I think one week is a long VO2 Block!!! 
Ok. Normally i do 3 vo2 workouts in a week for 2-3 weeks.
But i agree with your periodisation. Thnx
95-98% for threshold usually. I do all my workouts by RPE at the moment. I rather see difference when it comes to overall rpe. Even with 90-120min tte @90% first two or three threshold workouts feel hard, after that I always see quite big improvement. Recently done 4x20% at 97% and it felt as it should feel. Simply my tte at threshold improves by doing threshold (surprise surprise). I have poorly developed fast twitch fibers, poor frc and anaerobic power so threshold helps a lot along with sst with bursts. Not to mention that after threshold block I see slight bump with vo2 max power, but after steady sst - none of that. That is why I do steady sst only if I do not feel for threshold workout or I just want to wake up muscles during recovery week.
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Careful with the n=1 stuff. I just did 13 VO2max sessions in 17 days with 36 hours of total volume in that time. Not everything is constructed the same.
The type of block heās planning on doing is one Iāve done several times in the past, nine workouts in a 3-week block, and the types of intervals he plans to do are constructed to minimize leg fatigue and allow you to do more total sets and overall volume at maximal breathing rate/near max HR. He picked on that because itās different than what he planned, and when youāre doing intensive VO2max work like he has planned, youāre going to need to stop at 2-3 weeks. The thought of going to 4 weeks in that construct is, well, dauntingā¦ so when you call 4 weeks āshortā, that jumps out. It jumped out to me too.
So when youāre trying to plan these things out, this stuff does matter. If you canāt tolerate LONG sweet spot or long sessions on the trainer, then donāt do them! Do some threshold stuff instead and the sessions can be shorter or shorter intensity w/ some easy endurance after.
Couple things:
- The only people Iāve had doing more than 90 min SST TiZ are guys like marathon MTBers or people doing 6+ hour events with significant climbing. And even then, Iām stopping at 2 hours.
- Rather than the long intervals, you can do sustained sweet spot as part of your long rides. So you go for a 4-hour ride, and you spend 2 hours between 88-94%, so if youāve got a route with a lot of climbing, you go out, do that route, SST the climbs, call it a day. Not every session needs to be 4x30 minutes on with 5 minutes of rest or whatever perfectly strucutred. Go do a Zwift ride on one of those ridiculously long routes and do 90% on all the climbs, e.g. That might be more tolerable and more sustainable for you.
- Last, for most people, once I get into the 75min+ TiZ sets, Iāll back off to one SST workout per week, and then I might push some tempo sets, especially lower cadence stuff, into those weeks instead of more SST. So if Iām pushing someone to 2hrs (in those limited cases), their first block progression might have 2x workouts per week up to 3x25. Their second block might have 1x SST per week, or maybe 4 sets in 3 weeksā¦ capping out at 4x30 or 2x60 or (most often) āgo ride for 3+ hours and do 2 hours at ~90%.ā
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This is what Iāve been doing this winter after hammering SST (on the TR HV plan) last winter. One SST workout per week, more tempo, and Z2. Something Iāll progress to is longer SST intervals because I havenāt done much of that. Ultimately, Iāll get to 1x90 I think.
Iām also planning on doing a VO2 block and maybe a threshold block this winter. Threshold has always been hardest for me.
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Are there any guidelines for using TTE from a Kolie Moore Baseline test to get a TTE for SST/Tempo work? I just averaged 244w for ~52 minutes for the baseline test (made for a nice Alpe du Zwift PR), so I know I could use that TTE to design threshold workouts. However, Iād like to do 1-2 months of SST/Tempo work first. Would TTE for these be maybe 1.5x for SST and 2x for tempo? So around 90 minutes and 2 hrs for me?
Apologies for not reading 2700 postsā¦
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Good rule of thumb is to try and target 200% of TTE for SST.
That;s a goal to build towards. Generally it has you doing anywhere from 90-120min of SST TiZ in a workout.
SST TiZ for a week shouldn;t exceed more than 20-25%, so as your workouts get longer thatās why you see people dropping to one workout a week of SST and filling in the additional time/rides with tempo or z2 work.
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@RONDAL Thanks, that helps. Looks like that would be around 90 minutes sweet spot for me, so probably one big workout and then Iāll probably add in some tempo to a long ride on the weekend.
I think that when you manage to hold sweet spot for long period at a high percetage of FTP, you need to focus more on sub-threshold work(and then endurance) to extend ftp and come.back to SSpot afterwards.
Otherwise youāll never be able to win then race despite being in the breakaway.
It also advisable for triathlete hopping to push a step forward
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It all depends where you are in your training season.
I dont think most of the contributors to this thread are suggesting that SST progression is all you need to be doing to win a race. But this is a step towards building your aerobic engine during the base season ahead of more intense training as you start to sharpen things up for race season
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Completly agree with that as well.
Yeah, thereās no one-size fits all. I have a lot of my athletes do a SST progression (and have done them myself for several seasons) like we talk about here, but some people donāt have the time to meaningfully extend TiZ, so you might do threshold instead. Or tempo for people with a lot more time to ride. Itās all a big fader.
What comes next totally depends on the person and their goals. A common pathway is a SST progression into a VO2max block. Another one I use sometimes is SST progression into threshold. It just really depends on what people need and how much time they have. Iāve done both of the above approaches with my athletes this season alone.
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Exactly.
My plan is SST into VO2 into threshold which builds to extending TTE and Iāll touch up anaerobic in the process like 4-5 weeks out.
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To a phone charger?
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I did it recently, too:
My plan is to do Phoenix +2, which is 75 min (vs. 105 min) at 90-95% (vs. 85-90%), next. After that will be Gibraltar +2: 90 min at 90-95%. Then itās time for a VO2 for a month, then threshold for a month.
I might do Pendleton (7x20min at 88-94% with 3 min recovery) for the hell of it. Weāll see.
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How many times a week is SS training recommended?
I usually do 4 trainings per week, two trainings are SweetSpot, and two trainings are Vo2 or Over/Under.
I did two SweetSpot workouts last week.
- 4x 15min SS @90%FTP with 5min rest @60%FTP
- 4x 20min SS @90%FTP with 5min rest @60%FTP
What would be more appropriate going forwardā¦
Extend the time of each interval, like 3x 25, 2x30, 2x40, 1x60 ?
or increase %FTP to say 95%
you have too much intensity, I generally do two days a week of whatever sweet spot or higher intensity training I have planned for a block. drop the other workouts and do z2. always opt for extending time vs increasing percentage
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With such a training system, I do about 600 TSS per weekā¦ I plan to do three such weeks and then one week of recovery with about 50% TSS value