Mid or High plan

Training
21

The interesting thing for me on this is that, if you do Sweet Spot High Volume I and II, its all sweet spot and endurance work, majority sweet spot.

Transitioning from that plan into Build of any volume hits hard in this way I guess?

Im going to post my In between plan which I did last year and might do again this year in a few mins.

22

Here is my idea for a Sweet Spot only plan for 12 weeks, using (a modified version of) Sweet Spot Base Mid Volume I and then going into Sweet Spot Base High Volume I.

Things to note:

  • Im looking to modify Sweet Spot Mid Volume I to add a little more TSS every week and to ride 6 days a week to make the transition into Sweet Spot Base High Volume I easier and more gradual.
  • The days are out of order to the plan due to me wanting to keep Saturday as a family day. Sunday/Monday are my core weekend workouts (moved).
  • Planning on doing the 20 minute test as its better for me overall, every 4/6 weeks and remind myself of suffering during long efforts and it will give me a better FTP estimation for all this long steady state intervals.

TSS Progression
41

Weeks 1 -3

57
571717×858 87.6 KB

Weeks 4-6

10
101697×863 84.9 KB

Weeks 7-9
21

Weeks 10-12

32
321701×855 84 KB

Things I’m wondering about this plan

  1. Should I be modifying the trainer road plans like this? Maybe there is a good reason Mid Volume has more variety than High Volume and by me doing this im making Build harder or not getting the gains I would do, if I just did Mid Volume.
  2. Is there any point in doing the over under workouts in Mid Volume I, if I don’t then transition onto threshold work in the second 6 weeks of base? Maybe id be better off substituting in a 2 hour sweet spot ride?
23

Last year I did this, more or less and I started out at 274 watts at beginning of Base and ended up at 294 watts. A 20 watt gain in 3 months is pretty damn good.

Important to note, I came into this after preseason where I dropped 11 watts from 285 to 274, so that would be a 9 watt gain over 4 months.

Oh yes, also, I every second week. substituted the Sunday rides with long 3-5 hour endurance rides outside, if weather wasn’t horrific and I plan to do that again.

24

Thing is, that for SSB2 that takes all the Sweet Spot out of the plan. You reckon that’ll significantly reduce gains?

25

It was a hard transition for me last year, but not as bad as I expected it to be. If I remember correctly GBHV kicks off with threshold intervals not VO2, so it kind of eases you into things as a transition

I would be wary of recommending SSBHV though - not because of the lack of intensity, but because that volume of SS will wear most people down. It is a whole lot of TSS and if you haven’t maintained a weekly average of 700 before you’re probably going to really struggle.

26

Yes exactly, thats why I have never yet attempted SS Base High II. High I for me is doable. High II might have been achievable this winter, but I have extra life stress with kids.

27

What’s your training history like? Do you have experience with any other HV plans?

28

2 years following structured training, I raced bikes many years ago in my teens and early twenties but stopped for a decade. Took it back up in my early thirties. Im 36 now.

Last year averaging about 400-500 TSS a week, this year down from that, maybe 300-400 TSS.

I have done SS Base High Volume I 3 times, but no other high volume plans. Im pretty happy staying a mid volume for build and speciality periods.

Another thing im wondering is, if you pick high volume at base, are you intended to pick high volume in following phases too?

29

Go to SSB2 MV plan Log In to TrainerRoad

And click the blue +Week Tips and read the notes for weeks 1-5. They all have a Sunday ride substitution, starting with a 2 hour aerobic endurance in week 1 and increasing the time so that by week 5 it is a 3 hour aerobic endurance workout.

Another way to look at it - training stress should be progressive. Assuming you are doing SSB1 and then SSB2, the additional intensity in SSB2 is progressive (e.g. Thursday’s SS in SSB1 becomes threshold in SSB2). If I wanted to dial down intensity, my own non-scientific decision would be to swap Saturday and Sunday, and do the long aerobic endurance ride on Sunday as a substation for Kaweah/Clark/Carpathian/ etc.

2 Likes
30

I think with your volume in the past there isn’t going to be a ton of benefit in doing the one six week block of SSBHV - it might help increase your base fitness a bit but you might be just as well served with any other base time. If you’ve followed this same progression in years past why not try something different this year to see if your body responds better to something like TBHV or more time in SSBMV?

1 Like