Looking for some feedback on some plan modifications I’ve made. With nothing in particular to aim for at the moment I’m trying to get some good build work done. Current FTP is around 335-340. I’ve been feeling like I’m being let down a little at the higher end. My workable vo2 power is around 400 at the moment.
I’ve picked up the short power build with the aim of bumping up my vo2 and have made a few adjustments. Namely I’ve switched the 3rd intense workout each week with another vo2 workout. So, I’ve replaced ‘Lion Rock’ and ‘Junction’ with ‘Bluebell’ and ‘Bluebell +1’, respectively. And in the second part of the block I’ve replaced ‘Richardson +3’, ‘Augusta’ and ‘Xalibu +4’ with ‘Mills +1’, ‘Mills +2’ and ‘Mills +4’, respectively. I’ve also taken out the sweetspot/threshold workouts in these plans and I’m replacing them with long weekend rides (i.e. 3 hours +).
Do these seem like a reasonable adjustments to be making?
Also after this block I’m considering a couple of easy weeks and then moving straight on to building sustained power - is this a bit rash? I’ve been considering going back to sweet spot MV2 instead but not sure.
So you’re doing a VO2 max block? For the entire duration of the plan? I seem to remember the podcast recommendation for that idea but suggested that it be shorter, as in only 3-4 weeks. If you’re doing the whole build phase that way, I would probably recommend touching up on threshold occasionally.
I suppose it has become a vo2-specific block, with some anaerobic work in the second half as well. What would be the benefit here of touching up on my threshold? If I’m not aiming towards any particular event just now, just trying to drive up my upper aerobic limit, is it necessary to work around threshold? My thinking was this vo2 work would raise my ceiling whilst the weekend endurance work would keep my base in place.
Then when I move on to the sustainable power build I was hoping to shift my workable threshold up towards this ceiling - if you get what I mean?
I would just think that if you are going to do this for an entire 8 week phase you might want to do a threshold workout once every 2-3 weeks or so. What the user in the previous link is doing is much shorter, so less likely to see a significant decline in that threshold system. The trainer road group regularly advocates for training all energy systems at least occasionally to maintain what you do have. A little goes a long way in terms of maintenance, so even a one hour workout once every few weeks during this build would probably be enough. I like the hard start intervals or intervals like Priest +4 and 5/ Owl +4 and 5. In these you have a good hard effort at the beginning, drop down below threshold and then ramp up above threshold. Might hit enough on both systems to give you that VO2 max you are looking for and get a little threshold maintenance out of it too.
What’s your goal driving the “aim of bumping up my vo2”? Asking because those gains are use it or lose it, so your ‘high end power’ is naturally going to diminish over the course of SPB. Without any racing, it might just be a lot of unnecessary work/stress.
Will my high end power diminish even though I’ll be utilising it as part of the sustained power build? (VO2 work is incorporated once a week).
What I was aiming to do is bump up the power I can maintain at VO2, not my VO2 max per say. As my FTP is already at a pretty high percentage of what I think my VO2 power is, the idea was to create a bit more room - in terms of power - for my FTP to grow in to.
That being said, with no racing at the moment, this is the perfect time to experiment. I’m currently doing workouts in all the zones just to see what’ll happen.
In my experience, doing short power without including some threshold type steady state actually dropped my threshold evenn though short power increased.
This is the give and take of changing anaerobic/ aerobic metabolism.
By ‘VO2 power’ I really just mean the power at which I can complete TrainerRoad VO2 max workouts… I’m not suggesting it meets the scientific definition. Just a functional one.
Thanks for the podcast link, will give it a listen at some point.
I think I’m going to stick with some threshold work. I have changed the progression in the second half of the block to include more specific threshold work rather than the large anaerobic/VO2 focused workouts such as ‘Richardson +3’ and ‘Xalibu +4’. I’ve switched these for The Owl +5 and The Priest +2 per @mgbroph, as these do look like fun. So it’s kind of morphed into more of a general build.
Will see how things go and maybe trial a VO2 block in the future if I still feel it’s necessary. I think my original adjustments would have really been tinkering for the sake of it.