Think if those as the max value ( you build to an interval like this) not do it every day etc. like the last step in progression.
About 1250 Cal per hour
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Youāre right. But still probably too high to sustain multiple times/week. On another thread here someone was saying that WvA and Pogacar will do most of their endurance rides at the lower end of Z2 partially to try to limit the amount of calories they burn because itās just so hard to keep up.
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I like to use a combination of adding SS volume as well as extra intensity when progressing these types of session.
Sessions like Needham -1 are great for hitting 48 minutes of SS as well as including some 20 sec bursts over FTP before moving onto 60 minutes of constant SSā¦ I also feel that this better replicates the requirements outdoors for accelerating out of corners, RABs etc etc when racing.
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Its pretty much the upper limit.
From the FasCat article link a few posts above, āThe highest known upper limit of sweet spot comes from professional cyclist Matthew Hayman who did close to 6 hours of sweet spot to win the Paris-Roubaix.ā
There is a power analysis of his ride too.
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It would be a big ask but remember, Overton uses a different definition of Sweetspot
Hello, my apologies if this is answered earlier in the thread. It looks like everyone is using these custom workouts, and Iād like to give this a shot. How do I access them? I canāt find anything when searching in the TR workouts page
Thanks
Sorry if my post was unclear - Iām aware of the workout creator, but is it not possible to access these custom sweet spot workouts that others folks have already made, rather than make them myself
You have to join a team, thatās the one with all the SS workouts:
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Ok, I understand.
Custom workouts are only visible to the person who created it unless they decide to share it.
Perfect, thank you!
Today I failed the first workout in my quest to complete 3x30 min at 280 watts.
I was attempting 2x35 minutes after being able to do last week 2x30 min and 3x20 min.
I gave up after 16 minutes into the first interval; I had high heart rate and my legs simply could not turn.
It was not a case of failing towards the end of the workout out of exhaustion, I simply could not put out power even after 16 minutes of the first interval which should be more than feasible when i could manage 60 minutes TiZ last week.
I did two group rides during the weekend, probably pushed too hard and therefore could not recover on time even if I took yesterday off.
I plan riding easy tomorrow and attempt the same workout the day after tomorrow.
If I can not push hard by then I will ride easy 4 to 5 days.
What do you guys think? Thanks in advance!
It sounds like you need a full day recovery in there to let the ROS clear. Iād be kind to yourself and perhaps have a recovery spin, and then as hard as it is, have a full day off the bike to let everything settle. Perhaps throw in a slow but long walk on that day and listen to some podcasts or something! I reckon youāll bounce back strong after that.
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Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions. A quick search on what ROS is in endurance sport lead to āReactive Oxygen Speciesā, any reading material or podcast you would suggest on the topic? Cheers!
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No worries at all @eduardo23. I think from memory George Bennet talks about it quite a bit in this podcast episode which was interesting.
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My recommendation to you would be to start at 3x20 - dial the power down if your HR gets above 85%, but complete the interval. When you can hold 3x20 at 90% with a HR below 85%, start doing longer intervals.
Also, here is a technique to keep your mind engaged better: every 5 mins, do 4 min seated, 1 min standing. It really breaks up the intervals - you can toy with variations of it, but it helps me.
Good luck 
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How often do you guys do a ramp test when pushing out your time at sweet spot? Do you get to 1x60 or some other benchmark then test and start again or what?
Do it as often as you want - sometimes I do this within the construct of a TR plan (I sub-out workouts) and other times Iām fine knowing that if my FTP has gone up and Iām actually working at tempo, my aerobic base is building and Iām becoming faster through stamina/repeatability.
There is so much sub-threshold/aerobic work to do for the time-crunched athlete, none of it is a waste ā all of it makes you faster, just in different ways.
In my opinion, unless youāre ramping towards an event and in an 8-10 week window outside of itā¦ push more and more time in zone.
My personal best is 2x90 @ <70 RPM. My FTP didnāt go up, but I went to a 5 day riding camp and no one could hang with me except Lael Wilcox and Dylan Morton (look them up) - I just had stamina for days. Felt like I could do whatever I wanted on a bikeā¦
Lael and Dylan were cool to me. They also dropped me when they wantedā¦ but I got to ride with themš¤
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