Gonna echo some other people in this thread taking FTP as the end all be all. I’ve been going through the sustained power plan, and did my week 5 ramp test yesterday and went up 1 watt. I was surprised because this is my second year on the bike and first year using TR and after good results with the zwift ftp builder, I built up in my head that TR was going to surpass zwift as far as gains.
The weeks preceding the ramp test I was doing really well in the intervals, even adding a couple % here and there so I was a little bummed out at my test results. I ended up looking at my power PR’s (cause those make me feel good sometimes) and noticed that I’m within a couple % of my all time power PR’s across the board.
My moral of the story is look at everything rather than just one data point.
Many TR “Builds” are structured as 3:1 meaning three weeks hard then one week recovery. 3 + 1 completes a 4 week block of work. The second half of build is another 4 weeks of 3 + 1 making a total of 8 weeks in two blocks for the Build program.
Modifying the Build program to 2 weeks of work then 1 recovery changes the block from four weeks total (3 + 1) to three weeks (2 + 1). To achieve the same amount of work you end up doing three three week blocks for a total of 9 weeks instead of 8. The extra rest and modification of work to recovery provides additional rest and adaptation.
When I ran SS Base 1 + SS Base 2 (both mid volume), I had no problem with that level of intensity and volume. But for Build, at end of week 2 felt very tired and knew week 3 was not going to go well. so modified to 2:1 and kept that progression to end. The 2:1 worked very well in my case.
Believe Chad mentioned this modification 1 or 2 podcasts ago (in context of masters athletes but really ok for anyone).
As an armchair coach, I’d say that for most weekend warrior type athletes that combining SSB1 + SSB2 then either sustained or general power Build is going to be a very nice training plan and allow a nice level of fitness. I like the Mid-Volume plans personally but there is nothing wrong with doing a cycle or two of low volume and seeing how you react to the training program and the stress. After successfully completing that then try doing mid-volume the next time around. Or even sticking with Low volume. It depends on a bunch of factors.
Other thoughts for folks new to structured training: (1) 2:1 is a solid mod for the build plans. (2) Nothing wrong with adding a rest week in the Base SSB plans either. If you need to recover then recover. Don’t dig a hole too early in your journey. (3) For most amateurs consistency is the absolute key. Get a decent FTP approximation, follow SSB1 + SSB2 + Build and do each workout as prescribed and you are going to see solid gains. (4) After a few cycles of a solid training plan, new gains are hard to find. That’s when you can start trying different stimuli. (5) If racing, remember that race skills are not FTP or VO2max numbers. It takes time to learn how to race well and get results. We all hear about the kid that goes Cat 5 to World Tour in two years. That’s awesome but that is not likely to be your journey
Either that, or just accept that it might take 2-3 weeks in to the specialty phase before you can test better, since build is about trying to get a nice big training impulse that is going to be something that is not exactly sustainable. Bryce has given some people some really good advice before when this has happened, and told them to try and test a good 3-4 weeks after build and they were a good 15 watts up. While testing is beneficial to many people who can’t go by feel, we need to be sure we aren’t relying on a single point in time as fitness is usually a moving target.
