Training plans rotation

Learning as I go, my progression so far is SSB mid 1, finishing SSB mid 2 soon, then moving to sustained power build. From there, Century mid. I thought about rotating the maintenance 1 and 2 with Century mid but they’re lower TSS, so I was rethinking just rotating sustained power build and Century mid, doing weekend rides when the weather gets better. Just getting thoughts or opinions of rotating those two.

I’m not quite sure what you mean by rotating. Are you suggesting you’ll so SSB 1 → SSB 2 → Sustained Build → Century → Sustained Build —> Century → Sustained Build → Century → …

If you are, I’d say that’s not recommended. If you were peaking for a couple of events in the same season, then you’d be looking at a rebuild. But if you don’t have events in mind and you’re just looking to build a strong diesel engine, then alternating Base and Build (rather than Build and Speciality) would be the go. So, SSB 1 → SSB 2 → Sustained Build → SSB 1 → SSB 2 → Sustained Build → …

Unless I’m misreading your question.

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No, i think you got it right. I went century just so i can do centurys in the summer but this is exercise, not racing for me. But i do want to get used to long rides which are my weakness. So you’d suggest just keep doing ss1,ss2, build, rinse, repeat, not doing century unless an event is coming.

I think you could go either way:

  1. Just follow the plan design SSB 1 → SSB 2 → Sustained Build → Century → Repeat
  2. Repeat Base / Build: SSB 1 → SSB 2 → Sustained Build → Repeat

Speciality phase is really about event preparation. Fine tuning the capabilities that will give the best performance for a given event. The sustained power events (TT, Century) are a little different since its about maximizing how much of your FTP you can sustain for a long duration. So a lot depends on what your goals are. If you’re looking to ride fast Centuries, you’d have to look at what is going to give you the biggest bang for buck, is it riding a higher % of your FTP, or raising your FTP? Both will make you faster, but depending on your current condition, one may provide lower hanging fruit than the other.

What are your long rides? Are they solo? Do you have a cycling vacation coming up with friends and you don’t want to hold everyone up? Are you targeting a fondo and you want to arrive with the bulk of the pack? Your goals will determine your strategy.

In most cases, increases in FTP is a tide that lifts all boats. So a Base → Build repeat cycle is going to produce that for you. If your current FTP is 250 say, and you think you need to ride 4 hours at 200 watts. For you, 80% of FTP for 4 hours would be pretty difficult. If you could increase your FTP to 285, the same 200 watts for 4 hours is now 70% of FTP and will feel a lot more comfortable.

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This gets asked a lot. I’m not sure why, but people seem to want to avoid doing base more than once. Not a criticism, just sharing that it’s a normal question that I’ve heard many times.

Another odd one…many people want to just guess their new ftp instead of testing. I don’t get that either. If I’m going to bust my butt for 8 weeks, I’m willing to spend the hour to do the test that sets the zones for all that work!

Agreed, but in this case I understand the thought process. If I want to do well in Century rides, wouldn’t I want to do to the plan called “Century” as often as I could? In reality, it doesn’t work this way. Possibly just doing Base phase over and over a few times may actually yield the best results. It’s hard to know without more information though.

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Ive been out of the game for some time. My goal is to be as comfortable on the bike as long as possible, never over 78miles yet but would like to push past that. I like the ssb1 > ssb2 > build > century > repeat

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I think that will be best. That’s how the plans are designed. Good luck!

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You could always use the extend cooldown feature if it is time on the bike you want, without stepping up workout intensity/ TSS too much.

I do this quite often, and manually bump the cooldown intensity, rather than going into a separate workout to spend more time on the turbo.

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