Question as a newbie to TR but someone who has done a lot of riding /racing over the past few years. I have signed up to Sweet Spot Base Mid vol 1 and have notice that my prescribed weekly TSS is significantly lower than what I am used to. I regularly have ridden with a weekly TSS 0f 700 but the program I am following is circa 400 and building.
Add to the above I am following the plan fairly religiously and am not feeling as though I am being pushed particularly hard (reflected in HR rarely getting above tempo).
Would be good to hear of from seasoned TR’s as to their experiences and general thoughts on the reduction of weekly TSS I am observing.
In my experience there is a monumental difference between just riding 400tss per week and 400tss from structured intervall training. Before I started with TR I was in a simmilar position to you, had 6-15hours a week on the bike, with TR I’m usually around 4hours of intervalls and maybe 2-3hours of easy riding.
If your HR is low then maybe you are stronger than your FTP would suggest, but give it a few weeks and it should get harder. To me SS base vol 2 was a different beast compared to vol 1. But if it feels to easy, you can allways add 1-2% on each workout
Two separate points in your post. On TSS - as many say, not all TSS is equal. If you feel you need more volume and have the time for it, you can easily add easy rides to the plan, as well as substitute one or two of the sweet-spot workouts for longer Z2 rides.
On not being pushed hard - the over-under progression in the mid-volume SS base 1, Reinstein, Tunemah, McAdie, Palisade, McAdie +1, is supposed to be hard. Unless you came in with a clear indication of your FTP (and are measuring power the same way), it is possible that you ramp-test on the low side, and thus have under-set your FTP. These over-under workouts (and in particular the last 3 ones) should be doable, but nothing like easy; with a correctly-set FTP, the last set of these should really feel like the last set you could do. If you can’t get to the end of these (assuming you’re in reasonable shape to start with), your FTP is probably set too high; if you easily finish them, it’s probably set too low.
I had the same experience (not racing though). Stick with it and see how you feel at the end of the Build stage.
If you’ve done reasonable amounts of outdoor riding, then SSBMV1 in particular won’t feel very challenging. Just indulge it for now. IME 500TSS indoors, which you’ll reach towards mid-end of SSBMV2, was harder than 700TSS outdoors.
Interesting points, thank you. On my FTP, my ramp test result came in some 30w less than my result when I did a 20 min test (albeit a year ago). Add to that I did it the day I got my smart trainer and had already done an hour so vigorous riding on Zwift. I will re-do the ramp test next week when rested I think.
