NO sweet-spot work in 18 months. Can I gain 30W with it by June?

Training Plans
#1

Rebuilt the engine starting in June 2019 (not much aerobic base). Since then I’ve ridden Polarized…4 - 4.5 hr rides at LT1 (lactate test certified in February 2020) plus only Vo2 at 8 min and 30/15s. Feeling like I left watts and speed on the table over the last 18 months…so I recently (mid December) started putting in Z3 and Z4 (6 x 10) efforts.

Time spent: 650 hrs in 2020…likely 700 - 720 in 2021 if all goes to plan. Can go higher if necessary…to perhaps increase the rate of improvement.

The reason why I’ve spurned SST for so long is my experience with it from 2008 - 2019, which mostly ended in many seasons at a plateau (on 6 - 7 hrs/week). I’m looking to put on 30 - 40W at threshold by August. This might be rather ambitious but considering I’ve done zero SST work since June 2019 I’m hoping that I could at least get 30W over the next 6 - 8 months. Time trials are my ONLY races and interest right now.

Fractional utilization (FuVo2) is probably around 75% right now. I will know more with a 5 minute test at the end of January.

#2

Hi @djcaisa - would be keen to see/hear if you can get those 30 watts with our sweet spot plans.

Questions from me/us would be:
30 watts is what % improvement?
What is your CTL currently, historic highs, projected for 2021 and the timing of your TSB.
What interval training did you do in 2008-2019? (i.e. did you still do intervals with the sweet spot training?)

When I “invented” Sweet Spot in 2005 that was the year I drove my CTL up to 125 before the State Time Trial Championships and peaked for the event achieving power output 4.5% ontop of my already high FTP for a sub 50 minute 36k @ 350watts normalized, 2nd place. In case if you were wondering if sweet spot training was good for time trialists :wink:

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#3

Thanks for the response. On intervals.icu I’m around 91 on ‘Fitness’ at the moment. In July 2020 I peaked at 102. 30W would represent 10 - 12% improvement. I’ve lost just a hair off the top since late October when I stopped doing Vo2 (3 x 7 min). So the glycolytic was switched off for a bit of refreshment. I just started doing 6 x 10 at 90 - 95% in mid December. Right now I want to keep SST at 1.5 to 2 hrs per week but I may up the ante a bit before I bring the Vo2 back in March 1. I would still want to keep Z2 at around 75% of total hours minimum. On my weeks off I can do 7 day runs out to 24 - 28 hrs…24 is the top so far, and is more than I was doing through the race season in 2020. 650 hrs this past year would become around 700 - 725 next year. 1/2 of it indoors.

Sweet-spot left a bad taste in my mouth from the ten year plateau of mostly Z4 and Vo2. I don’t think I did much Z3 either. I just couldn’t go any further with it on 6 -7 hrs/wk. I think it should work now because I now have a “legitimate” base to put it on and a much better understanding of these systems. I didn’t back then…not even close. Indeed, I did only ONE ride over 3 hrs in that span from 2008 - 2019. Everything else was around 75 - 90 minutes per session…occasionally up to 2 hrs. None of it targeted at or below AeT.

I would eventually like to take a stab at the State Championship but that is not for 2021. If all goes as planned the earliest for that challenge would be 2022. My TT avg speed was 42 kph over 10 miles in July/August 2020. That would need to become 46 kph for 25 miles by the summer of 2022. Huge leap. I’m hoping I can reach 44 this year…and that would then be a good launching pad for 2022. I will certainly look over some of the plans you have here. Can’t promise a purchase but I will have a look. Thanks again.