Sounds good! We all won’t agree on everything, and there are many ways to get things done. Gotta do what feels right to you as the athlete.
Good luck!
Brendan John Housler
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When you say “by definition” I guess what you are referencing is your definition? 
Because I don’t think definitionally what you are saying corresponds to what most people would say about it.
Sweet spot is the percentage of FTP where there is an intersection of Training Effect and Maximum Duration. That intersection isn’t the same for everyone but I don’t know that I have heard someone be as dogmatic as you in terms of the percentages you equate to success.
“Bumping it up” as illustrated in the graph does potentially lead to an increase in FTP but the volume generally needs to decrease as a result.
I guess to play devil’s advocate, I would take your example one additional step. “Bump it up towards 98-99%, doesn’t seem like much, but it def makes a difference.” Yes it makes a difference but there is a reason sweet spot isn’t done at FTP. The improvements are potentially more significant but so are the consequences. Which gets us back to sweet spot. Much of the training benefit without a commensurate level of consequences.
I respect you as an athlete, but I don’t know that your definition of sweet spot is one I will be adopting anytime soon.
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PS - I know you don’t need the graph, just posting for the benefit of others.
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In the UK most on the TT forum (which I appreciate is a very specific type of cyclist) agree that TiZ trumps intensity in most situations. So you should be able to do 3x30mins@ x Watts before you increase the watts a little. Then go back to maybe 4x15 or 3x20 and go again. Basic but effective from personal and the experience of others I know.
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So you don’t see a usefulness for this type of interval regardless of training phase? And isn’t the issue not whether it’s difficult to complete the interval but rather the appropriateness of the interval difficulty within the context of the current training phase and resulting effect on cumulative fatigue at the time the workout is supposed to be completed? Such that, coming off a recovery phase, a 10 minute interval is appropriate in the initial part of a base phase as a means of gearing back up into another training block. Or do you think a recovery phase should never dip so low in intensity/duration that this would be the case (assuming a non-professional/elite age group athlete)?
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I never said 98-99%; clearly that’s really close to FTP and wouldn’t recommend that.
I made the statement of more 93-94% and think that frank’s mention of 97% is probably stretching it for most athletes, especially those that use WKO and follow Cusick. His duration recommendations would be really hard to hit at 97%!
“By definition”, I guess you could say That’s Coggan’s definition; I’m not dogmatic enough to have definitions!
Anywho, I’ve replied many times in this thread that there are many ways to train in sweet spot; use whatever % works best for you.
Brendan
Brendan John Housler
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I think your answer is here:
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How do you guys incorporate this sweet spot progression into the extisting plans?
For example, I’ve finished SusPB and am now in a custom 3 week VO2 plan before starting back at SSB. During this 3 week plan I perform 2 x VO2Max sessions and 1 longer SST workout. The SST workouts are all 2 hours in length with the following progression: Tallac +3 (5x15) / Eclipse +3 (4x20) / Tallac +4 (6x15 with short 3 min rests). So far I’ve done Tallac +3 and it was fine. So I’m afraid I’m going to lose fitness when I start back at SSB, which has pretty short SST intervals and much less TiZ.
Also, how do you incorporate an FTP increase into the progression? Do you just keep on with the TiZ progression even though you get an FTP increase? Because that might be tough depending on the FTP bump.
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The short answer is I don’t. I build my own training blocks, haven’t used a TR plan in years.
What I do often is populate the calendar with a TR plans for certain blocks then sub in my workouts. Its efficient because there are certainly some TR stock workouts I will use.
As far as the FTP bump, these days I actually aim for incremental increases. Sounds counterintuitive, but I don’t want a massive FTP increase in one block, because it leads to crashing and burning. So generally I go through a SS block increasing TiZ, then nudge 5W or whatever and drop back to say 45 minute intervals.
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Bike, meet Craigslist.
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sell and bring on the eBike!
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I’ll join you on a tandem. We’ll just have to ramp test first to get our ftp set correctly. 
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Just finished a 3-week progression of Saturday sweetspot intervals.
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5x15 @ 90% - quite manageable but challenging towards the end
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4x20 @ 90% - hell on earth, can’t believe I finished it without a backpedal break
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3x30 @ 90% - was scared of this and in the end decided it would be mentally easier to do the intervals up the virtual Mt Ventoux on the event running today. Upped my Zwift weight to 85kg to make sure the climb would take long enough, and ended up knocking out 1x90min @ 92%.
Definitely would suggest trying some alternatives to erg mode because it slowly crushed me on the 4x20min session. The 1x90min was higher power but weirdly easier.
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I’ve been doing the same sort of progression (all at 90%), up to 2 x 50 min.
Despite racing and training for 10 years, PBs across the board. For me, the longer intervals appear to work and were the missing piece of the jigsaw.
Previously, I think I was mentally stuck at 2 x 20 min and was a little fearful of going longer.
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“The 1x90min was higher power but weirdly easier.” : probably due to the microrests?
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Even with the micro rests I wonder if that is still a better interval than the 3x30
How are you defining “microrests”?
I wondered about that too. I assumed meaning in resistance mode you can ease off for a second or two and then just hit the next period slightly harder unlike being locked into power in erg mode (and the cadence spiral of death)
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In erg mode you constantly push the pedals and when you are in resistance mode the power fluctuates much more (in a natural way).
It is difficult to explain…
I have a similar experience…
190> 330’
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It does fluctuate, but I was certainly pushing the pedals all the time. There were some points where the “gradient” eased off and I had to find the gearing, but wouldn’t they be compensated for by the pushes over the target power when the “gradient” increased (which you wouldn’t get in an erg mode interval)?
I got a similar feeling that it “feels” easier than erg mode. I don’t have a scientific explanation.