Over the last 4 weeks, I dropped my volume down to 8-10 hours per week which is 3-4 hours shy of what it was supposed to be. My legs just felt chewed up from all of the Sweet Spot I did, which helped my raise my 20 min power from 300w to 328w. Not burnt out or really even sore, they just needed a little break from the Sweet Spot. I was doing casual 4-5 hour rides in high zone 2 without much fuel at all until deep into the ride and felt like I could go forever.
Fast forward 4 weeks, I can barely keep my power in zone 2 for a three hour ride and my heart rate is high by a zone. I would ask if I need rest, but I’ve legitimately rested the last 4 weeks with lower volume and TSS.
Any advice on how I should approach the last 6 weeks of my Sweet Spot plan?
Were you on the advance plan? My suggestion would be to do the intermediate plan which is more in the 8 - 10 hour range. This way you are not over doing it and can spend that extra time off the bike recovering. I would look at how well you are recovering and how much sleep you are getting. These are two big factors in how you perform.
Sweet spot shouldn’t wear you out so much and that is one of the great benefits of sweet spot. So look at how you are recovering and look for ways to recover better. But also if you are doing the advance plan look to maybe do the intermediate level plan.
Elaborate - this could be the root cause: if you don’t eat, you don’t recover. And if you don’t eat consistently over time guess where you body derives energy from? Muscle.
I always take on-bike nutrition, but got to a point where I wasn’t feeling the need to take in calories until after 4 hours into a zone 2 endurance ride outside of the Nuun tablets I use. I always fuel The SS group rides after the second hour.
I always eat well after my rides though, and at least 1g protein per kg of body weight every day. I haven’t experienced weight loss during the plan either.
Yes I was. I completed the advanced 18 week plan and restarted the plan on week 8 to re-align with my few races later in the season.
Would going to the intermediate be detrimental if I was planning on doing an advanced 6 week interval plan? The Advanced plan went well for me, but for the past few weeks it’s like my legs have shut off.
If you are eating and recovering we’d have to get inside your TrainingPeaks to look under the hood at the data, your #FtFP’ing and try to figure out what is going on. Without access to your ride data we can only speculate…
Coach @JakeRytlewski would be happy to help! We’d take a look at your PMC, your field test data, ride data, everything to help answer and help you figure out what is going on.