Struggling to finish base?!

144 pounds seems slim, especially for a mountain biker which tend to have more upper body mass than road riders.

Maybe your diet is holding you back?

Last season I was definitely all over the place with training and didn’t take it seriously at all but managed to get my ftp up to 272 at 142lbs… so I was like, shoot if I actually follow the plan this year I’ll be in good shape! But yeah, maybe I wasn’t ready for that much structure and also I definitely screwed up by doing so much outdoor riding during my recovery week instead of keeping it chill to prepare for the next 6 weeks.

Kyle? Haha, Jared here. Yeah man, I’m 144 right now but usually get down to 140-142 in the summer.

Remember FTP is just one metric. Two riders with the same FTP are not necessarily equal in their ability to absorb punishment.

I was the same way last year, I could crush out a 20 minute test at like 330 watts, and i thought that meant i was ready for high volume advanced plans. Dear reader, I was not ready. This year I’ve been focusing on building up to a high volume of eas(ier) training before hitting the hard stuff super hard.

1 Like

Yeah I was tempted to offer some bad advice since we may be racing later this year lol

I know from my experience though that if I restrict my calories I start to plateau, fail workouts, and often get sick if I lose too much weight. This is especially true if I’m doing 5+ hour mountain bike rides on the weekends in addition to trainerroad.

1 Like

ha! I’ll be doing a handful of xc races this season but I’ll be more focused on road, so we may not see each other much.

I do need to eat more, I’ve just gotta make it a habit to snack throughout the day. I’m probably not taking in enough calories.

@jonesn,

Maybe a dumb question, but you did start out with the Ramp Test, right? If you skipped the test and just started with an FTP you reached previously, you might need to retest to get the right baseline for your workouts.

Definitely did ramp test at the beginning of sweet spot I and again before II…

I see you did an 8 hour outdoor ride last Saturday, 434 TSS.

Your “Recovery Week” between SSB1 and SSB2 was 460 TSS.

I’d be surprised if you weren’t cooked. Char broiled.

Probably best to take a recovery week immediately and get back into it next Saturday, starting with Carpathian Peak and repeating weeks 4 and 5 of SSB2.

1 Like

You haven’t had a recovery week since last year.

Busted :roll_eyes:

1 Like

This seems to be a common occurrence among TR users. There are a number of posts that follow the same narrative—SSB is too hard, etc etc.

Sweet Spot Base 2 MV is a legit hard plan, I wonder if it’s too hard and brings the intensity too soon IMO for most folks that are new to indoor training.

An option would be to build out an extra block of base that precedes Sweet Spot Base 1. Something that has only one or two sweet spot rides per week with more focus on endurance rides and building up duration. This is kind of what I did to kick off my 2020 season. Essentially I’ll be doing 18 weeks of “base” before getting into a build block.

1 Like

Yes busted. There is a minimum training load required to build fitness. There is a maximum training load beyond which fitness declines. More is not better it’s just more

First attempt at structured indoor training, 4th year of cycling. Usually average 300-450tss when the weather is warm April - October. Just finished 4th week of ssblv1, to me there is a huge difference from just following the structure / consistency of these plans. I have been adding sleep to try to let me body keep up. I’ve added a few extra rides, but I don’t think I could hang with MV at this point. (I did consider it when I was looking at the plans because I normally ride 5-6 hours a week. That would have been a huge mistake for me.

1 Like

I’m very much in noob territory so take this as you like… It’s only my second year treating things half-seriously. Last summer I was knocking out 700TSS weeks no problem including some 1 hour race pace chaingangs mid week around 1.0 IF. But this winter I started structured training for the first time on 11th December. I’m now 5 weeks into SSBMV2 (around 470TSS) and it’s felt much, much harder than any accumulated fatigue before.

I’m strongly of the belief that not all TSS is created equal.

2 Likes

First off, thanks much for all the replies. I really enjoyed the shared experience and I’m feeling much better!

Going forward I am planning on transitioning to a low volume build plan from the mid volume base that I am currently finishing up. I will most likely be doing the three prescribed workouts plus an added outdoor ride each week. As far as TSS goes, this will probably put me at a similar or slightly lower weekly average than I was carrying through the base period… I know that the point is to continue to slowly ramp TSS to force adaptations, so I’m a little concerned about dropping off and ramping from a lower amount than I carried through base.

My question is, should I embrace this lower TSS or try to stay at a similar avg as to what I’ve been maintaining for the last 6 weeks or so? While obviously ensuring that I nail my recovery weeks this time around!

And also, if I do add an additional 4th and maybe even 5th ride per week, what kind of rides will benefit me most during this build phase? I’ve read that adding zone 2 longer rides during build just adds non-productive TSS… seems odd but who knows.

Thanks!

But, if you’re struggling to finish a Mid Vol plan you have almost no other choice. You can always add in an extra ride here in there and react based on how you feel. Listen to your body.

What plan will you be doing when you start back up?

It depends. Where have you read this?

Well, I also didn’t rest at all during the plan so realistically I probably could have done much better…

Most likely Short Power Build, Low Vol.

Trainerroad forum, ha.

Short power is my weakness, so I figure that’s what I should train.

I had the same problem when I started SSB1 last year. I couldn’t finish it or would crash in the beginning of SSB2. It took me 1 round od tb low volume + 3 rounds of SSB low volume and I’m now on the verge of finishing SSB2. I put that on 4 things:

  1. Lack of proper aerobic base… What reallly made a difference this time is that I added 15 minutes of Taku to every 1 hour workouts + Taku on recovery days. And the occasional 2+ hours easy ride on sundays.

2.No prior experience in structured training. I didn’t know what SS, Treshold, VO2max should feel like.

  1. Periodic illness not related to training. But it settled me back.

  2. The very structure of SSB with the 5:1 work recovery ratio which was too much for me to handle with 3 kids at home and business to manage.

One thing that might get people confused/shooting for more than they can chew is the training plan selection advices wich is base on time available for training. But some people even if time isn’t an isssue recovery, outside stress, nutrition, sleep might be.

And I think a lot of people would be weel advised when new to structured training to try TB first at whatever volume they think thay can handle and moving from there. IF you can’t do TB at low volume there’s no reasons to think SSB 1 and 2 are within reach.

I’m shooting for MV volume for next winter. But first I’ll start by completing a full Base-build-specialty cycle. Then TBMV on the summer.

2 Likes