Peaked or burned

Training Plans
1

Trying to plan out next years training, and looking back on this years. Focus was cyclocross season. This was the run down:
-10 week resistance plan
-ss part 1
-ss part 2
-ss part 3
-summer ss cx plan
-6 weeks till cx

Things started out good, raised my FTP up through to ss part 2. That was when I hit my best FTP. I improved maybe little during ss part 3 but was mostly just breaking even(Plateaued). By summer cx I just felt kinda dragging, and by 6 weeks to till cx I was hoping some recovery with hard efforts would help break out of that, But now I’m just tired, felt loss of fitness and called it a year at this point. One thing I noticed, was my 20min power was good, but always struggled holding the SS workouts. By the end, I had a lower power test which made the ss wkts more manageable, but obviously that’s not what were going for. THis next year, shooting for cx again, would maybe adding a rest week between each plan would help? Or maybe any thoughts? sorry this is a loaded question.

2

Hi!

This really comes down to timing. As Frank says timing is everything. I would remove sweet spot 3 and replace with summer SS cx plan and then onto 6 weeks to cross. And also you do have to add rest weeks between those plans! You can’t go from one into the other without a rest week. It makes a 5 week build as opposed to 3 which is far too much. Let your body rest as that is when you get stronger

So why I say take out SS3 is that you really only want 16 - 18 weeks of base before moving into intervals. Putting too much base removes all the benefits from weight lifting as you are so far from it. Plus you want to make that transition before you get too fatigued from too much training and holding the training load. Once you really plateau your CTL you want to transition to intervals. Not just hold it.

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3

That sounds great, makes sense. Thank you Jake!

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