I guess the title of this topic says it all. Just finished the Climbing Road Race Plan (LV), which I found pretty harsh at times. I’m planning to get through winter (and through a spot of training fatigue) by following the Traditional Base Plan (also LV) in order to prevent my physical condition from declining too much. I’ll pick things up in spring again with SS Base & Build plans.
My main concern : won’t my current FTP plummet due to the lack of V02-max and threshold workouts in the Traditional Base plan?
I don’t know if it will “plummet”, but you can certainly expect it to decline some.
And that is perfectly OK and even desirable. No one can maintain their highest point of fitness year round. Your body needs recovered so that it can then go on and hit higher points next year.
So do TBLV, recharge yourself physically and mentally and get ready for 2023.
An expanded base will enable you to hit a higher ftp next year. It’s the foundation of your fitness and needs to be maintained and improved if you are to see year on year improvements
Do you know the burning sensation in legs during threshold/VO2max intervals? This is what missing base feels like
Basically, to fight that feeling you need mitochondria and capillaries developed during base training. It may or may not increase your FTP, depending on volume, but it is necessary to tolerate high intensity training later during build and specialty phases.
Last year I did a dedicated base season and I found it hurt my overall progress by quite a bit. This year I plan on maintaining my base workload and adding one 30 min intensity session per week. Probably threshold for first block. Then threshold and vo2 for the second.
I did this last year and I am currently doing this now. My peak FTP during summer on LV Rolling Road race was 277w which was an all time high for me even after having COVID. My current FTP has dropped down to 260w but I am not overly concerned as it is still higher than it was at this point last year. My reasoning is that if it was lower at this point last year and I hit my all time high that I could theoretically hit another all time high this year.
Traditional base mid volume are the only TR plans that have improved my FTP any significant amount. There is likely no reason to be to concerned even on a low volume. Add some intensity if you think you need to.
This is the way to look at it, if your power numbers stay above 12 months ago, you’re likely to come out of base ready to push a new summer high. Fitness will naturally rise and fall through the year, no one needs to be at their peak year round, and if you tried it likely wouldn’t be good for long term health.
I did TB MV and after phase 1 I had a slight drop in FTP, however after phase 2 then 3 my FTP was up higher than when I started, build phase got interrupted by sickness but I still ended up higher than when my last season finished, I also think the longer time in zone pushing the pedals has helped me be stronger towards the end of longer road races.
Now starting TB LV 1 due to covid and will expect a drop in FTP but I’m hopeful based on previous results it will bounce back better.
Update after completing traditional base MV all three sets. Had probably 85-90% compliance. Definitely do some of the weekend rides outdoors and went longer. Typically kept the rides at around 70% of FTP. My target was to have NP be within 5 watts of average power and no more than 10 watts.
FTP went up from 258 at the start to 270. And that equals my highest FTP. So overall I’m pretty pleased.
Goal is to get to 290-300 late spring early summer, which would put me right around 4 watts/kg. At 56, I’d be pretty happy with that!
Think I’m going to do SSB LV 1 and 2 and add some Z2 rides but at 55-65%. The 70-75% z2 get pretty tiring when longer than 1 hours.
Just finished week 3 of Trad Base LV II, I had been following a LV plan builder plan through CX season and with only 45 min races my TSS was pretty low so AI FTP suggested a drop from 217 to 214, I refused that and stuck with 217, at the end of Trad Base LV Block I it said my AI FTP was 217 again, will see what I get from Block II. I am not the best example however, as I have added additional Z2 rides through Block II but have gotten through it despite getting the flu on December 29th which, hung around for a while (still don’t feel 100%).
To add on to this thread starting Block III of Trad Base LV which is 4 workouts per week, 1x 1 hour Threshold, 2x 1 hour Sweet Spot and 1x 2.5 Tempo workout.
Could do my AI FTP again to start off this block, 218… lol so 1 watt improvement from my 2022 Sept 27 AI FTP.
So my FTP hasn’t decreased but it certainly hasn’t grown, I don’t doubt its accuracy however, as the first workout of the block was Centennial -4 Threshold level 1.8 (which was productive for me +0.7), so not very high PL but it was hard.
Have some more Endurance goals for this year so after finishing this block III may do a few weeks of Endurance workouts I choose myself to accomplish some goals like doing a >1500kj workout (Maclure), doing a >400 TSS week and doing Tenaya (first workout >3 hours). Would look to get those done over 3 weeks and then do an easier week and start a Plan Builder plan around March 12th to start racing in May and prepare for A races in June and September.
