15 minute warmup, then Ramp Test, then Pettit (ate a little more breakfast around the 7 minute mark). Rest day tomorrow before starting the 2nd half of SPB.
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Gotta admit — my favorite part is the So Cal surf tunes going when it’s like minus something degrees outside! Love it. Yup - agree — Master of Puppets for efforts— it is a super one.
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Where do they get these plans from? Do they think I’m a 20 year old College athlete with amazing powers of recovery??? Far from it… I upped my ftp by 5% at the start of SSB II MV and they hit me with Kaweah on Saturday and this on Sunday on the first weekend!!!. Except I didnt do it on Sunday, I did it on Monday evening after a long day at work. This was HARD. The last set was a killer, legs starting to cramp, gasping for air… the usual stuff. Feels good to have gotten through it. Helped slightly by the fact that my turbo started messing me around on the last set so I had to stop for a couple of mins to fix it.
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Well done - make sure you’re getting the nutrition and recovery to benefit from all that hard work 
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Slight perversion of thread rules as this workout was from Saturday but I only just learned that this thread exists so I’m going to slip it in here!
Unicorn +1 was given by one of the podcast presenters recently (@Nate_Pearson possibly?) as their answer to the question “which TR workout would you choose to inflict daily on your worst enemy”. I hadn’t heard of it so looked it up and decided to give it a shot. I was feeling pleased having just made it through SSB2MV which crushed me when I attempted it last season but nonetheless was feeling fairly wrecked by the end of the fifth week and definitely ready to rest. In truth I think I should have cut the block short after the fourth week but Captain Hindsight and all that…
Anyway, coming to the end of that rest week and with a rare chance to benchmark with fresh legs I gave Unicorn +1 a shot. I knew everything would set up just right to make it through - 2 x sugary bidons, 2x18" fans, a bowl of ice water to dip hands into, motivational playlist loaded, and Safa Brian on youtube in front for gorgeous GoPro SoCal descending distraction.
Settled into the effort and after 35 minutes it was feeling manageable so I turned it up +2%. From there the bamboo torture steadily intensified until at 8 minutes to go thing became truly dreadful. The light was visible at the end of the tunnel at that point though and I was able to turn it up by increments to +5% at 1’30" to go. The last 15 seconds were true leg-shuddering exhaustion, akin to the end of an FTP test where you feel you have lost control of your legs, are mashing the pedals like marionette and know that - no matter what opinions you have on the matter - the power is about to cut out.
Ramp test tomorrow with the start of sustained power build. I think I’m due a bump!
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The Kaweah/Geiger double hitter is a notorious shock. Don’t worry - you are by no means the only one to struggle with this. SSB2 actually gets easier from thereout… until you get to Mary Austin at the end of week 4. If after Mary you feel wrecked and unable to cope with another week I would urge you to skip week 5. The week 5 Tues, Thurs and Sat are all incredibly hard and frankly just cruel coming at the end of such a long block! I would love to see someone who actually manages to execute them all and hit the numbers.
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Why? From the description you have done FTP test.
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Now that’s a trick I haven’t used before , I’ll save it for the tough ones👍.
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This is the kind of crap I find in the fridge after going away for a week. I nearly threw it back up during the first interval of Mary.
Anyway, I had a great night’s sleep and woke up feeling super fresh. It turns out it was a very short lived feeling and I’m still fatigued from last weeks adventures. Abort Mary and call in Carter to keep the legs turning. (Pettit was on the calendar).
And off to work we go.
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Way too much intensity in that HV thread. No rest day for you!
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Leconte… This one was tough. Heart rate didn’t spike as much as I thought, but it felt heavy on the legs even turning in the 85-95 rpm range. Did standing drills twice, but it just takes too much out of my legs. I did backpedal the very last break before the final interval.
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Fair question. Two reasons:
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To compare to my ramp test before the last block to measure progress. Th only similar hour of power I have to compare to Unicorn to was 18 months ago.
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Although I believe that the ramp test overestimates FTP I would say it does so by only about 3% and to my mind the TR workouts have that calibrated in. I was able to get through SSB with good consistency having been calibrated by ramp tests and if I switch the using this hour power then the FTP used to calibrate my work outs will actually go down slightly (347w for the hour vs. 352w from last ramp test) while I’m sure my fitness has improved. So if I use this for FTP then I know that at least some of the upcoming workouts will become too easy
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Good morning all … Another sweet spot workout this morning, all going fine, feeling god and in control. Strangely my HR did not pair …
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3min Vo2max intervals before breakfast 
Last week of SSB MV is tough. Looking foward to rest week next week.
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Washington +4 today. This is my first time doing this kind of workout. I hope that this will challenge my vo2max but it didn’t. It felt more like a threshold session. I think the intensity wasn’t high enough or the rest time should be 2 minute instead of 3.
Just for a comparison, how high the heart rate should be when doing a vo2max session? My highest HR for this was about 91%HRmax and averaging 85%HRmax on the interval.
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Ramp Test!
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I barely scrapped through the Alex Dowsett 2x20 over-under session. I agree, that was an absolutely disgusting session. I was broken by the final under.
Why I made it 3x20 in workout creator, I have no idea! That was a nice re-introduction after 8 easy days.
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