Just coming to the end of SSB2 MV, and a little concerned about my progression levels.
Endurance 2.0
Tempo 2.0
Sweet spot 3.5
Threshold 5.0
Vo2max 3.7
Anaerobic 1.0
Sprint 1.0
I’ve not missed a single session and accepted all adaptations. Thought they’d be higher at the end of a block. I noticed when I answered ‘moderate’ in the surveys nothing would change, I would have assumed that I’d be given a harder workout next time round.
Anyone have similar concerns?
There’s more to it then just survey response. TR-crew have stated that not all workouts are meant to be hard. I find it hard too, but I’ve decided to just trust it and see how it goes. And when I can’t stand the doubt I’ve checked with support to se if thay can see anything odd. 
That said, never having to push harder then moderate seems strange…
After week 2 of SSB1, I noticed that too many of my week 3 workouts were labeled “Achievable.” I started making sure and changing (via Alternates) every key workout going forward to “Productive.” AT is not hands off, I’d make changes if workouts look too easy/hard.
I did similar to MI-XC, picking stretch workouts until my levels felt appropriate to the rides. I suppose if I’d been patient it would have eventually figured it out, but I wanted to feel more productive more quickly.
Yes I have the same concerns. I only am concerned over SS, threshold and VO2 levels. The rest don’t matter from a progression perspective for myself. PLs tend to start too low. I had my FTP test recently and then my next vo2 was to be under 3.0 as I hadn’t done a session in a while. I didn’t follow their path. Week 1 was 3.9, week2 was 5.7. The workouts now look more in line with what I can do and where progression will mean something.
Im done with the first 5 weeks of SSBMV into recover week next week.
Not a lot of productive SS trainings - but more Threshold is this normal? Didn’t got many SS adaptations.(moderate surveys)
Dont look at Dec2 I changed days on my plan that’s why it edited the “start there”
How far out is your ‘A’ event? I’ve a feeling that AT is very conservative (there was a comment from Jonathan or Nate to this effect in one of the podcasts) so if your plan is aiming towards an event next June for example then it’s not going to overly stress you now. PLs start low until the system has a history of how you perform, mine aren’t that different to the OP’s after four months
Don’t answer the survey while trying to second guess the system, if a workout was hard then class it as hard or very hard, (see one of the many AT threads for @mcneese.chad’s response chart for an example of what each response “means”), I’ve had “positive” adaptations after giving “very hard” as response and none after giving “moderate”. So, looking at SSB2 MV, you shouldn’t really be giving a threshold workout like Lamarck a response of “moderate” unless your FTP is set way too low.
I don’t really have an event I just want to be a better rider until I can ride outside again. Around march so I set that as an end date. But thinking of keeping on training cause I also have a pm for outside so, after march ill add another plan. Atm it looks like SSBMV - SSBMV2 - General Build
The only hard workout I had was Emerson +2 that’s also the survey answer there.
I wonder if you have your ftp set to high if your SS is level 3.5 after 6 weeks of SS
If you look at the SS workouts they are not really going up much. Not sure how he responds to the survey but the increment is pretty low.
I just finished SSBHV1 and marked all but one SS ride as hard. AT still progressed me .2-.3 points between each ride (which was managable).
I’m 5 weeks into it after taking 3 months off the bike. Here are my current PL but I have switched some things around and find a few stretch workouts when I was feeling fresh. I’ve been doing SSB1LV with added endurance when I had time.
Hmmm guess I’ll just try a trust the process, just done a sweet spot 90 minute session, chose a productive alternative rather that the suggested achievable, honestly answered that it was hard, and got 0.7 bump in sweet spot.
There are a few big misconceptions about the survey responses, and about the nature of ‘sweet spot’ training.
Firstly, the survey responses don’t have anything to do with your progression levels. If you complete a workout .5 above your current progression level, you will move up to that level, regardless of whether you rated it as ‘easy’ or ‘all out’. (It may be different if you’ve raised or lowered the intensity, or failed the workout).
The survey responses go towards adjusting future workouts. If you’ve had ‘at level’ workouts which are ‘easy’, it should serve up harder workouts; if they’ve been ‘hard,’ it will progress you slightly slower.
The second misconception is about the nature and purpose of SSB training. Unlike ‘build’ blocks, you aren’t necessarily trying to push up a number. You are building a base, and sometimes the best way to do that is just to keep doing what you’re doing, without necessarily pushing your boundaries too much.
If you look at the progression levels of the SSBMV plans, they only go up across the 6 weeks by a bit under 2 levels. So if you start at 2, you’ll finish up around 4. Compare that to the General Build MV, which pushes threshold about 3 levels across the 8 weeks.
Having said all of the above, I also feel like the ramp is pretty slow, but I also feel like I’m finishing ALL my workouts, and getting a significant benefit from it, so I’m not going to question too much about whether I could be improving FASTER by burying myself deeper.
