I failed Spencer +2 yesterday. I’ve previously competed Sustained Power Build at a slightly lower FTP so I know my body can do 3-minute VO2Max efforts. In this case I think yesterday’s failure was due to accumulated fatigue (I’m at the end of SSB2-MV) and a steep progression from Mills last week (2-minute VO2 intervals) to the 3-minute intervals in Spencer.
I just did this and had a similar experience. I also have it scheduled next week so I’m getting life insurance before the week is up.
Haha! Look into a two for one deal. I think I have it coming up again too … 
I was dreading this one. I haven’t done it before but have done Spencer. I added in a two minute version at 120% last week as I felt the jump from Mills to a full 3 minutes was too much and was glad I did so. On the warm up I felt nervous and unsure if I had it in me but broke each one down into manageable chunks and aimed for 95-100 rpm throughout. So pleased to complete this one with no bail outs.
This winter is my best compliance rate for SS base 2 so hoping for a good Spring and Summer of riding.
Does anyone have thoughts or experience with substituting one of the Spencer variants that breaks up the 3-min@120% into smaller chunks with very short rest intervals? e.g. Spencer -1: “essentially 6x3-minute VO2max repeats, but they’re broken into tightly packed 30-second intervals at 125% FTP paired with brief, 15-second recoveries.”
I recall hearing somewhere (maybe the podcast?) that for longer vO2max intervals, you can get most of the training benefit from chopping up the interval with brief rests (not enough of a rest to recover, but maybe just enough to not get buried by the whole uninterrupted long interval).
I have Spencer +2 next week as part of SSBLV2, and am planning to sub it out for something else. But not sure if I’ll craft something manual, use another similar vO2max workout (but lighter), or use one of the “minus” variants.
I did Charybdis yesterday…
its slightly less difficult.
instead of 3 min at 120% you get 2:30 with a 30 sec ramp leading to 120%.
Then 3 min rest.
You do 2 sets of 3, with along 8 min rest between them…