Finished 16 Week Resistance + Sweet Spot (Intermediate)

Training Plans
1

Just finished this plan and here is my (longwinded) feedback as requested:

  1. This was my first training plan. I got it as a stepping stone towards improving my rce results this year (lol) and into the future. This was really my first step back into focused competitive sport in some time.

  2. What I liked:

  • It was great to have structure all around
  • In the gym:
  • the adaptation phase was super important, and having it written out for me helped me stay on track despite wanting to use heavier weight at times. It payed off as I never had that shocking soreness from lifting too heavy too early
  • overall I enjoyed the gym for the first time. I never really liked lifting weights before but this was a good change of pace
  • I felt that jump squats in the power phase felt best without the Smith Machine. I did a couple beforehand with just the bar to get used to it
  • The on-bike workouts:
  • Good variation all around and manageable progression into tougher workouts
  • I definitely feel that my endurance has improved, though not sure about threshold. I may hold off on the test and just start SST 3 (Advanced) this week. My body feels like it is ready to handle more mileage and that I can hold sweetspot for much longer now
  • Although I missed a few workouts because of school/work/pandemics, I followed them for the most part and enjoyed having the scheduling. I rode as much over the winter as I did last summer!
  1. Improvements
  • The projected TSS values for the SS Group Rides are quite low compared to the TSS I would actually get from a group ride. I don’t think I was over-working, as I followed the instructions. I figured I was better off adding more TSS if it wouldn’t hinder my upcoming workouts.
  • Please mention in the Training Plan description that this is SST 2. I only recently found out in the forum! This will help people choose the correct plan to move to next!!
  1. Final thoughts:
  • I started this plan too late for my season (First Week of December), but luckily(?) the season has been pushed back anyways
  • I will definitely be using this plan again over the winter with a slightly different schedule:
  • I’ll Time the resistance phase to end over New Years/Christmas break
    *I can then start 12 weeks of SS and 6 weeks race prep in January to be ready for the race season
  • I will likely add some cross country skiing and replace a few midwinter Z2 rides. I’m more comfortable with the plan now so I’ll be able to estimate which workouts are replaceable (I would use a coach but it isn’t practical with my student budget)
  • I will be sticking to FasCat Plans for the foreseeable future!

Thanks

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2

Decided to #FtFP and do my FTP test, and a managed a 5% improvement since the start of the resistance phase!!
Thanks again!

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Nice @zvonimirburcul :muscle:!!

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cool review, thanks for the write up.

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I also just finished this plan, so the sweet spot part was sweet spot 2? I assumed it was 1 and was getting ready to figure out where I would go from here, likely being SS 2 then 3.

Likewise, I also thought the adaptation phase was very well great. When I first read that I was only supposed to lift the bar I was shocked. I played football in high school (50 extra lbs ago) and used to squat way more than my body weight so only the bar seemed laughable. But I FTFP’d and stuck with just the bar, by the last set on that first day my legs were already starting to get tight haha!

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