Sweet Spot Progression

Looks like my kind of fun! :slight_smile:

Yes, I already viewed the webinars. My problem is that in WKO, my mFtp % Vo2max is around 82.5, so maybe I should first do some max aerobic work before going to the sweetspot/tempo workouts? I almost never focus on vo2max workout (fondo type). But maybe this is holding me to raise my ftp?

That is my position exactly

My absolute lowest has been 83.6% :joy:

My highest mFTP (279W) was at 86.5% and during that period I had been confirming mFTP with long 40-70 minute efforts. WKO had TTE at 56+ minutes.

My first power meter was installed early October 2016. When PDC has good max data the % has been between 85-88% which as I understand it, is a bit on the high side.

also make sure your model has recent max effort vo2 efforts in it. If you havent got some good max efforts in it then it may be low and show a unrealistic %.

I find that I can easily reach VO2 in both the short 30s/15s as well as the longer 8min intervals. I must say I much prefer doing the longer 8min interval length. The pain is much more manageable. There’s just something so painful about doing 13 ā€œ0 to maxā€ accelerations in a row! :grimacing:

The last 90days no specific max efforts or vo2max workouts. But in september I did the optimized intervals testing. But if I look in a bigger time frame it always is between 82-83.

And what did you do? Also vo2max work or just hitting the long efforts?

Ok, maybe I will do this. What type of vo2max sessions you do? 5x3min? or the shorter 40/20 30/15?

Didn’t have WKO at the time. You would laugh looking at my calendar - ā€œWhat didn’t I do?ā€ is the real question. One handful of fast centuries plus a double, hard spiky efforts on Wed night worlds, long sweet spot and threshold work, a couple time trials, 1-min Strava segment KOM hunting (got it the week after double), and several unplanned breaks including a full 10 days off in the middle of it to recover from all the work. A simple case of a new masters 55 guy teetering back and forth on the precipice of overtraining :rofl:

How many hours/week are you doing in that plan you outlined above?

This block as planned is between 10:00 and 11:00 if I nail it. I already cut short yesterday’s tempo ride because of ā€œlifeā€, so this week will end up 9:30 at most.

2x long sweet spot rides are 75-90 min TiZ (1:30 - 1:50 total)
Pettit + sprints is 60.
Long tempo 1:15 - 1:45
Long ride 3:30 - 4hrs

TSS range is now 525-566. I think it’s a pretty good ā€œin betweenā€ a TR MV and HV plan, focused on extensive endurance.

It’s individual. I’m currently at 81.8%. I peaked at 86% and resided around 83% most of last season. Some people run hotter, others would need to push VO2 at 80%. No one can really answer this very well without seeing all of your historical data to tell you.

The more subjective way (without WKO5 data) to tell is if you do a block and don’t see or feel much progress either in how your current FTP feels and how long you can hold it or the power you put out at your normal FTP RPE. If you’re still progressing, you might not change anything.

I have a rough outline of how things are going to go for me: Extensive - Extensive - Intensive (FTP) - VO2max, but if I see another big FTP and TTE bump after this extensive block, I might do another. The balance to that is I don’t really NEED to do more than 90 min TiZ Sweet Spot in a day for anything. We’ll see.

Yeah, that sounds like an excellent halfway point between those two volume plans.

I want to attempt to do something similar, but my weekdays are at 90 minutes max (lately 60 :sweat_smile:) and weekends are typically limited to 2-2.5 hour rides. Which I’m curious if I can implement something similar to see improvement as well.

No harm in trying!

If you look at the ā€œMore Sweet Spot!ā€ group, there are quite a few 90-minute workouts, and even more if you can get just five or seven more minutes out of it. You can get all the way to 1x75 at 90 minutes, and 3x25 at 1:35.

Stretching the longer ride on the weekend might do more for you, but life is life!

just finishing my first block of SS focus.

ended with 2x35 and setting all time PR’s for 1:08:00 and up.

Rest week, ramp test and then back at it for another 4 weeks. working up to atleast a 1x90.

…and if 90 mins is your ceiling then add a ā€˜burst’ every 5 mins for extra load. 10-15 secs max effort and then back into 90% with no rest will quickly add load in the same overall time.

I’ve searched o the forum for the More Sweet Spot group but not found a post title that matches this. can you elaborate please?

its a ā€˜team’ you need to join to access custom workouts - look for how to join a team in your profile

Oh yeah, I’ve been through those and have created my own with a slightly different warm-up! I’ve gotten up to 1x90 on a weekend day.

This is next on my list. I’ve already created the workouts. I’m attempting a little O/U progression at the moment.

My thoughts are more related to the amount of intensity per week. Since I have a little less time my intensity is higher. But I’m wondering if I can change that ratio a bit at about 8ish hours/week.

I’ve found Ebbetts style workouts

where you do a 5-sec sprint every 2 minutes to provide a really strong stimulus on a short time budget. I’ve got decent 5-sec power and looking back at my outside rides the 5-sec bursts are usually >200% FTP.

@Dave_Pugh click this link to join the More Sweet Spot Team:

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