Yes i think i can do it better outside as inside. For me its also easier to do SST and FTP outside. I life in a quit area, with a 13km straight road without trafficlights etc. No hills here but against the wind i can do high efforts.
I have here also a route of 60-80km without stoppingpoints and busy cities or villages.
Must be nice. I do anything Sustained on the trainer out of necessity.
I see you guys pushing TTE as far as 120min with SST, but what about threshold/FTP? Lets say someone can ride 40min at 300w so he trains to get it 60min. Then what? Does it depends on the goals? If you focus on time trials 60min TTE could be enough and then focus on power afterwards? If you focus on road races then focus on the TTE?
I think it depends on the length of the roadraces. When you doing crit racing for 1.5h, no need to do SST for 120min. Even 90min a lot for crits.
I just did 4x15 last night and was able to tack on 4 extra minutes at the end of the last one (64 min total). Obviously felt pretty good at the end so now Iām wondering what to do next as well. Thinking about switching to over-unders but not sure.
Some ideasā¦
Possibilities are endlessā¦ go with the ones to align with your goal events.
Personally I have a template set up to get to
250% of TTE for SST ~90%
150% of TTE for Threshold (Target watts from WKO, normally works out as 97% of ftp)
I normally leave TTE at 45 or 48 minutes because most of the time thats where it is, all this pre session Iāve used 48 minute which was from my first FTP testā¦
Mmmā¦does sweetspot training need to be event specific? I thought most people do the sweet spot progression early in their training phase, to improve aerobic endurance?
@splash No, that is not what I was saying (although it could be event specific at some points)
I was talking about Threshold intervals and how to modify them when you have extended the TiZ as long as you need or want too.
You might want to put the bursts in if in your event you are sprinting out of corners or a turn around and then settle back into Threshold.
In this caseā¦
At some point (not saying when, depends on ones progress) in the progression I would be introducing some very short bursts to try and get the fast twitch fibres involved (earlier?) in the otherwise steady state efforts. No idea if it makes sense but I seem to really gain from it for one reason or another.
My TTE was 60 mins and I did some rides at and beyond TTE at 97% in my last block to try and hit power and TTE at the same time. I didnāt get to 150% TTE, but 90 mins is a hell of a lot of threshold work!
Itās good to work towards the demands of your goal event, but with none on the horizon Iāll try to push power up and out.
If your TTE is 60 min it is only a guide for TiZ so to elicit adaptations you need go TTE or longer. The result can be extended tte over 60 min at given power or improvement in FTP. If you do not see any changes after around 8 weeks - introduce another stimulus like shorter TiZ and higher power or vo2 max block etc. And yes your FTP power can be over 60 min.
Having come off a 5 week block that brought my SS progression out to a modest 1x60, I decided it was time to test the legs and do a gravel rideā¦which subsequently turned into a bit of a race (I have a couple friends that cannot hold back). I did this on my single speed, which doesnāt have a power meter.
I donāt know yet if my FTP has benefited from this block, but if anything, it has really helped with my TTE as well as riding at or near threshold for long (for me) periods of time. 2 1/4 hours at or above 165 bpm (which is 85% of HRM)
I have 10 weeks to go until my first real race of the season. Itās one Iād like to win, so itās an A-race. Iām thinking that I could either progress time @ Sweet Spot further (how far?) or start a 3-week build block to bring FTP up from the bottom followed by a 3-week VO2 block to sharpen.
The proposed blocks are extensive->intensive->vo2.
The goals being ~200% TTE target for extensive, 150% for intensive, and 18-20min for Vo2.
All the while you should be also looking at your metrics, specifically your VO2/FTP as a %. As that starts creeping up into the 83-85% range youāre likely getting close to capacity, so then you hit VO2 to raise everything up, and hopefully can start again at a much higher FTP.
Everyone is going to be individual in terms of timing, when they are reaching they capacity (what %), and how long they need to stay in a block to see the adaptions, and ultimately when you want to peak, but hopefully this helps you think about the structure and markers to look for so that you know when its time to move.
Push power higher. Instead of extending TiZ, raise the power youāre working at. Alternately transition to a VO2max-focused block, or an appropriate build/peak block for your events.
Coming out of adaptation/rest weeks is always eye openingā¦
I start a 3-week threshold block on Monday. As a warm-up I did one of the new TR polarized workouts today which was 4x8 @ 104%. 5 weeks ago I did 337w for 20 min in the Baseline FTP test, so I thought this wouldnāt be too tough. Wellā¦
Iām a little nervous going into this upcoming build-block. I thought that RPE, HR would be alluding to some nice fitness gains and that all existing wattages up to FTP and slightly above would feel āeasierā, but this workout was unusually difficult, and certainly didnāt show any sort of fitness gains coming off a nice Sweet Spot block.
How many of these blocks have you done in the last 3 months, 6 months ?.. I think context is needed.
Iam now in a restweek as always i feel tired and now power in my legsā¦this takes half a week before I feel good againā¦with the search you will find a lot of people with the same experienceā¦so i think its normal.
This is also the reason why I only test short efforts immediately after a rest week and only half a week later, if necessary, an FTP test
Last 5 weeks: Sweet Spot and O/U progression pushed out to 1x60 (KM Baseline Test included in that block)
Oct-Feb: Unstructured, lots of tempo and Z2, lots of weight lifting. Averaged around ~200-250 TSS/week
The good thing, my FTP and CTL have never been higher at this point in the season. I think whatās interesting is the intersection of cumulative fatigue from the 5 week SS progression and w/e fitness gains that netted me (if any). I would have expected, at a minimum, to see lower RPE and heart rate values on pretty much all wattages, even if FTP didnāt increase. I have no doubt that if I did another TTE test my avg power would be lower than what it was 5 weeks ago. Stings.
Yep, I realize that during rest weeks our body is adapting to the previous block of stress and itās normal to feel āoffā. Iāve accepted some level of malaise and fatigue, but I would also expect to see some markers that let me know my fitness is improving as well as body shedding accumulated fatigue. This is not happening after 5 days of near complete rest. Has me a bit concerned.
I feel worse than I did my last heavy week. I was carrying about and even TSB balance going into today.
IMO this is a case of mismatch of expectations and actual experience. Doesnāt seem that anything is abnormal. I was also wondering if thereās any evidence that SST work has any noticeable carry over on supra-threshold work.
