Long sweetspot missing? plan questions

[ntisdell]

Will preface post with training is going well, started official training in early January with my own sweetspot buildup(~ftp300) in Nov-Dec on my own. FTP from 310->336w PR now, highest last season(also PR) was 320w in June2025. Although with the mysterious ‘new AI’ vs ‘old AI’… no idea how that compares (wish they would review back in time with new ‘auto detected FTP’ over the last few years of training!) so you could actually compare fitness(!) [besides comparing pwer curve of sub-maximal efforts or whatever training fed you to do)

I have no heard Jonathan mention multiple times this spring about long sweetspot workouts in his lead up to Leadville. I am targeting a similar and even longer gravel event (~14hr) but in week 15 of 31 (early/mid of Build) in a Gravel Plan (2wks before Leadville). Haven’t gotten a sweetspot workout in months…besides one manually in a recovery week right, before a 10day vacation (that was without bike).

I know I am not doing the biking volume he is with my limited masters plan with plenty of running. So maybe that is why? Just need to target intensity with just three scheduled rides for a ‘time crunched plan’? vo2 and threshold workouts… for 2 months now (Feb 17th was my first vo2max workout).

Another concern, is really nothing has increased duration - have been only doing 6-9min OverUnders (unless I swap manually) and has been only doing 30sec to 2min vo2… guessing maybe due to FTP increases of 5-15w each update, puts me back to low workout levels to ease back in… but then never grows the duration/WL#. Maybe its just a case of i’m not small at 6’ 175#, it is seeing FTP gains still… so lets keep pushing intensity, room to grow… high FTP goal, don’t worry about TimeToExhaustion(TTE).

Trade offs of pacing race day at 66% of FTP (if power at FTP is focused, lower TTE) or best case 70% FTP (if TTE goes is trained, lower FTP)

I really wish that each plan had a page dedicated to a description of the makeup and progression of each phase. Best I have found of each is a comparison article which maybe has a sentence or two of each (if i recall properly). It is a “we don’t know what, its AI based on the riders past …”, cuz mine showed ‘traditional vo2’ finally in future… but then it got into training window, it was still just 1min reps?! lol
Just don’t want this to be like I have seen with Garmin Marathon plans where I see people post 1-1.5months from race in Forum… “is it normal to only have a 10mile long run?! shouldn’t the plan be increasing…” LOL eek I do see in the specialty plan some sweetspot… for a bit of reverse base periodization for long steady event? Yet Jonathan is doing multiple sweetspot per week early&Build…?

EDIT: Now I look at my calendar and things are VERY different… NO Predicted effort level on workouts!!! Recovery weeks are now recovery weeks lowzn2 (instead of endurance weeks) IF of <.6 , instead of .7-.80
Also today is now the Start of a Phase? Don’t remember it being there just earlier when posting (did someone reset/adjust my account?) plus pinned tuesday workout is gone. :-/ weird

Hey there!

I’d be happy to take a look and dig into what you’re seeing.

Is it okay to discuss your account details in this thread?

[ntisdell]

yep, take a look and feel free to share/comment (would be good to be able to add this to signature, profile or something)

Hey @ntisdell! Hopping in for Eddie!

Congrats on the gained FTP of 336w!!!

Lots to unpack here, so let me break it down:

SweetSpot Question

With a Masters Low Volume plan (3 rides/week), the system is protecting the quality of your Tuesday and Thursday intervals above everything else. With a VO2max workout, a Threshold workout, and a long endurance ride each week, you’re already getting the stimulus you need. Those three zones cover what matters for your event and you really won’t benefit from swapping any of them to Sweet Spot. Jonathan is likely doing Sweet Spot because he has the volume and recovery capacity to support it or maybe he’s on a different training phase right now than you.

If you had room for a fourth hard workout each week, Sweet Spot would be a natural fit. But what matters most isn’t how much stimulus you take on, it’s how well you adapt to it. A three-day plan that fits your time and recovery needs is the best plan for you.

Interval Durations

You’re right that each FTP bump eases you back in before ramping duration again. That said, I can see you’ve been consistently rating those over-unders as Very Hard or Fatigued and the AI is reading that as a fatigue signal and adjusting accordingly. So the shorter durations likely have more to do with how those over-unders have been feeling lately than the FTP bumps alone.

Worth knowing: you can click on any scheduled Threshold workout and swap it to a different discipline if you want to do some sustained work instead of over-unders before your event.

TTE & the Specialty Phase

Your Sunday Dynamic Endurance ride is the primary TTE tool in a low-volume plan. It’s designed to gradually build duration across the plan window while protecting your key interval days and it’s doing more work than it might look like on paper. Keep pushing that duration as the season progresses.

The Sweet Spot you’ll see in Specialty is also intentional for your event type. For a 14hr race, sustained aerobic work matters more than peak threshold power and the plan is built with that in mind. I think you’re in good shape!