Planning first block back

Hello,
Thank you in advance to anyone who reads/responds

I have two questions on planning my base phase, I am currently in my first full week of (first time with more then one day off the bike since April) I plan to start back up in high volume base 1, originally my plan was to finish this month out on a low volume specialty plan for a race, but life got in the way and all the race is still happening I will not be attending, so decided this was the opportune time to take a full week off from exercise. After my first Base/Build/Specialty cycle was full complete, I had went from 260 watts to 251 watt FTP, this was my first peak and I knew I couldn’t hold it so it was expected, so my question now is I ramp tested, did some workout, and then took a week off, do I need to take the ramp test when I come back, my concern is that after 8 days of not doing anything my ramp test will not be a accurate representation of what I can do, is it better to take it and do the first block with what I get, or just jump back in with the FTP from my latest ramp test.

The second part is, originally I was going to start base training in November, but a race that will be in Spring grabbed my attention and starting now I will get to have a almost perfect Base/Build/Specialty for it. In the first block of Base it will still be plenty nice out to draw me to the outdoors, on the weekends the Sunday workout has a replacement of doing a longer zone 2 day, I plan to do a couple of these as I enjoy the longer rides, but on the flip side does it make sense to do something similar with the Wednesday workout, it is a 1 hour sweet spot workout that grows to 1h 20m, would doing something like 1.5 hour zone 2 ride outside (probably on the mountain bike to unwind) make the same sense, or am I starting to loose sight of the plan and better served doing Mid Volume, the reason I want to do high volume is the enjoyment of the longer sweet spot workouts. I have been doing 10 hours a week for a bit now, and having similar TSS although it was difficult, but that was with added intensity of specialty plan workouts, so wanting to experiment with the base high volume.

Apologizes for the long post with probably unnecessary details, but thank you again for any help.

If you’ve taken a week off then it’s probably best to restest going into a new plan.

As for swapping the midweek ride, if you feel like you will get more enjoyment from a longer zone 2 ride outside then go for it. Might even be more beneficial to you than the planned indoor sweet spot ride.

Thank you for reinforcing my ideas.

Do another ramp test right before you start the base phase. Your fitness might come back a little quicker than you expect so you can either wait until the next scheduled ramp test, or if you feel that it’s particular easy after the first week or two, then bump up your FTP manually by only 1 or 2 watts and keep going. You can bump it up a watt or two each week leading up until the next ramp test and then just proceed as normal from there. If it was me in your shoes I would just do the ramp test and not bother upping the FTP manually, just let it run it’s course.

To answer your second question, if you’re wanting to “experiment with the base high volume” then you should probably follow the high volume plan as prescribed to see how your body handles the extra stress. If you want to have a bit more flexibility with your plan, I would stick to the mid volume (which is still plenty hard) and add in your fun rides as you see fit. Another neat idea, as you said you really like the 1hr sweet spot rides that grow to 1h20m in the high volume plan… you could stick to the medium volume and pick the plus(+) versions of the workouts to extend the TSS slightly without fully committing to the high volume.

Good luck in your training.

Good point, I will take the test and whatever it gives me just use it unless it gets ridiculously easy, worst case I do some tempo workout in base.
I’m fond of the 1.5 to 2 hour sweet spot which is missing in mid volume base 1, which is why I was thinking of doing a longer ride to replace the shorter sweet spot durring the week, because of the sunday ride can be replaced that way wouldnt the logic carry that so can any other sweet spot workout.
As far as the + versions I was considering that, the worry there is will doing + versions carry the same progression intended. I guess then its easier to have less commitment since doing a plus version can do an extra 15m and no a whole half hour and see how it goes

Progressions are super important, so it’s a good thing you’re considering that. To be honest, when I first replied I didn’t even look at the progression part of it. That’s certainly going to be a bit tricky to manage, you might have to make a mock schedule and see if you can sub in the + versions to make sure that they have the same progression week over week.

That is actually the interesting this, for example Tunnabora only has - versions so it would not work with swapping the workout. Which is why following the Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday high vume seems like a good idea to me, while doing a longer zone 2 ride on Wednesday and Sunday which Sunday is allowed in the plan as it is, and then all the notes indicate that Friday can be toned down and that day would be a 45% for an hour to not over do it to much.
But on the flip side considering I just started riding 2 years ago and got through my first training season, so going to the higher volume maybe safer to follow the MV and just extend my cool down with an easy spring in the 50% to 60% that was I get the time and progression, but I do not get the full sweet spot only plan I’m curious to try.
I’m not sure where I’m going with this, guess I’m just looking for some outside prospective on all of this.