What I’m curious about is that you keep starting from the same point (250-270w FTP) doing Base then Build and then allowing yourself to detrain to where you started and beginning again.
This is something I don’t know yet how to properly handle. Last year I did structured training until the beginning of September but followed that with random SS and Endurance workouts coupled with longer weekend rides outside. The load wasn’t minimal but I did feel fresh the whole time. That brought my FTP down to a point just above my starting FTP in the beginning of the training season. I did add two weeks of almost complete rest (only one VO2Max workout per week). The result was that my FTP was down additional 10w. That test was in November when I started my current training season. To conclude, I had to start from scratch – or actually below my numbers that I had for the training season of 2018.
I saw a plateau myself during GBHV (at similar fitness to you) and have since improved dramatically, but it took a fairly large increase in volume and TSS.
How did you @Tanner1280 actually accomplish this increase in training? I expect that you just didn’t add huge amounts of extra training to the HV at once? Did you start adding TSS from year to year or did you increase the load heavily already in Base? My hunch is that I could do quite a lot of TSS in form of Z2 and SS but I’m not sure if that could help me handle the huge amount of high intensity in the Build plan.