Threshold workouts in SS base high volume

Training
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Hi guys,
This year I have done ssmv 2 + half of the sustained build mid volume until my first race of the season that was supposed to be yesterday as constructed by plan builder. However like everyone else my season is now cancelled.

I’m in Girona which means we are on total lockdown. My weakness is muscle endurance in particular threshold. To combat the normal amount of tss and taking to opportunity I have gone back to ss base but now doing high volume.

I normally add in 4 hrs z2 on Tuesdays (instead of petit or whatever to get more volume) and do my ss workout on the weekend as part of a 6hr long ride.

FINALLY my question is that I would like to add a threshold workout in a week…

  • Which workout should I sub out? Tuesday mid volume maybe?
  • which workouts should I sub in? I do like under overs…But maybe 10 min repeats or something? Should these follow other plans and increase in tss/volume/if etc?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated of course!

TR you are simply the best!

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If you want to work on your threshold, you should ride at threshold :slight_smile: 95÷ FTP is ok as it provides the same benefits as 100% FTP. I had the same issue so I have removed all VO2 max workouts from a block and replaced it with threshold progression, so: 3x15, 2x20, 3x20, 2x30, 1x60 and then 5x15, 4x20 etc and added over unders 3x20 (under 90% and over 30s at 110%, every 2 minutes).

I have progressed from LV so I have done threshold 3 times a week, supplemented with Z2. Not too taxating (if your FTP is set up by long effort test) but it did wonders for my TTE (3 weeks block improved my TTE by 15 minutes).

For the VO2 max - riding at threshold also works for anaerobic side of things at some extent so if you do not need race sharpness I am not sure if VO2 is very needed at the moment - especially that it works best when blocked, so 4-5 VO2 workouts in one week (to override your system) and then 2-3 weeks of 1 VO2 supplemented with Z2.

2 Likes
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Very good answer. :+1:

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Thank you - 6 months listening to podcasts and reading this forum, that is filled with people a lot smarter than me, has benefited :slight_smile:

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Do you have the names of workouts that will provide this Threshold progression as suggested?

I assume they must exist given the huge catalogue of workouts.

Thanks

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I have done them by myslef with workout creator - way easier and you have full control.
But you can check:
Starr King (3x15@100%) - basic FTP assessment
Grey - 2x20@100% - similar to starr King
Galena +1 - up the intensity from 95% to 97-98%
Mount Goode +5 - also bump the intensity.
And all the longer like Lola or Uniocor (I would use them rather as a FTP testing).

But in my opinion Workout Creator is quite handy tool (even if completely fortogtten tool that definitely should be web-based editor) and you can prepare workout for yourself - especially if you want to control the brakes between intervals as these are usually too long with workout in the library. In my opinion 5 min should be the max. The longer is needed if you do something like 2x30 or 2x40.