Have I missed something or is there no sweet spot in your Sweet Spot Base? 
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Andrew Coggan: “sweet spot is a concept, not a zone”
If one wants to get all zony, and look at that original figure that Coggan drew, anything from ~70% to 94% FTP is “sweet spot” – it depends on how much volume is on the table.
I think of tempo as “sweet spot” – 2hrs @ 80% NP is a “tempo day” in my training, and I’d argue that falls within the SS concept – maximizing TSS within the block, without getting too deep in the fatigue hole.
And to really futz with things, my 80%NP days end up with HR in Seiler’s zone 1, so I guess my “SSB” is also “Polarized” (insert exploding head here).
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I don’t hit SSB 2 until Feb 8th
I just finished week 4 of SSBMVI. I’ll start MVII on Feb. 9th.
I’m in my mid-50s and this is my 6th year of SSB plans. I have faith in this plan because at the end of 12 weeks my fitness returns and I’m ready for the outdoor season.
I’m not very good about doing structured training though once the weather gets nice.
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I am.
COVID shut down gulf coast 70.3 last may, I bagged my training, then hurt my knee on a run, then got bogged down when work got insane this year (mortgage).
I deferred until GC70.3 2021 so I am training again. FTP down 30% and w/kg down 35%. Who-hoo!! Starting wk 5 SSBLV and then I’ll do plan builder.
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SSBMV2 ramp test for me today. It made more sense to start base again leading into the holiday season (instead of getting destroyed by SusPB).
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I’m new to TR and don’t understand why so many workouts are repeated in SSB. Surely it would make sense to mix it up with different workouts, even if they were pretty much the same just so you felt like you were doing something different.
Finished SSBHV1 last week . Ramp test tomorrow to start SSBHV2.
The high volume plans are indeed a bit monotonous. Guess there are only so many ways to combine intervals at a very narrow percentage range.
I tried adding VO2Max work to it once but ultimately decided against it and now only add Zone 1 and Zone 2 work and some easy running. It helps to break up the monotony.
An answer and a hot take:
Answer: I just finished SSB2 HV, moving on to sustained build
Hot take: there seems to be a subset of folks who feel the plans as designed aren’t good enough, either that the intervals are too short or not enough variation. To echo above, there are only so many ways to do intervals, workouts are repeated, but it’s the order or the workouts (progressively building each week as far as interval length and TSS over the course of the weeks). That’s the bigger picture. As far as the building up to like 2hr intervals, I’ll repeat what I’ve said several times around here: I did nothing but stock plans completely by the book all year until late October and did some zwift racing and averaging 93% for an hour. There seems to be a perception that you need to train at 1x60, 1x90 etc to be able to do that and I don’t believe it to be true. Not saying it isn’t helpful to do training like that, but I think it’s become somewhat fashionable in certain corners of the forum to say what TR has designed isn’t good enough. Hot take over!
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Finishing SSBLV2 this week, then doing MV with one less workout per week (removing the easy one), for a medium-low volume version.
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About to start LV base 2, modified to be a plus verion:
- Mon, Wed, Fri as per plan
- Tues 60-75 min Z2 endurance ride fasted
- Sat either another 60-75 fasted, a smash fest on RGT or outside if it’s nice enough
Gives me 4 days in the week on plan and then whatever I feel like at the weekend, hopefully in a few months group riding will be back.
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Started my season October 6th. Went through SSB 1 once and SSB2 twice. On my fifth week of the second SSB2 and just completed Mary Austin -1 and Tallac +3. Been good so far!
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Two competing factions. The sweet spot isn’t polarized vs. the sweet spot progression factions.
And, I say this in jest 
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Starting a (plan builder) shortened 4 week SSB2 tomorrow, albeit with a few modifications…
- Going to do the Kolie Moore Baseline Test tomorrow, ramp test on Thursday.
- I’ll be continuing to swap out a workout for some Zwift racing. I’ve tried the 3 key workouts plus race, and it was just too much for me.
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Agree. My first TR plan was SSB-1 High Volume and I scheduled a 2.5 hour HC climb on Saturday of week 5. A little taper that week and went out and did a nice hard upper tempo / lower sweet spot effort on that climb. Personally I think doing 5 days a week of sweet spot is too much, but otherwise to your point I agree you don’t need to routinely be doing long 1x60 or 1x90 efforts.
Same for me
totally, if anything I think maybe there’s a mental component to routinely doing long efforts. Even though I easily handle 5 days a week of sweet spot with the HV plans, when I was doing my block of zwift racing I definitely wasn’t super motivated to do a race everyday (I did every other day). So I’ll admit my own perception of the sweet spot progression stuff is shaped by my own unwillingness to flog myself doing zwift races everyday lol I’m good with time in zone for what I’m doing!
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Mental for sure. For me the 5 days a week of sweet spot was straight-forward but not easy. I’m doing far less work now and can still go out and do a 1x60 SS on a Saturday without it feeling like a max effort or impacting the next couple of workouts.
For me, this week is week 3 of SSBLV2. I took last week as an “off week” due to some fatigue and injury concerns, but am on track to resume tomorrow.
I did SSBMV1 in Oct->Dec (skipped one of the weekend longer sessions each week to make the volume more manageable).
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You would be surprised how many folks are actually able to work at 100% for 60 to 70 minutes.
93% for an hour on the other hand is to be expected. Especially as the stock plans involve quite a few 3x20 and 3x30 minute intervals.
That’s your perception. Though it doesn’t necessarily reflect the actual situation. Most people in the sweet-spot progression thread are aiming at pushing out their TTE. That requires progressively longer intervals and also more of them. At some point 3x30 just won’t cut it anymore.
Taking me as an example, doing 3x12, 4x15, 5x10, 5x12, 5x15 between 88-94% doesn’t lead me anywhere. It’s too little time in zone and too little overall stress due to the too frequent recoveries. Hell, 3x15, 4x10, and 2x20 at 100% are standard threshold intervals.
That’s also only your perception. Most people in the sweet-spot progression thread are seasoned athletes with quite a fair share of structured training under their belt. Hence more stress and different stress is required. After all, it’s about progressive overload. Cycling through the same 3 plans year in year out won’t provide that. At least not indefinitely.
Another point I would like to make is that TR plans are designed to keep people entertained and motivated. They are designed to be accomplishable. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the best way to train. I mean just take long endurance rides as an example. 2x5-6 hours of long and slow riding per week does wonders for your base. Yet it’s not part of the plans because hardly anybody would like to do that.