This is the way. No need for work above ftp.
Even the coach that wrote the “You’re training too hard for criteriums” article is a proponent of VO2 max training. You need to raise the ceiling eventually. And if you race road and crits, I believe a couple weeks of sharpening with VO2 or anaerobic workouts would be beneficial. This could also be incorporated into aerobic work such as long Z2 with some 30s all out sprints, or SST with bursts every few minutes.
A few posts earlier, I said you need to sharpen a few weeks before the race.
If someone is already super Anaerobic then this will likely make the issue worse. Or even worse, it will blunt their top end without actually making them better aerobically.
Hmm, you want to increase your 3min to 60+ minute power but you aren’t eating any carbs?
This a super important point. It might not be that you are “Naturally Anaerobic” but rather your body has no fuel in it to go hard for 3-60 minutes.
All this talk of endurance vs SS (endurance is most certainly the answer) is moot if you aren’t eating carbs. Without the proper fuel your body isn’t going to be able to push really hard for more than a minute or less than several hours.
Sustained Power Build, then assuming you’re a road rider for Speciality I would choose Century for maximising endurance, 40k TT if you’re more interested in your one hour power.
For me sweetspot (up to 120’) works really well, everything above FTP stimulates my anaerobic power. As a reference
Max power 1050W, 1’: 800W, FTP: 300W
Hmm, this is ridiculous when using my age group:
I’ll try your age group as it looks better:
Versus all-time bests from 2017, this season the 30s and 60s were repeated sprints. Its been 6 months of aerobic base development with a tiny build (over-unders and some short threshold) in last 6 weeks to get ready for Wed group rides. Only hard (not all-out) efforts this season were pre-field test pacing efforts at 11 minutes (pacing for 20-min) and 32 minutes (pacing for 40-70-min long). Was planning to do some long-ish climbs / hard efforts to fill out the curve and see how close I can come to 2017 PRs.
Nah, I’m only competitive on the flats. At 3W/kg ftp I’m always sweeping the back on climbs.
I disagree with this. Sweet spot and tempo are recognized for lowering lactate production / vlamax and increasing the aerobic abilities of the lactate producing fast twitch fibers.
Here is a quote from Tom bell at High North:
A key factor that contributes to maximal glycolytic rate is muscle fibre composition, where Type IIa and Type IIx are generally more inclined towards anaerobic energy pathways (including glycolysis), and are generally less effective at producing energy through aerobic pathways.
However, it’s possible to train Type IIa fibres to become more aerobically efficient, and in particular to become better adapted to use fats for fuel instead of glycolysis.
"By training at intensities just below the lactate threshold, it is possible to recruit a portion of Type IIa fibres and turn them into muscle fibres that possess qualities more akin to the Type I fibres, making them more aerobically capable and better able to use fat oxidation for energy production.
These sweetspot sessions can be usefully combined with carbohydrate restriction to further enhance the stimulus for improved fat oxidation.
Well this will be interesting, because Brendan is/was coached by Tom Bell.
Article written by Brendan, with a reference to his coach Tom Bell:
oh god, this article has the worst (as in I absolutely did not want to hear that answer): over/unders 
as according to TR these train you to shuttle lactate
I don’t think he’s making the connection LOL. Might be even more interesting than you think! The internet, FTW.
Tempo never gets any love. SweetSpot is the drunk loud one.
thanks for posting this. I’m very surprised to read that because Tom is not very pro-sweet spot at all. In talking to him about it (he’s my coach), we’ve talk a lot about how glycolysis starts very often around tempo riding, so it’s not the best way to even address a vlamax reduction. A long endurance ride is much more effective, where those anaerobic fibers are called on to help, hopefully more aerobically, but I didn’t recommend this since the athlete said they are on Low Volume; they probably don’t have time for that.
he is my coach.
I appreciate your counter. I do look forward to training seriously again with TR, AT is a big reason for that. I won’t ever do a focused block of SS work though, as I said, it’s deceptively fatiguing and didn’t deliver what I had hoped. MV is a different animal than HV as you know. I suspect you’ve increased your over-all time in Z2 though? SS sessions have their place, but not 3+ days a week - my experience.
@brendanhousler It’s a definition / labeling problem. You are saying the same thing that irideveryslowly quoted Tom as saying (and of course have probably heard him say LOL). The way it’s being presented makes it seem like it’s different. You are saying the same thing. Tom is not using very precise language in that snippet (likely because in that context he simply didn’t need to).
For the benefit of you as a coach, I can say that until I was formally coached, phrases like: “gets to be very glycolytic” or “such and such glycolytic” is confusing / potentially misleading. Most riders (and some coaches) are not going to interpret that the right way. You know what it means. Tom knows what it means. I know why I might not want that (and in other cases I would want a ride to “be glycolytic”). But many riders think that the increase glycolysis per se is bad. It’s not of course. But clarifying why can be tricky.
Maybe someone can chime in as to why. I’ve tried three attempts and didn’t hit “Reply” because I simply don’t know how to get the message across about glycogen and day-over-day, etc.
I’ve gotten away from trying to figure out adaptations, but FWIW my mid to late base had a lot of z2 and some z3 intervals at low cadence. Looking at torque, which is force on the pedals, and translates back to force recruitment in muscles, the force/torque at upper z2 and lower z3 was usually (a good bit) higher than doing TR sweet spot in Erg. So yeah, I think you can aerobically work fast oxidative glycolytic fibers below sweet spot intensity. And if not, then its likely making the the slow twitch more fatigue resistant. Or both.
All I know is that every time I’ve peaked my fitness, it was after doing a fair bit of low aerobic work at higher force/torque. So I know that it works, and it really doesn’t matter why because I’m not going to do a muscle biopsy or any other lab tests. I’m just going to do the training that I know produces results.
We are saying the same thing, and i agree with Tshortt. The difference is the labelling.
Everything thing is based on how ftp was measured.
My ftp could be 300W based on a 20 minute test.
325W with a ramp test.
295W with a Km style test.
312W with a lactate test using OBLA
292W using a fixed 3.0mmol Norwegian style.
Sweet spot is great, when you used correctly.