Interesting thought, @bbarrera.
My POL and SSB both follow a 5-day plan (full rest on Mon & Fri). I am likely planning to do a longer “Endurance” ride for the Sunday option rather than the SST version.
The MV intensity and time are much lower by default, than the POL I did.
- The Weekly TSS in SSB1 is about 2/3 of my POL test.
- The Weekly Time in SSB1 is lower by default too (around 6 hours), but till grow 1-2 hours (for around 7-8) if I stretch the Sun rides. That compares to the over 9 hours per week in my POL test.
Some interesting differences and overall lower Time and TSS. But the type of stress is different. And that is one of the small things I hope to learn by comparing them as best as I can. I seem to remember having more fatigue in SSB of the past compared to what I felt in the 3 weeks of my POL work.
One big difference this year (as learned in the POL) is that I am altering the loading for the SSB plan. I am following Nate’s recommendation (that you shared) about shifting rest weeks to not have the default 5 week load. I am very curious to see how that feels this time around.
This SSB obviously is lower intensity than the VO2 work I did in the POL test, but there is more of it, so I don’t know what to expect. The big (and likely unsurprising?) takeaway from the POL testing is how much I think the long and easy ride can really stress the body. I really like the 3-4 hour range on the trainer because it is such a good way to condense the loading on the body. Pedaling at that intensity with minimal coasting is great. I like that I can get a pretty big “light” stress, with less time than outside (especially with winter coming).