I’m trying to do my first long term plan with Plan Builder. I’m a 36 year old male that has been cycling for a year, and have raised my FTP to around 290.
I have been working hard to get here. Lot’s of hours on the bike. Now I’ve decided to compete in road racing next year. I’m trying to figure out a plan. I will probably have my first competition in April 2025.
Now that I see the plan, I see that there is no VO2 MAX for the first 4 weeks. That makes me a bit scared, since I’ve worker hard to get to this, for me, relatively high level. I’m wondering if I should be more relaxed with the fact that there is no VO2 MAX workouts for the next 4 weeks, and trust the looooong proces, that is building up to next spring.
I guess i know all the answers to my question, but I’m afraid that I’m going to loose fitness during the next couple of months.
If that what the plan says I wouldn’t worry VO2max will come soon enough after 4 weeks, its building you to an end goal. I can’t recall what my plan had in the first 4 weeks but there’s plenty of VO2 max now. I’m no coach but I don’t think you’ll lose any fitness from a 4 week hiatus of VO2max. My analogy of workouts, is those below VO2 max reinforce the building, you (so you won’t be losing fitness probably gaining it with a longer being developed TTE), then VO2 max raises the roof and pushes you beyond. The cycle tends to be repeated after that, although maybe not 4 weeks between things. Trust the process
There are different kind of fitness. You have a ceiling (Aerobic maximum often trained with VO2Max work) and a floor (Aerobic base) As a new cyclist, you probably have a well developed ceiling, but lack a floor. It would be good to spend lots of time developing your base as that allows you to ride at a higher intensity for longer. Your ceiling responds to training relatively quickly, but your floor takes time. It’s okay to spend the offseason and/or base phases without needing intensity. It’s also fine if you want to throw it in yourself here and there. However, if you do choose to add a vo2 workout to your calendar, make sure to remove a sweet spot ride.
I think you are missing the point. Raising the floor doesn’t just mean you will be good at riding at 175 watts for longer, it means you build up to where you can ride at 225 watts for what you are currently riding 175 watts for or even longer. The floor is what really can push your FTP. Your aerobic maximum is technically not linked to your FTP.
Think about it this way. Do you think riding at 362 for 4 minutes x 5 in a workout will help you ride at 300 for 60 minutes? Or do you think being able to ride at 225 for 4 hours or 265 for 60 minutes is going to help you ride at 300 for 60 minutes. It’s the latter.
I’m not saying you won’t raise your FTP doing VO2Max work, but you may not be able to ride at your FTP for very long, which is kind of the definition of FTP.
That makes sense. I guess I should do the sweet spot ride that is in the base program, instead of doing a VO2 instead? I would think that the sweet spot is there for a reason.
honestly it’s just a bit scary to lose top end fitness. But if it gives me a better place to build from next year, it will be worth it!
If you’re concerned, just sub in a VO2 workout every 2 weeks (for example - I like to have a VOTuesday). It won’t derail your overall plan, but it might alleviate your concern, and heck, if it motivates you, it might actually help you stick to the rest of the plan.
I’ll add that the better your aerobic fitness, usually the more benefit you get from VO2 work.
As an example, I started with a new coach last year on Nov 1. Other than maybe 6 SS Over-Unders (4m@SS, 1m@105% FTP) I didn’t do anything over FTP until Jan 1 and I set some massive PRs over the following months.
It can be a bit nerve wracking and you think you’ll lose it but it’s surprisingly easy to maintain it as long as you keep your volume up and do some sort of intensity (SS and up).
I’m also a bit “scared” that I will get too little volume. There is no weeks with more than 9.30 hours, from now until april, if I do the plan builder plan. Anyway to intresse? Stupid idea?
To maximize your long term results (next year, year after that, etc.), a periodized plan goes in a cycle of adding training stress, backing off, adding more stress, backing off, etc. It’s a “2 steps forward, 1 step back” approach. You can’t just keep increasing stress indefinitely without mental and physical breaks to adapt to the stress. That’s true at the micro level (rest days during the week) and at the macro level (rest weeks during the block and also rest between blocks).
V02 max work is valuable, but it’s not typically a focus until the build phase as you are approaching an event (or whatever point you are targeting peak fitness). It can be built quickly, but also creates a lot of fatigue, so making vo2max a focus for 8+ months would likely be doing more harm than good for your performance.
At certain points in your training, you need to go slow/easy to get faster. Hard to accept, particularly if you are new to cycling and seeing massive gains from training hard. But once your body grabs the low hanging fitness, the stress become counterproductive and you need a better balance or you will just plateau.
Right now not as structured as I want it to be through winter. But most of the time 3 weeks building up. 1 week resting more. Like 10-12 hours for 3 weeks. Then maybe 6-8 hours.
But honestly not too much structure through summer. Lots of group rides, a intervals session like two times a week, unless the group ride was hard.
I have not been competing. I had no intention. Now I do, so i want to do it right. With real perodization.
Can you tell me why the plan builder is doing it like: base phase —> build phase —> base phase —> specialty phase —> race.
Why does i go “back” to base? Why not just do a longer base, then build, then speciality?
The build phase utilises the effects of the first base phase with the aim of delivering increases in FTP / VO2 etc. on the back of the improved aerobic fitness and muscular endurance delivered by the base phase.
Once that has been done, doing more base work - at the new higher levels - has the aim of making those gains more long lasting and also delivering increases in overall aerobic fitness and muscular endurance that are then possible by the increased FTP etc.
The speciality phase then polishes it all up, delivering race effort like training ready for the event.
Someone who knows more will add more detail, but the takeaway for me is that base phase 2 is work at a higher level than base phase 1 was. That being made possible by the results of the build phase.
Because there is lot of time (9 months) to your next event, it is not reasonable to continuously push you until then or you might burn out. Likely that’s the reason for seemingly “weird” order of blocks. There is thing called residual training effects. This is how Plan Builder tries to peak your fitness at the date of your event.
