Musing on Progression Levels

I understand what you’re saying. At the same time, people also over-estimate how much a taper is gonna yield in terms of increased power. During threshold - which feels awful - a little bit of rest should go a long way unless completely shelled - i.e., a point you probably shouldn’t be at too often if a day or two of easy isn’t gonna fix it. It’s not uncommon for people who focus on TT to do a weekly or bi-weekly capacitive TT effort. Being in the middle of training is where those 2-5 min rests come into play.

If I were to distill my rough pacing plans down based on threshold PLs, it would go something like this (just based off of my memory of the workouts in threshold):

If I"m at level 5: I can probably hit 30 min straight at my FTP setting. And I probably ought to start under it and build to it.

If I"m at level 6: I should definitely hit at least 30 min straight and hopefully get towards 40 min. I’m still gonna start under it.

If I’m at level 7: I should definitely hit 40-60 min at my FTP setting. I can use my FTP input as a good starting number, as the workouts I’ve done here are race simulation type efforts. If I’m on a good day I may hit a bit higher than my setting, but it should be a good starting number and wait until I’m 20 min in before I start trying to increase.

If I’m at level 8: I’m in that 60 min range for my FTP setting, and if I’m going shorter than that I should be hitting a bit higher than my setting.