12% Gain - 18 Weeks of Sweet Spot

I just finished the 18 Weeks of Sweet Spot intermediate plan and thought I’d share my results. I did my best to #FtFP, but did make some common adjustments.

  1. If my Saturday planned ride was an abnormally long ride or event, I’d ride the Wed. tempo ride at zone 2 power pace to go into the weekend a touch more rested.
  2. Most weeks, I’d be pretty gassed by Sunday, so it was very common to ride it only in zone 2 while still hitting my weekly TSS target.
  3. 99% of the time was in Zwift. I have very small children, so riding early AM or late PM to fit in the amount of hours around our family schedule was a must. Most Saturday “group rides” were done solo with sweet spot intervals, others were done in events. Longest event was finishing Zwift’s PRL Full in 5:10.
  4. The only missed workout was due to COVID. At the time, I just assumed I felt a little crummy from a tough weekend, so I took an extra day off (Tuesday), though I made up some of the missed TSS by dropping the easier workout that mid-week. By the time I had a test result, I had already wrapped up the 2nd toughest cycling week I had ever done based on TSS or work done (kJ). I continued on as normal and was exceptionally lucky. It looks like more often than not I exceeded the weekly TSS target over the 18 weeks.

Start
FTP 273W & 78.5kg (3.5 W/kg)

Results
FTP 305W & 76kg (4.0 W/kg)

Background
38 year old rider that hadn’t followed a training plan in 10 years. When lockdowns struck, I started riding Zwift heavy at the end of April 2020. My monthly mileage in May 2020 alone I think bested 8 of the last 10 annual totals. I went into the 18 week plan have completing a month of constant pace group rides in Z2 or Z3 after previously coming off a 12 week Zwift training plan (meh).

Up Next
I’m using the ending test week as an early rest week (I’ll fill in workouts to hit 1/2 TSS), then I’ll start Sweet Spot Part 4, then into Intervals for Road Racing. This years goals are to hit Zwift racing and do some local races (10 years since last race).

Suggestions

  1. Biggest suggestion would be more guidance on how to handle the Saturday ride if you have to fly solo. I mostly rode those rides at 92% or 72% FTP pace until TSS goal was hit.
  2. Maybe add an FTP test part way through the 18 week plan? I may suffer in the coming weeks from jumping workouts based on a 32W FTP gain. I have boosted workouts in recent weeks by about 10W since I started feeling gains, but went into test thinking I’d make only about a 20W gain. A mid point FTP test may have not changed much since I didn’t really start feeling zone improvements until the final 1/3rd anyways. Most the plan I only felt like I was making gains in how long I could ride at Z2 or Sweet spot pace.

Review
Blown away by the gains I’ve made following the plan since they were more than expected even heading into the final test. Thanks FASCAT.

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Hey @whowantscakes - First I just want to say thanks for the great feedback. These kind of comments are what keep us coaches excited and eager to keep pushing out more training plans and content to help athletes just like you.
Also, CONGRATS! That is some incredible progress, especially with your work and family commitments! You are really setting the bar high for yourself :wink:

Re: doing an FTP test in the middle of the plan, there really is no reason to overtest… However if you do Zwift racing or a Hard group ride you can use those to help determine your FTP based off your 60 min normalized power. A good way to know if you need to adjust your FTP is if you do an hour or more and your intensity factor is over 1 :ok_hand:t3:

Hijacking this topic to ask a question…
@Lacey_Rivette , so if i have a ride over an hour, where the IF is above 1, that means that my FTP is prolly miscalculated and i should prolly try and do an FTP test is that it?

Congrats on the gains! :ok_hand:

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Re: doing an FTP test in the middle of the plan, there really is no reason to overtest… However if you do Zwift racing or a Hard group ride you can use those to help determine your FTP based off your 60 min normalized power. A good way to know if you need to adjust your FTP is if you do an hour or more and your intensity factor is over 1 :ok_hand:t3:

Since this was base, I avoided the temptation of signing up for Zwift crit races to stay in line with the workout targets for the plan. I tended to select very long events where I could get 60-80 mins of sweet spot with lots of endurance, too. The greatest indication my FTP had grown was during the final two weeks of this plan. Since I had increased workouts to use an FTP as 10-15W higher, I had a 45 min effort during the Criss Cross, Threshold > Zone 6: 3 x 8 minutes (Diabolical) workout that had an NP of 290. I had slightly tweaked time in zones to line up with a route profile and event finish (sprint) during a Tour of Watopia group event.

So for next year’s base training, and my upcoming Sweet Spot 4 and Intervals for Road Racing, when and how do you recommend mixing virtual races into the training plans?

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That is correct! If you do not have an FTP test planned, you can use a 60 min normalized power from a group ride to determine your new FTP.

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I would recommend doing these for your hard group rides or tuesdays/wednesdays in those plans since those days are typically dedicated to threshold work. Ideally it would be the weekends though, as the structured intervals during the week are important. We give you more flexibility on weekend rides so that you can have fun on the bike (while also gaining fitness :wink:).

@Lacey_Rivette ,
Thx for the info once again.

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Anytime… always happy to help :slight_smile: