have influenced the outcome. I started my plan two weeks ago, so in another 2 weeks time, I’ll see my FTP improvements and can adjust accordingly.
An outdoor ride is imho not comparable to an indoor workout like Rockhouse. Outdoors I seldom noodle around with 55% FTP. I ride 52/36 with an 11-30 cassette. 50/34 wouldn’t be much of a change @60rpm it’s around .4 kph according to bikecalc. I can’t fit a bigger cassette without replacing my rd, which is not really an option for me. Time to get stronger…
This is not a good modification to make. By adjusting the intensity of the workouts, you’d change the target systems and adaptations for each workout. LV plans generally have the same or similar intensity to the MV plans, but the volume (time spent on the trainer) is reduced. If your FTP is tested accurately, you would be unlikely to finish the workouts adjusted as you suggested.
A much better option would be to simply do the longer versions of the same workouts in the LV plans, or add endurance or sweet spot rides to the low volume plans. If you go this route and want to limit days on the trainer, I would start by adding time to each ride via the +1 version. You want to look at each workout and compare it to the planned workout to make sure you’re not adjusting anything but the length and number of intervals. The IF should remain roughly the same, but may even be lower in some cases. This is not a problem so long as the interval duration and intensity match or are close to the others.
If that’s not enough indoor volume, start adding Pettit/Baxter/etc. on off days. I would caution against adding additional sweet spot workouts for most folks simply because most of us will choose sweet spot workouts that are too hard for the desired adaption.
Don’t underestimate the difficulty of the LV plans.
Thank you for your insights. I’ll stick to the LV plan for the time being. I’m not training for a specific goal, so it doesn’t really matter to me if I gain certain amount of watts over a specified period of time. Just want to improve my fitness on the bike and try to train more regularly. If the LV plans are the most efficient and effective way to achieve this goal, then I’ll stick to those. Cycling is fun and I want to keep it that way.
Awesome. I’m just starting SSBLV1 this month. I’m currently at 3.6w/kg after some
Time taking it easy due to an injury. Did you hit 4.1w/kg strictly adhering to LV or did you need to add volume with additional Z2 workouts?