For me (example below) 5x4 done as “go hard” and hold for your dear life shows as 16 min in vo2 max in WKO.
I also had high RPE for the threshold block which followed my VO2 work. I was expecting not going all-out to feel nice and easy, but it wasn’t… Despite the unpleasant RPE, I did manage to increase TiZ at ~97% to 80 mins (4x20/ 5RBI) in my final workout of the block (133% of FTP TTE).
I’ve now stepped back to doing some sweetspot and trying to push TTE further my first workout at 90% was 90 mins (may have been too high as a start point). Am planning to push past 2 hours if I can keep the RPE/boredom under control. Sweetspot made me feel great last time, so hoping for an uptick in the on-bike sensations.
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After doing VO2 Tues, Wed, Thurs, I just did ~1.5 hours Z2 Friday, 2.5 hours Z2/Tempo Saturday and 3 hours Z2 Sunday. I’d also tack on about 30 mins Z2 after the VO2 sessions. This was back in Janaury, and I felt like the amount of endurance work was keeping systems in check without jeopardising the focus of the block. Saying that, it did catch up with me in the end!
I just went til I couldn’t go anymore. They were painful. Of course it depends on the %FTP/duration/frequency of the overs/length of the intervals.
With short 30s overs at 115% I could go to TTE (60 mins), with longer 2min overs at 105%, I managed 2x20, but splitting into a 3x16 I managed 48mins.
I double day my vo2max days. 2 hours of z2 every morning is what I do Tuesday to Friday.
I’m just considering doing some tempo after I can no longer sustain vo2max tomorrow
@hdas
Again, pretty similar here personally. I set my percentage to 90% on my SS work. Since I don’t really use erg mode, they end up being 88-92%. In the last block, after extending my SS out to 90mins (my SS target), I did increase the intensity.
Similar to @kurt.braeckel , though I increased intensity from 90 → 94% at 90mins TIZ over a few more weeks (seems like Kurt had a decent approach). Tim C recommends progressing time then intensity as per one of his videos.
The fatigue was a little bit higher than I expected at 94%, so I needed to recover more than usual, and more than I prefer. Like @RONDAL mentioned, 94% is much too close to a threshold effort.
I think I would have been better off doing the SS (90%) and Threshold (97-100%) days separately, and include some over/unders (105/95 and 120/92) to progress the intensity rather than pushing up the intensity of one or the other. This is what I’m working on doing now after a little bit of rest.
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You’ve basically described my current weeks;
Tues - 100% FTP efforts
Weds - Z2
Thurs - 110%/90% O/U
with Fri - active recovery, Sat - big FTP, Sun - long z2
Thanks @RONDAL @velocoach @Bbt67 @kurt.braeckel for your input.
I’m interested in your methods bcs I want to improve my times in 2hour climbs. So far I can do it at around 85% of FTP
I’m not going to lose weight now that I fell in love with weightlifting 
(im fairly lean anyways), so my options are to increase my FTP, so that 85% is more power, or train my ability to do 90% like you guys do.
Easiest way for me to do would be to ride my usual 1hour climb twice. I will wait for the build season, to incorporate this workout as my “race specific workout” of the week.
Has anybody tried a weekly SS progression during a threshold block? Or do you just focus on SS with bursts with TiZ similar to TTE?
I’ve been doing SST progression within my threshold block.
My SST work has been O/U but its still been progressive TiZ and overall interval length (save for a mental math screw up where I didn’t do an extra interval in week 3) through the block.
You just have to be careful and clear what the focus is. For me it is growing TiZ at threshold for this block. So I am prioritizing that. But I am using the Thursday just to touch up on SST but am clear it is not the priority, and if it started to impact my saturday workout I would have dialled it back first.
I only mix sst with pure threshold when I try stacking workouts so sst comes next day after threshold. But then I do not play with progression but I treat it as an additional stimulus. The other case is when something is off with my performance then I plug something like 2x30 or 2x40@90% to check what is going on.
Thanks both. Threshold is definitely the aim — have done 4x10 on TT bike Tuesday, 3x15 turbo yesterday, and was planning 2x25 @ 90% on TT bike tomorrow, but weather looks really windy so will probably go out on the road bike. Over unders are very hard outdoors so I was thinking long Sweetspot like 2x45. A third threshold session feels like it might be too much…
My one 50m TT was 92% of 1 hour power for 1:54 if that helps
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Before jumping squarely into SST work you may want to start with long z2/tempo work, depending on time to event, this could really be beneficial and allow you to lay on the gains when you start SST progression.
2-3wks of z2 tempo, followed by a solid 4wk SST block would be a great primer.
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All my events start late July. So my program will be 3 days/week outside like this:
Base (12 weeks)
Day 1 = 45-60min Threshold + 2hours Z2/Z3
Day 2 = 2 hours Z2/Z3
Day 3 = 5 hours Z2/Z3
Build (8 weeks)
Day 1 = 20-25min VO2max + 2.5 hours Z2/Z3
Day 2 = SST Progression 90% FTP
Day 3 = 5 hours Z2/Z3
Regarding the Day 2 of SST Progression, here’s the plan:
- There will be 20 mins of coasting + Z1 between intervals.
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I’m stoked with the progression I made by doing long “blocks” of first tempo (up to 2h45) sweetspot (up to 90’) and FTP (up to 60’). This while losing 5kg (around 7% fat)
I’m now in my VO2max block and the work doesn’t feel easier but I feel that I recover faster. The day before yesterday I did this:
And today I did 4x5’30” @ 92.5% of 5’max. It was tough but I could hold the power:
I can only advice people to follow the same concept of base and build!
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great work. can you share your tempo progression?
I did it pure by feel. This gives a view of the workouts I did:
This first week of the year I rode 17h on the trainer mainly Z2 and 2 rides with some tempo.
after that I started with sweetspot (2 times per week) and on saturday the long tempo ride. I started with 2h15 up to 2h45 . But mostly based on feeling of the day, with a progression in mind. Always more than the previous workout
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Just a quick update. Took yesterday off the bike but did a ton of manual labor. Today, jumped on for 2x30 at 92%… made it a 1x63 and HR and RPE were so much better than Wednesday. I would’ve gone out to 1x75 but didn’t have enough drink and thought “it’s about strings of workouts, not just one.” so pulled the plug.
But really heartening to do 1x60 at 5W more without issue. I’ll push up to 75 or 80min TiZ Monday. Gonna be pretty aggressive with this block since it’s mostly SST and I want to push aerobic adaptations before the race prep starts.
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Great progression @markbrouns. I think this is great for Grand Fondo’s and long races, but how do you think about this base/build for 1.5h crit racing? I have also the same experience with a better base/build that the power is not as much higher, but the recovery is faster, so you can do more intensive rides in a week.
Any questions coming up:
- Is there any benefit to do 3hours tempo for crit racing?
- If you can do 60’ FTP, is it not time to move on for a higher FTP with a shorter TTE?