Which build plans to choose?

Hi All,

Just finished my first ‘season’ using trainerroad. Started somewhere in January with LV SSB 1/2, then proceeded to sustained power build and climbing road race, as the Marmotte in the french Alpes was my main goal this summer. I saw a significant increase in FTP and W/kg up to 330 and 4.5 W/kg respectively.

For next year, I want to start training in a few weeks, but still have not decided which plan to follow.
As I live in Belgium, most of my group rides exist of a few punchy climbs (max. 2 minutes) with either some high pace efforts in between or just an easy pace (depending on the group). I would really like to focus further on my short power to go up these climbs even faster and post some good times, as these type of rides are the most recurring (definitely from March-June).

However, I also plan to do another Marmotte series (problably in the Pyrénées) and a week of climbing in the Vosges at the end of summer.

Since I would start in a few weeks, I have time enough to go through a training plan:

Base > Build > Speciality > recovery/base > Build > Specialty

What would you guys recommend I follow? I put my ‘events’ into plan builder (Rolling road race at the end of speciality 1 and then Climbind road race at the end of speciality 2). The plan builder proposed me the following:

SSB 1/2 > General build > Rolling road race spec > rec/SSB for a few week > Sustained power build > Climbind road race

I like this plan, but I am just not sure about the general build plan. As I want to focus more on short power, for the beginning of the year.

Thanks in advance!

1 Like

If you’re going to do low volume again, general build will give you 2 vo2 max and a threshold workout a week, short power will give you 3 vo2 max.

Looking at the arc of your season, at first you want short power but it doesn’t have to be repeatable, but then for La Marmotte you’ll want all the ftp and sustained power you can get.

I think in La Marmotte you’ll benefit more from having those threshold workouts in your legs through build, rather than focusing on vo2 max gains.

At the end of the day, read through the description of each of the plans to get an idea of their aims, and look at the workouts and see which ones look more fun, and pick that one. The beauty of 2 peaks is you can try different things and learn something new!

2 Likes

thanks for the advice ! I will problably try and do the MV plan and try to do some workouts outside. Would you recommend something else choosing the higher volume plan ?

I will for sure take a look at the description of those plans.

If you went Mid Volume, then I think it’s less of a difference between the short power and general build, as you still get 1 day of threshold work from the short power, so you’ll have those systems touched by the time your start training for La Marmotte.

1 Like

Great ! I read the summary of short power build:

Even a short-power rider maintains a heavy reliance on longer, sustained power. Accordingly, a toned-down emphasis on strength endurance will still find its way into this Short Power Build plan but greater attention will fall on improving your ability to operate at high percentages of your VO2max power as well as your ability to throw down big watts for very short durations, repeatedly, and often with minimal recovery time.

I think it summarizes what I was looking for. As you mention it is pretty similar to the general build MV plan. with the exception of the thursday workout being an extra vo2 max, rather than a second threshold workout. I can focus more on this sustained power in the second peak of the season. Thanks for the help!