Last year I went through the full Sweet Spot Base Mid I & II. then I went through the Climbing Road Race. Both base and build phases I was able to follow almost perfectly. When I then went on to the specialization phase I found that I was starting to hit a wall and found it hard to fulfill the prescribed plans and ended up taking some additional recovery time.
This was my first time following a strict structured program.
This year I am wondering about modifying the program to add additional recovery time throughout. The two different modifications that I have been considering are:
Add an additional recovery day into each “week” transforming them from a 7 day routine to an 8 day routine.
Add an additional recovery day into the 7 day week and drop one of the workouts (Wednesday)
I’m over 50 and am wondering if it’s my age that is requiring the additional recovery or if it was just my first time following such an extended plan and I should try following the plan as-is for a second year to see how it works out.
Not sure if you have time for this - but instead of the above I would consider changing how often you have an entire rest week.
In Sweet Spot Base you typically do 5 weeks on, 1 week off. In build and specialization you typically do 3 weeks on, 1 week off.
Instead of 5, 1, 5, 1 for base and then 3, 1, 3, 1 for the others you can do something like 3, 1, 3, 1, 4, 1 for base and 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1 for the others. This gives your body more consistent time to adapt to the training and much more regular rest rest while still getting the same training load in a given week
When I was on shifts I used to base my training weeks on 8 days with 3 on 1 off. And although I wasnt following any of the plans I would do day 1 High intensity, Day 2 Threshold or Sweetspot, Day 3 Endurance, Day 4 Rest. Repeat.
Worked for me.
It’s really going to be a try and see what works for you approach. Dropping the Wed. ride (or lowering its intensity) is a pretty good option as it should not have much impact on the overall plan. I have also found that if I do most of the rides in the morning but move the Thursday ride to the evening that helped me with recovery. I have always liked the idea of an 8 or 9 day “week” but that is tough to fit into my schedule and its a pain to try and work that on calendars built for 7 days. I have done what @trpnhntr suggests where I did 2 on/1 off instead of 3 on/1 off, but that didn’t work for me as well as I had hoped. Another option might be doing mid-vol SSB but dropping down to low-vol build (maybe add in an extra ride a week).
I am 51, in the last few years I have found that I have to pay more attention to recovery as my body is much slower to adapt. A fellow cyclist, who is in his late 50’s, told me one of the keys is to take one day and do a 30-60 minute ride at no higher than 50% of FTP. I try and do this on Monday after a hard weekend. Then I always take another day off completely and maybe just take a short walk. I have also become an addict to my recovery roller and stretching.
I’ve had good success with skipping Wednesday’s. The lost TSS is very low, and my body appreciates the extra day of rest. Eat well, stretch, and get some extra sleep.
Another thing that helps is doing Saturday and Sunday early in the morning and then doing Tuesday in the evening. That way you have off from Sunday at 9 or 10 am until Tuesday at 5 or 6 pm.
Thanks Supercyril, that’s a nice schedule but it would actually increase my overall load giving me only 2 rest days in 8 rather than 2 rest days in seven. I might not survive very long.
The Sat/Sun in the morning and Tues in the evening has been my routine. I was thinking about maybe dropping the Wednesday workout and moving Thursday to Wednesday giving my Thursday and Friday off in a row. Maybe get better recovery over two straight days rather than two single days. (Wed and Fri).
I am a 64 year old recreational rider starting my second year with TrainerRoad. During my first year I completed low volume SSB 1&2 and low volume Sustained Build then the weather was nice in Michigan so I started riding outside. While doing TR I always seemed to fade during the 3rd workout of the week. This year I used the calendar to lay out SSB with a 9 day rolling “week” giving me 2 days of recovery between each session. Since I am retired with a flexible schedule this is working pretty well. Now I am wondering if the Coach Chad approved schedule of using the 7 day week and putting in a recovery week every 4th week would provide better results. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
