Sweet Spot Progression

Get some ultrasound gel and put a little on before the HRM.

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I just did 9x10 minutes at 85% of ftp
I have one question.
My heart rate got progressively lower during each interval. What does mean?

Faulty HR monitor or the reported power was wrong…I am assuming there was a big difference in reported HR rather than just 1 or 2 bpm.

Here’s the data. What do you think?

That’s strange as HR usually increases as intervals progress. Your cadence looks pretty similar for the intervals, but just to check, how does it compare from the first and last interval?

Same cadence.

I think your cadence is actually dropping a bit…

In any case, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. What does the HR/Power graph look like?

I have the chart from TR. Does this help?
I think the cadence made the difference

Yeah, your cadence dropped 5 rpm, that can well be it.

I meant the charts you get in the power tap of the activity of intervals.icu, but no need to post them here.

Dropping HR can also be both fatigue and warming up in my experience, but as you said looks like its your dropping cadence in this case

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The change in cadence explains it.

If you’ve had the strap for a while (1 yr+), it might just need to be replaced. I just recently bought my 2nd replacement strap for my 3yo tickr. $10 no-name straps are fine. The tickr only gets used indoors. I have a polar H7 that I use outside and is still on the original strap, but I have noticed some artifacting this year and may replace the strap next year. The polar is almost as old, but doesn’t get used year-round like the tickr.

at this moment i managed 3x 20min SST with 3min rest in between. Now i will work to 2 times 30 and 1 time 60. But how much rest do i need between 2x30 and what is better? 3x30 or 1x60? With 3x30 there is more time in zone… how long do you do time in zone in one training? is it 1 hour time in zone SST or 2 hours?

Thanx for your help

@PattyP, I achieved yesterday 3x20 minute with just 3 minute rest and my target is to build up to 3x30minutes with 3 minute rest.
I heard on the Fast Talk podcast that in principle 3 minute should be enough from a physical standpoint. However you might need a bit longer to reset mentally and in my opinion is still OK.
Now coming to the 3x30 min or 1x60, and here is my opinion, (and as as they say everyone has one), if you are doing only short breaks (for instance 3 minutes) I believe from fitness stand point is better to accumulate more time in zone (TiZ).
However, I think the mental strength gains from knowing you can hammer 60 minute non-stop close to FTP can not be neglected.
Therefore I would suggest to try both.

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Thanks @eduardo23 for your fast reply.

2 weeks ago i achieved 1x50min SST 255w avg with 290w FTP, i now it was 88%, so bottom SST zone. For me it feels harder to do 1x50 than 3x20 effort

Next question:
How much TIZ is the maximum in a training for the best profit/fatique ratio…

I think this question is very individual and in my opinion it depends on your age and training history.
If you are younger you will recover faster and tolerate more workload.
And in terms of training history you might be able to achieve say a very hard session of 3x30 min SST with out the need of having had to progress there, but then this session on its own might burn you out for several days. The bottom line is you have to build up your training density and TiZ progressively. And if you do it little by little and making sure you are more or less recovered for each hard session there is no definitive limit.
As it is well known, Mathew Hayman did 6 hrs of sweet spot to win Paris Roubaix: Power Analysis: Mathew Hayman's Victory at Paris-Roubaix | TrainingPeaks
In practical terms for an amateur I think you can build to 90 minute/3x30 minutes with short rests, then it might be worth restarting the progression at 4x10minute at 3 to 5% higher watts.
At least this is what I intend to do, but I am not a coach or a physiologists so take this with a pinch of salt and listen to your body. However one thing for sure I have learned, overload and progression are key for not plateauing.

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a dab of chamois butter works just as well and you probably already have it. I had a wahoo tickr and it only lasted 1 year. I have a power tap ANT strap from 10+ years ago still going strong, but I don’t think you can buy them any longer.

Would anyone add a session of over/unders during a base phase where an athlete completes 4 sweet spot workouts per week?

That sounds a lot, given 4 SST sessions already. I keep reading a lot suggesting 2-3 workouts is optimum and the benefits of a 3rd or 4th might be marginal at best. Given a O/U is higher intensity than a SST sessions I’d guess you are going to compromise the quality of your week and dig a hole with that… Not to mention O/U workouts might best be used later on after a base development phase, or Intensive Endurance/Build as Tim Cusick calls it.

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Add? No. Replace one of the SS with short overs over FTP? Yes - more muscle mass recruitment and a little bit different stimulus for the body and muscles.

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While I’m all about the TR, I’m doing a 3 week race ā€œseasonā€ on zwift, in my first event yesterday I had an IF of 0.95 for over 51mins (and I’ve done nothing else other than 20min-30min intervals over the year).

I totally love the idea of the sweet spot progressions outlined in this thread, but doing the event also has me realizing that sometimes the only thing we need to string together long intervals is the right ride to force us into pushing ourselves. If we’ve done the work, the ability to accomplish is within us.

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