Hi
I’ve already done 5 weeks of sweetspot training not using TrainerRoad. Mostly three sessions a week doing 3x10min at sweetspot. If I was to start the TrainerRoad sweetspot plan now, where should I begin?? Volume II??
Thanks
Unless you are locked in to a tight time for an A event, I would suggest this progression:
Sweet Spot Base I, Low Volume (since you are used to 3 days per week)
Sweet Spot Base II, Low Volume (since you are used to 3 days per week)
Then consider which Base and Specialty that you want depending on your event goals.
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How much time to your target event? If you’ve got time, FTP test and start on SSB I.
Beginning of April for first tt. I thought if I’d already done some sweetspot I could maybe miss volume I and just start at II??
Maybe you can skip it.
Have you compared the actual training plan to what you did?
How do the sessions, TSS, IF and such compare?
If they are close, then move to SSB II. If not, might be worth a restart.
30 min of work at sweet spot doesn’t match the volume in SSB1 LV. SSB1 LV starts you at 3x12, and builds you to over unders and up to 5x10 or 3x15s in sweet spot. Jumping into SSB2 LV off your current volume might be doable, but it’d probably be a rude awakening. Seems like you have plenty of time to get to your first April TTS doing SSB1 > SSB2 > Sustained Power Build and be about halfway or more through SPB at your first race.
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Probably the best way to judge where to start is to judge where you want to get. You’ve got 14 full weeks until the beginning of April. So where to start has to consider, to some extent, how much time is available.
You’ve also done 5 weeks of work, it sounds like without recovery, so probably what you do immediately next has to be ‘recovery.’
You also said your first TT is at the beginning of April - so is it an ongoing thing? Do you want to peak in April or do you want to see some improvement in your performance over a season of TTs? When is what you would judge to be your most important TT?
Without full answers to these questions, I don’t know what to suggest, but you would probably be well served by, first, taking a recovery week (look at the last week of Sweet Spot Base I Low Volume). Then, if you want your season to last through mid-July, start the Sweet spot Base I Low Volume plan, then do SSB LV II, then Sustained Power Build Low Volume, then 40km TT Specialty Low Volume. If you have a shorter season in mind, you might skip Sweet Spot I. If you have a longer season in mind, consider padding the early weeks with one or more 4-week blocks of Traditional Base.
Any which way you slice it, you probably can’t make April be your best performance of the year, unless you burn out and rapidly decline in mid-April. But you have some options to start strong in April and then get faster over the next few months…
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Thanks all for the advice.
This’ll be the first occasion I will have followed some sort of plan, especially an indoor one. It’ll be interesting to see how I get on. One week I may have only 3hrs to train and the next I might have more.
My main TT is in June so I’d want to peak of for then. Am I right in saying then, that the general consensus would be to start from SSB Volume I? I have just had a weeks recovery.
Also, what happens if I miss a workout prescribed for a particular day? Does it roll over to the following day?
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22 weeks or so until June. If you have had a decent rest week I’d just start from SSB LV I, then SSB LV II.
If you then went for Sustained Power Build you would have a few weeks to get into a TT speciality plan before inserting a taper.
Try putting these plans into your calendar and having a play around to see what fits the best with your A event.
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If you miss a workout on it’s set day, it will be "skIpped’. But all you need to do is drag it to a new day and you can do it then.
Yes, if you are new to all this, Start with the SSB 1 and move through the plans. You are far better off with .ore base than anything else.
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Cheers.
I’ve been cycling for years and never been one for plans as such. I’m going to give this TrainerRoad a good go and see what happens.
I’ll be complementing it with Road rides.
Have you all shown good improvements in ftp etc?
I presume you modify some sessions if you haven’t the time to do say a 90min session???
You can substitute rides that are in the plan and get shorter ones which normally have a ‘-1/2/3/4’ after the workout name. E.g. Kaweah -2 is a 1 hour version of Kaweah
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Just seen this. I reckon it explains my predicament…
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