I’ve read through this and lotta good ideas in here but some people are still struggling a little, and it might be helpful to see a little reminder: there is no “one right answer” to these questions taken outside of the context of (i) what you’re like and (ii) where you’re trying to go.
Here’s what i mean, using myself as an example.
The first context, athlete characteristics: I have found over the years that I do not recover all that well. I can spin up quickly, I can go a lot above FTP, but the next day i’m maybe staying in bed. I once won a Zwift race and dudes who I beat were out training the next day, I could not. I was just easy spinning. I’ve got a lot of matches to burn but it takes a lot out of me. A stage racer I am not, never was. Maybe never will be. Tempo and Sweet Spot are hard also. In an SSB plan, if i did sweet spot on Tuesday, then an endurance ride on wednesday, i probably will not be ready to do another SS ride on Thursday. Maybe for one week, but not week-in-week-out. Just no way. Even endurance can be hard. If i do too much Z1/Z2, even then I end up needing rest, if i accidentally go too hard! I’ve never done a muscle biopsy or a lactate test, but i suspect i’ve got more fast twitch muscle than many and a relatively strong anaerobic system (vs. aerobic).
Second context, demands of sporting event: i’m a mtber primarily, which requires a lot of repeated hard and short efforts. You are never really riding–or very, very rarely riding–at any consistent intensity. Rather it’s all over the place. You need to be able to be burning matches above threshold, although endurance is also important.
So looking at SSB, in general trying to follow a plan like this is tough for me. One reason is recovery time. SS tends to be hard for me and takes me a day or so longer to recover than the plans generally provide for. So i’d have to add extra days in between. For me these “moderate” days are basically hard days in terms of how much recovery i need.
So i think you see where this is going. For me to keep making progress using SSB, i’d be adding extra recovery days, meaning fewer days of doing work. Consequently, in order to make progress i’d need more stress. I would need to make these “moderate” days harder, either by adding more SS per session or by making it higher intensity (threhsold or higher).
The second consideration is thinking about the demands of the event. Remember that your aerobic (lactate and pyruvate-burning) and anaerobic (lactate-producing) systems basically “fight” to determine what is your MLSS / FTP. If you have a strong anaerobic system, your FTP will actually be lower, assuming the same aerobic strength. All FTP tells you is where they meet, not what goes into producing it.
So in other words, you can raise FTP by strengthening your aerobic system OR by weakening your lactate-producing system, and SS actually does both, according to the physiologists who focus on lactate (e.g. Jan Olbrecht). So if you’re doing a block of SS, you are strengthening your aerobic system (i.e. Vo2max) because all endurance training strengthens it to some degree, but you’re also weakening the anaerobic system. You might come out of that block with a higher threshold, but actually LESS ability to easily work ABOVE threshold.
Again, you can see where this is going. As a MTB racer, I don’t want increases in MLSS at the expense of punchiness because I’ll actually be worse off. I’ll have a higher threshold but fewer and weaker matches to burn. Overall, I’ll be slower. You can say “all else equal, higher threshhold is better” but remember, all else is so, so rarely ever equal. SS is considered good “bang for hte buck” because it’s high TSS per “unit” of recovery, essentially, but for me it’s bad bang for the buck because it’s low Vo2max impact per unit of negative impact on anaerobic potential.
A training program based on the above would basically be like, hard days as often as i can recover from them, however many that is. These hard days will be focused on efforts at or above threshold, because i want to increase Vo2max as much as possible with as little as possible negative impact on the lactate-producing system; i want that to stay strong. most weeks the hard days will be threshold or just above; every other week or so there will be anaerobic intervals to keep it sharp. All other days are endurance, generally pretty darn easy so that i don’t compromise my hard days. I usually do two weeks in a row that are substantially harder than even the mid-vol TR plans, followed by a rest week that’s pretty substantially easier than the TR-programmed rest weeks.
What does this look a lot like? I basically just backed into what looks a lot like a polarized training program, starting from the bottom up (“here’s what works for me”) vs. top down (e.g., “program is better”).
And to be clear, i’m not sh%tting on TrainerRoad. it’s a great and intuitive system and they very clearly are solving for accessibility. They picked FTP because they can lead anyone (even the newest, most beginner cyclist) through a ramp test just by syaing Push Push Push, get a reasonable estimate of FTP, and then base a reasonable training program off of it, which will work for the vast majority of people. It’s great for what they set out to achieve, but just like anything it includes compromises.
TLDR, gotta do what works for you. Try to figure out what spices are in the soup of your FTP. Think about what you’re trying to achieve with training, what kinds of demands are you trying to prepare for? Of all the different competing priorities, which is more important for you? what do you want to be better at?
