Well. Looks like saturday is going to be crap weather. So trainer day.
Going to take a stab at 1 x 90 minute sweet spot, then next up it’s a VO2 block.
I have no idea if I can complete 90 minutes at sweet spot 
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Tour of the Gila – end of April, so ~7 weeks. (I omitted discussing the TT because I’m electing to pretend it doesn’t exist or matter.)
Because I got fitter….it just happens to coincide with the end of the first block of SST
The usual: Lower RHR, Lower RPE for given power, Lower HR for given power and the ability to complete 4 x 15min easily.
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Ha!
Race-specific stuff. So look at the course. Where do you think the selection will happen, or where have you struggled in the past? If there’s a specific climb, train for that. If you think you’re going to need a lot of repeatability, train that.
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Holy christ, never expected this to happen.
Just busted out a 1 x 90’ sweet spot effort. This has been such a dramatic change, compared to when completing a 15-20 minute interval was a max effort struggle fest when on a plan.
Next up, going to try the VO2 max progression after a rest week.
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[riotous applause]
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Hell yeah. There is little that feels better than nailing one of these when you haven’t done it before. You get to like 70 minutes and you’re like…wait…I got this.
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Yep.
Past an hour was uncharted territory for me (I’d done a few group rides where I just sat at the front at roughly sweet spot most of the ride). Got a little worried around 70 minutes as it definitely started getting hard…but HR stabilized and things never really got dramatically more difficult the last 20 minutes.
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I’ve always enjoyed SS intervals (about 90%). Can currently do 1x 60 without TOO much effort, last ten mins feel difficult but never felt wouldn’t finish. Based on this and others experiences … How long do people reckon to get to 90 mins, 2-3 weeks at 2 workouts a week (say W1 - 2 X 35 mins, 1 X 70 mins, W2 - 3x25 mins, 2x40 mins, W3 - 3 X 30, 2x 45 or 1x90)?
I feel you can add 10min per workout without to much problem.
So if you do 2 workouts/week then that is after next week. Maybe not 1x90 immediately, but 2x45 should be possible.
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I dunno. I went from 45 minutes to 90 in about 10 days. But I dont think the 45 was really my top rnd at that point, and I’d had maybe 3-4 groups rides with a lot of sweet spot and threshold as well.
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Yeah, maybe playing it too safe as pretty sure could do 1x70 now and certainly 2x35. However I’m also planning on running twice a week and planning on adding 2 lifting sessions
Usually run 3 times a week (1 X V02, 1 threshold/tempo and 1 x long run (10-13 miles) and cycle 2-3 times a week (60-90 mins per workout)…but planning on mixing things up for next 6 weeks or so by adding lifting (barbell squats, bench press, deadlift) mainly for general health plus bit of vanity if honest so cut to 2 runs a week and 2 sweet spot/tempo rides put try to push out length TTE
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It took me 2 months 3wk on/1wk off to get to 1x90 at 90%. I might be playing it a little conservative with 2 workouts per week and the longer time for progression. Maybe I should push the interval lengths faster?
I’m also somewhat new to training (5 yrs) . My first couple of years was using heart rate only and have had a power meter 3 years now.
I could always mess around and find out 
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In 5 weeks, single hard workout per week:
SS90/48 4x12 → Z4/40 4x10 → SS90/90 3x30 → Z4/50 5x10 → SS90/90 1x90
Went even futher with SS90/105 1x105 → Z4/80 2x40
It coincides with considerable volume increase: due leg overuse injury, couldn’t do anything beside Z1/Z2 for 2 months. Luckily had time, went from 13-15h/w → 16-20h/w. I guess it was accidental breakthrough. Since then have pushed periodically to 20-24h/w for couple months but no similar boost. Need condensed intensity instead now, SS does not seem to help me much.
