One week in to Newborn Sustained Power Build Low Volume (NSPBLV) and so far, so good. 100% compliance with additional zone 2 time after the ramp test, Baxter -1 on Tuesday and Round Bald -2 today. So kind of SusPB midvolumeish…
Ramp test – new all time high FTP of 299 
Vo2 work is going suck tomorrow . . . but, whatever. Progress is fun.
This is +10 watts over my last ramp test – and I’m here to tell everyone:
– I have to bail out of 120% Vo2 work regularly – 115% is strangely doable.
– I don’t even attempt 110% over-under work - I only will go to 105% for these.
– I minus down some workouts to fit my schedule and manage my TSS.
– I’ve been training 4 days on, 3 days off due to work travel.
This is just experience and me learning what works for my 44 year old body, and what I can take. And I’ve learned all this after just 6 months on TR.
Finding what works for you is WAY more important than following a plan to the letter. I’ve started to think of the plans a 85% correct guides…and the rest of it is me learning and adjusting. Everyone is a bit different.
Back on the ladder tomorrow. Good luck to all!
Big day for me this morning with over 4 hours of activity. Started my planned 2.25 hour run with some easy running then into repeated 10’ Tempo/2’ Recovery intervals over the duration of the Zwift Watopia Run Festival Half Marathon plus some cool down after. Finished the actual HM in 1:31:54. After a short recovery I hopped on Zwift again for the Canada National Championship which I just ended up riding steady at around 150BPM and 250W with my legs being pretty toasted–1:50 for the ride with w/u and c/d and 1:31:06 finishing time (only 48" difference between the races 
).
Posted this in my zwift nationals topic, but did the US event today. 83mins with IF of 0.95, subthreshold because after sweet spot base I have nothing else to give power wise lol
Sustained Power Build starts Tuesday!
Finished Palisade (the final 90-minute workout before taper week in SSB LV1). Over-under intervals 1 and 4 were done at 95% intensity. Hard to tell which hurt more in the end - my legs or my butt.
6 hours of Bandeira. I’m fried.
Just finished Round Bald. Did this one lower cadence than normal. First interval I did part of with a low cadence, decided it felt fine, and did the other two staying low cadence the whole way through.
Ride was easier than I thought it would be. Fatigue was just starting to creep in on the last interval, but finished up pretty strong overall.
today. Run tomorrow.
Taylor -2. Literally no idea what to make of this.
It was my first VO2max workout so was expecting the work to get hard during the sets. Except it never really did. During the first 2 sets HR never went much over 160bpm even when going above target power (my max during the ramp test a week ago was 193). Breathing was never laboured. Certainly was not anywhere near my VO2max.
Maybe it will be hard during the final set? Not really. Ramped up the power to 105% half way through - no, still ok. The final 30 sec work interval I averaged 406 vs original target of 321. Only then did it start to feel hard.
Does this indicate that my FTP is a very low %age of my VO2max? What to do about that? Increase difficulty of next week’s VO2max workout I guess. Anything else?
Try to get your cadence up to 100rpm or higher and keep it there even during the rest intervals. Actually, I find it both natural and easier to just stay at 100rpm during the rest interval. You can also increase the power a few %. Both of the aforementioned should help to raise your HR. You can also pick a harder workout from the Taylor series.
Personally, with microburst or 30/30s I have to do them at much higher wattage and/ with longer sets (15-20min) to get my HR up. If i am doing 3min or 5min, the HR comes up much easier.
Three ways I’d look at this myself
- FTP is too low, time for a ramp evaluation.
- Maybe you are good at VO2max workouts and need to increase ftp for these types of workouts
- Workout isn’t designed to put you at your limit.
Personally I like it when I hit a workout and haven’t been pushed to the limit. There are plenty of workouts that do that but when you get one that doesn’t I accept the rest knowing that something harder could be around the corner.
If I was to continually get easy workouts then I would reevaluated with a ramp test.
Thanks for taking the time to suggest these.
Maybe, but I don’t think so. I did a ramp last week, which gave me a 5W bump. At the time it felt about right, as I had done Palisade about a week previous and definitely felt like the overs were over and the unders were under. I also saw my max cycling HR ever (193 - previous was 186) during this ramp.
Yes, this seems quite likely although as I said, I’ve only got this one single VO2 workout to go on. Next week, Bluebell, is 1 min on, 1 min off, but I’ll adjust the intensity upwards from the get-go just to see if I can at least elicit VO2max at some point during the workout.
Quite likely - it’s supposed to be an introduction to VO2 work anyway. But having said that, if it doesn’t actually get me up to VO2max, it’s more “here’s the effort level you’ll eventually work out for 3-4 mins in order to reach VO2max” whereas I was expecting “here’s a workout that’s still going to get you to VO2max eventually, but you get lost of microrest on the way to make it more manageable”
In any case, I was expecting a hard workout this morning but didn’t get one 
- I’m sure there’s plenty of work around the corner to beat me up.
Thanks - with only 30 sec rest intervals I was focusing on dropping the resistance on my dumb trainer etc and getting ready to increase it again. I could have changed gears also, to keep cadence elevated, but didn’t think of that. Something to try next week for sure.
I felt the same way when I did Taylor -2 a little while back. IMO, it’s just a surprisingly easy workout. I think the intention is for it to be an introduction to working at 120%, without punching you in the face like normal VO2max work does.
IMO, either the rest needs to be shorter, or the power higher. As it is, in order to get anywhere near VO2max, I had to keep increasing power until it actually got hard. For reference, I normally struggle with VO2max work. So when this was easy, it really seemed like something was off.
As I mentioned previously this was my first introduction to so-called “VO2max” workouts - to be honest seems like a bit of a missed opportunity.
With more experience I would have ramped up sooner, rather than waiting for something to happen which never did 
Oh well, you live and learn.
Did a 90 minute run yesterday. Conversation pace with a buddy of mine for the first half. The rest with Max the wonder dog.
Then the beginning of Week 3’s intervals from short power build. This one is now in the bag. had some fatigue in the legs, but was able to hit most of the power targets. Any misses from the power targets were from mental lapses, as these interval designs really keep you on your toes.
