Here is a image that might help. In the chart below you’ll find example durations in minutes FasCat has their athletes train daily in the sweet spot:
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Thanks. You make daily bold. is that because they did really daily sweetspot? So 7 days a week? I cant believe that, because you need also recovery rides, slow endurance etc.
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It doesn’t make sense to me too. But, as per Frank’s comment here, they are actually daily values, meaning how much minutes you should spend in SS zone every day.
However, I guess it’s more the weekly total (including racing) divided by 7 since their plans have completely off the bike days and Z2 rides.
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I’m planning my 2021 season and wondered if this is a nice 4 weeks base program, or that it might ramp up to quick?
Week 1
4x10 (40)
3x15 (45)
4x12 (48)
Week 2
3x18 (54)
4x15 (60)
3x20 (60)
Week 3
2x30 (60)
3x25 (75)
2x40 (80)
Week 4
Rest
What do you guys think of this?
I am currently trying to get 360 minutes Time in sweet spot zone per week for the next 6 weeks.
But then he also says they only have people doing those zones 3-4 days per week and sounds like even that is only true in base (which sounds much more reasonable) with some other unclear commentary. It’s pretty sloppy communication in those blog comments which further leads me to think that the original post is misleading to say daily. But good luck to anyone who attempts those benchmarks 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year 
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Yeah, it’s pretty confusing. Then maybe those values are intended per SS workout and not for every single day of the week (although I don’t think pros do 5 hours of SS in the same session), who knows.
And that’s actually a lot of SS, but according to that table it’s not enough if, for example, you are a cat 3 in a Build phase. Also, isn’t it strange that they suggest to do a whole lot more SS in build than in base? Provided that by intro they mean base and that build is the same concept as TR.
that isn’t the way they write training plans, I have been coached by them before. Although the figure is a daily figure, it is not everyday. his plans are tapered with Tuesday longer ( SST), wed (tempo or shorter set) and Thursday either endurance, tempo or SST depending on where you are in the training block. Normally on the weekends there is a longer day that will have longer continuous intervals. ( up to 60+ minutes).
Well,
If you look at week 2 of SSBHV 2 for example, you have 332 minutes of time in sweet spot. Fastcat plans do not advocate for doing sweet spot every day. 45-60 minutes of sweet spot per workout, is not out of the ordinary, if you are doing 2-4 sweet spot workouts per week.
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That makes sense, but the table with daily values still doesn’t.
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Would performing the current workouts at various cadences work? Try doing an entire SS interval at 100rpms. Do the next one at 85rpms. Etc. Thoughts?
But, if I’m not mistaken, SSB HV 2 is TR’s plan with most SS and the guys have said multiple times in the AAC podcast that SSB HV is a different kind of beast that should be done only by someone who knows that can sustain and recover from that amount of SS.
Anyway, I’m just saying that the table doesn’t make sense for daily values and it would be more appropriate if it was for time spent in the zone per SS workout.
I am doing something really similar to you, but decided to only do 2 sessions per week.
Just nailed yesterday 2x30 minute, for now I have not failed any workout but it is getting harder.
I speak based on my experience, but I feel that if you ride easy/rest the rest of the days and leave at least a rest/easy day between sessions could be just feasible, however I am not sure if it is sustainable in the long term, mostly mentally as you might start hating/dreading to jump on your bike.
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Then in the Fascat post I linked above (Podcast: How Much Sweet Spot Should You Do? – FasCat Coaching) there’s actually a podcast where I guess they explain better than the few lines of the article. Maybe if someone has listened to it they could tell us more, I’ll listen to it in the weekend during one of my rides if I don’t forget about it.
Frank’s chart is referencing the amount of Sweet Spot (TiZ) you should do PER WORKOUT.
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Well, problem solved! It definitely makes more sense like that.
However the build and in season values from Cat 2 onwards seems pretty high, especially if there are multiple SS workouts in the same week.
I’ve always read those numbers as more of a “you should be able to hit these relatively comfortably to compete at this level”. Which also means that you will probably target it at some point in some of your workouts. But you’re right, some of those later values are just so high that I can’t imagine even high level riders consistently recovering from those sorts of efforts. I also think he intends those in-season numbers to come from racing.
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I still can’t see even a world tour pro to ride 5h of sweetspot in one go. That’s like a solo Paris-Roubaix.
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yeah…that’s what leads me to think its more like “you should be able to do this to compete”. Those higher level numbers are like what they might hit in alpine tour stages or if you ride a break away for a spring classic. There is very little chance that riders can even eat enough to support that kind of work regularly. Most pro’s SS is probably in the 340-370 W range. Without doing any math they would burning something stupid like 1600+ calories per hour.
However, the Cat 2 and below numbers seem much more reasonable to target for workout durations once or twice a week.
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