you could likely progress faster, here is what I’ve done in terms of solo interval work
2 weeks ago
- 4x8-min around 85%
- 4x12-min around 85%
- 80-min total (32-min + 48-min)
one week ago
- 2x7-min threshold around 105%
- no SS intervals, tossed in some top-of-threshold to pull up and work on higher intensity muscular endurance
this week
- 54-min of a 2x25 that ended up 25m and 29m, around 88%
- 1x64-min around 86%, simulated a shorter HC climb by dropping cadence
- 118-min total (54 + 64)
no decoupling today, could have gone longer but taking my time its been a good week of stimulus. Looking to do 2 HC climbs that are 1.5 hours each, so going to push that out to 1x90-min next week and then progress out to 2x90-min. I’m not hung up on 85% or 86% or 88% or 90%, just focused on pogressing out time at 85-90%.
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Any thoughts on some of the general TR SS vs those SS90 ones (from More Sweet Spot Team)? While I understand SS will help me build my FTP and increase my performance in all disciplines, for XC racing it seems like something like a 5x10 effort would be pretty specific to XCO racing. I did SS90/40 4x10 last night but the SS90 workouts don’t seem to have any 5x efforts, it seems to be 4x or less. I’m kind of thinking something like Antelope -2 and Antelope +1 might be more appropriate to reach for than 3x15-16-17-18, etc. I can see 4x11, 4x12 and 4x15 being helpful.
It sounds like some people mix it up but just wondering if there were any arguments against some of these other workouts that may be 88-94% for example.
The other type of SS workout I’m interested in is stuff like Bullock Log In to TrainerRoad seems to be more of a Tempo workout with a couple SS workouts thrown in, not sure how that may benefit me. Thinking something like Wederquist would be more appropriate to my >4 hour gravel races Log In to TrainerRoad
Overall, how does the training effect differ if targeting increasing short intervals like 5x10 vs 2x25? I would expect in this example 2x25 would be a higher PL but adjust to whatever would be the appropriate comparison say 5x13.
not necessarily, there comes a point where doing more sweet spot or ftp work doesn’t create ftp increases, it’s kind of a bad assumption TR makes
but regarding interval length, 10min is probably too short for a sweet spot effort, and the bare minimum for threshold, IMO. you probably want to start at 15mins or even 20min for a sweet spot length
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It depends on how much rest you have between the 10s. If it’s just one minute then the workout will be essentially the same as the 2x25.
If you are doing 5 minute rests, then you are cooling down a bit and then when you start the next interval it takes a couple minutes for the engine to rev back up. If you lose a couple minutes with every interval then the 5x is 40 minutes time in zone and the 2x is 48 minutes TIZ.
That’s the theory. Will it move the needle measurably in the grand scheme of things? I think that could be debated.
The most important thing IMO is to build out your TTE/TIZ longer. You’ll be pretty fit if you can comfortably do 3x30 or 4x30. Also, it depends on how long your races are.
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I’ve found doing longer sweet spot intervals help my fitness way more than increasing ftp. If you can hold a higher power for longer you’re less likely to fatigue during sustained races and probably MTB races also.
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Antelope -2 and Antelope -1 are with 5 min rests, whereas the 4x10-11-12 from the more Sweet Spot workouts are all with 3 mins rest.
So I guess that is the issue with the Antelope workouts is the rest period is too long?
I think if I could get to SS90/60 4x15 which is a 1:23 I would be pretty damn strong compared to my past training history but that 6.3 compared to the 4.3 of my most recent SS90/40 4x10 workout so a ways to go to get there. Definitely carrying a bit of fatigue this week as did a big outdoor ride on Monday that gave me a redlight for Tuesday, and a yellow light on Wednesday and Thursday, so yesterday was the first day TR suggested I was in the clear for intensity. Was surprised to see my last 2 intervals were better than the first 2 (3rd interval was the strongest), almost quite after the first interval and then again after the 2nd interval but kept going and came around for the 3rd interval and 4th interval.