Hello,
I am Tim from Germany and have recently purchased the advanced version of the trainingplan “Intervals of Road Racing”. I am in the last week of my base trainingplan from another coach. This year I want to take cycling serious and see where my limits are and also start racing. The last weeks I did around 700-800 TSS/week and I feel great. So, recovery isn`t a problem. But since everything is postponed, because of the corona virus, there will be no racing in Germany till August/September.
Therefore I wondered if it is the right time for specific road racing intervals or if should focus on raising my FTP and CTL for the next two months and then start the “Intervals for road racing” trainingplan. So should I instead do your Sweetspot trainingplan?
Yes to sweet spot training now since you won’t be racing in August and September. During this time you can work on your base more and also spare yourself mentally from the psychologically taxing interval work.
But six weeks prior to when you know you’ll be racing again do what we call ‘switch from base to race’ and begin your road racing intervals plan.
Good luck with your sweet spotting in the meantime!
I followed your advice and purchased Sweet Spot Part 1. The description of the plan says that it will increase my CTL by 40-60 %, but to the Trainingpeaks PMC it will only increase by 10 %. Will this be enough to build a bigger base or should I include some more ours in Zone 2 (Endurance)?
HI @tim_wilhelm.andreae - I am having a hard time viewing your PMC but six weeks of sweet spot alone is about 1/3 the time it will take to build up a nice base.
I’ll chime in as I see your PMC. It looks like you are already at 100 CTL. So sweet spot 1 is basic base building and you already have a pretty big base with 100 CTL. If you wanted to increase your CTL more you would need advance base building like sweet spot 3 and with a 100 CTL most likely would need the advance plan to get the increased workload. The advance plan is for more of those who don’t have a family and the freedom to ride and recover most of the day. A higher CTL is not always better. It can lead to burn out if you start carrying a workload that is too high.
Typically we would really suggest switching over to an interval plan and working on your anaerobic power and work on getting fast! But these are different times. It also depends on your goals and such. This is where the coaching and coaching subscription come into play. We can help determine the best course of action for you and your goals personally. A lot of our athletes are either in a maintenance mode or going for Strava segements as an alternative to racing.
Sweet spot 3 is a great plan for either one. As you do get a mix of aerobic and base building work along with some higher intensity intervals, but without taxing your system too much.
so I thought about your offer and I got the coaching subscription, because I don’t have the time now to really get into that training plan stuff. I hope you can help me and tell me what to do for the next 4 weeks after Sweet Spot Part 1 Advanced ends.
So as I said, I’m now in the last week of Sweet Spot part 1 and I also did some HIT stuff on fridays to increase the training stress a little more. It’s my first year of real training and because there is no racing in Germany at the moment, I want to work on my FTP and also anaerobic power, especially on the repeatibility of those. My goal is a 5 W/kg FTP by the end of August. There were some weeks in the past, where I couldn’t follow the plan, because life happens. But I am always keen to hit the hours and TSS numbers.
FTP is currently 320 (indoor 310) with 68/69 kg (152 lbs)
max. available hours for training is 16 h per week
and I’m 22 years old, 7-8 hours sleep average, healthy vegan diet, so I feel like my recovery is really good
After Sweet spot 1 ends the natural progression would be to go into Sweet spot 2 advance. And once that is complete I would recommend you skipping 3 and going straight into Sweet spot 4 advance as that will be towards the end of the summer. But it would be valuable to get that higher intensity training of sweet spot 4 in. Since you are young, get plenty of rest and have the time you can continue with our advance plans. Just make sure you stick to the plan as much as possible. Don’t need to add anything.
thanks for your reply, but I don’t really understand what I bought this coaching subsciption for? Because your advice is to buy another plan? I thought you would go into my Trainingpeaks account and I would get a plan for the next 4 weeks or did I get it totally wrong?
