Yeah… I"ve shunned some of that low cadence work in the past, so I’m going to actually try it out and see how it effects my lactate curve. I’ll be doing 1 every 6-8 weeks or so depending on how I split up the microcycles (Planning more 3+1).
Base phase!!! Woohoo!!! First time through the TR plans too 
After spending a good few weeks of easy riding and zone 2/3 turbo days (especially with the crap weather we’ve had recently in the UK) I’ll be starting SSBLV1 tomorrow with the ramp test. Including a long weekend ride and gym work in there, plus maybe a morning fasted zone 2 mid week somewhere too depending how work is. Looking forward to it all.
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Could you describe your protocol for using the lactate meter to generate your profile, and how you came up with that protocol?
Lactate meters don’t seem that expensive compared to power meters and smart trainers, but from what I’ve gathered there many different protocols used for measuring lactate and that there can be a big difference between MLSS between these protocols.
It was based off of a podcast interview with alan couzens by @Mikael_Eriksson. The show notes give a great summary of the objective and some example profiles. I created a workout using the workout creator with 5 min steps consisting of 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 75, 80, 85, 95, 100, 110, and 120% of set ftp. Now that I’ve done a full profile i can probably skip one or two of them below AeT, but finding linear sections of the curve is easier with more points.
here’s the episode:
You can find the workout using the keyword lactate profile… i do need to fix the text though. I changed some of the rest intervals and it messed up the timing of the text instructions.
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I’m mainly racing cyclocross, but I also want to ride with my club mates in the summer. So every year I have the same problem of structuring my base period. My season finishes in January, but if I then schedule a three months base period, plus a two month build, then we’re well into summer and everybody who is racing on the road is already up to speed.
So next year I think I want to see how a shorter base-build-base-build cycle works. From January, I think I’ll do about 6-8 weeks of SSB indoors, followed by 4-6 weeks of sustained power build (I’d really like to lift my ftp a bit, and sustained seems to be the best fit for that). That should take me to April, when outside riding becomes a lot more pleasant. I’ll then aim to do another ‘outside base’, which will be mainly zone 2 riding, but a lot of it (aiming to get up to 15 hours - I have a crazy long commute thats good for that). Then in May I should be able to do an ‘outside build’ with a lot of hills, but also more fast group rides and maybe a couple of races (xc or road).
Anyone think that is a bad plan, and I’d be better off sticking to longer periods of base and build?
Maybe you could try a reverse periodisation. Your cyclocross season will act as your build and then you do base.
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I could maybe call it ‘reverse periodisation’, as I’m obviously going from cross racing to base. But in reality it’s hard to train much during race season. I suppose I will bring in a lot of vo2 and anaerobic work.
After months of very little riding (after injury/no time) I started my “base” this month. I am not trainerroad user, but i really like this forum and all the topics. No trolls, good atmosphere. So i decided to give my plan to this topic, maybe i will get more motivated :). My plan is very simple, maybe someone would call it polarized, but i don’t remember exactly what Seiler’s zones are.
- riding at z2 (56-75% of 60min power) as much as possible
- atleast one vo2max workout a week (30s/15s 40s/20s)
- low(?) Z3/Tempo/long intervals (not too hard) + some low cadence intervals
- minimum 15h/week
I will be doing this till february; gradually increasing volume. I just don’t know how fast i regain fitness, so i might change plan in january…
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Went out for a cold spin this morning doing laps in London’s poor man velo/crit circuit (Regents Park).
Having completed 5 weeks of SSB1 (Due to commutes I’m not doing anything else this week, just this and rest my legs). I have to say damn, the amount of fitness I’ve gained is so measurable. I remember I used to DIE holding onto someones wheel at 36KMH (22.5MPH for you yanks). Now it seems I can keep that up indefinitely. Actually I did a solo lap at this speed which shocked me.
I’m now gassing for SSB2 to start. One thing I have noticed though is I can’t seem to dig deep yet for repeated sprint efforts that fall back to threshold. But time will come.
TLDR; Base period is great… 6 weeks and I feel so much fitter already.
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Sounds like something Steve Neal would prescribe. 
Potential correction?
I suspect you mean prescribe, as in… Steve would suggest/encourage it.
Proscribe is actually the exact opposite of prescribe… proscribe would mean to prohibit/forbid.
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Duly corrected. I’d like to blame spell check but it was all my own error.
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LOL, no problem. It’s one of those silly grammar things and I think most people got what you meant regardless. 
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I’m with you. I’m LSD all the way this winter.
Jumping on this bandwagon, is there any/much merit to doing low cadence sweet spot (my personal finding is 60rpm is about 8-10bpm lower than 80rpm followed by some regular zone2 work as a substitute for longer z2 rides?
My personal circumstances dictate (well, my wife dictates) that over an hour on the trainer is hard to fit in, but i can tagteam my commute to work a couple of days a week. Could it be a case of, in terms of time spent, combining the two is greater than the sum of its parts?
The reasoning is actually a little different than Carytb states. It’s to try and convert fast twitch fibers over to fast-oxidative fibers. The fast twitch fibers are activated more on the low cadence work, at an intensity level that is predominantly aerobic. There’s definitely a limit to what I can handle though, like 1 or 2 sets from the workout can I do at less than about 80, otherwise I still stick to 80-85 for the sweet spot workouts as that is usually climbing intensity anyways.
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What’s up people? Updates? Everything went as planned?
Personally im more fit, but i had very rough start in november. Had cold which led to flu… Over 2 weeks of no training, because i wanted to make sure im healthy.
The feeling and watts are still better than in november, so i can be happy with my plan so far…
It never goes as planned 
I hope you are healthy already and improving! I lost 3-4 days of long rides on my vacation after a crash. Also no gym during the vacation and the return was tough - painful body and some serious DOMS after the first session back home. It reminded me I should not abandon strength training for more than a week. As for cycling, I did the most of the SSB1 MV squeezed into 4 weeks and after short Christmas break I’ve decided to try more of the tempo intensity for a while. Longer workouts (either tempo or endurance) but less intensity. Plan is to introduce VO2Max later on. Oh and I have to work on my squat! It is only 2/3 of my deadlift.
it’s all about the base. Yes, changes. I give massive zone 2 another try, “just” have to add a little more to volume. It’s all about progression.
Last week “aerobic overload” block. All of them indoors. Was actually pretty bearable but now I’m through with Netflix.
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not nearly as much volume as Sryke, but I’ve been coming along a little better than originally planned (maybe – get back to me in four months).
Lydiard would say 100 miles a week for 16 weeks, for his elites. I’m on the eighth 300 mile week in a row right now. CTL has been going up gently, 2pts/week. Four more of these and then an easy week, then some speed work.
I’ve been going by PE and HR, and about 40% of the work has been zone 3 – about an hour of 90% each week, the rest down in the 76-78% range, where my HR is 123-125 (by Friel’s rule of thumb, my AeT is 123).
Power at AeT has nudged up from 265 to 270. Not much, but a 5-10w gain in the aerobic “floor,” and an improved ability to do that work day in and day out, will hopefully put me in a good position to start raising the ceiling in Feb-March.
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