I’m doing the 18 weeks of sweet spot plan and was about to transition into the hill climb plan for HC race season in Japan. As with many countries, however, events aren’t happening.
As such, I think continuing to build my base is probably the way forward (as mentioned in the podcasts, I can always switch if events start happening again).
Even though my base is getting bigger on the 18 weeks of SST plan, I bought the indoor/outdoor plan and was thinking of transitioning to doing that (the indoor sessions are shorter and more manageable than on the SST plan).
If I do so, will my base continue on a decent, around 4-6 CTL a week ramp, or is the only way to find out by mapping it out in TrainingPeaks?
Hey Dominic!
That is a good game plan moving forward. If you have been doing the intermediate 18 weeks plan then you should continue to see a steady increase in your CTL of about 3-6 points through out that plan. Obviously it will fall back some on your rest weeks, but that is necessary to soak in the gains
That said, if you want to know exactly how your fitness will rise on that plan it is best to map it out in TP.
Also, if you can handle more time than indicated on the plan, you can always add some additional zone 2 time into your rides and that will help to further increase you CTL.
I’d encourage you to focus on your power output and not your CTL after an 18 week sweet spot build. This is exactly why we designed the sweet spot part 4 plan with the 3 > 4 > 5 minute VO2 progression. Don’t worry about CTL at that point - concentrate on getting your FTP even higher (with the VO2’s)
I’m not so much concerned about my CTL number, rather what it represents, i.e., a big base. I do take your point though. As for top end power, thanks to doing the gym-based resistance plan for the first time, I’ve seen my power numbers for shorter efforts jump and have been really happy with that.
As I don’t really want to buy another plan at this point, I will check out the sessions on the indoor-outdoor plan to make sure they work on VO2 Max and probably use that - the flex in that plan appears to be really useful for busy people (for me, full time job and two very young children).
Ultimately, and as you say Frank, most important is that FTP jump (I’ve certainly achieved that with the HC plan previously).
So, I’ve now finished the hill climb intervals plan…
During that six weeks, I again FTFPd and by the end, due to a combination of my base from the 18 weeks of SS plan and this plan, was smashing PRs all over the place.
Also, as much as it shouldn’t be important to me, I’ve become the fastest on my weekend group ride and even had to join a faster group (not a humble brag - very much a surprise to me!).
As with my posts above, no races are going to happen here in Japan (or none that I’d do).
As such, I’m wondering…what now?
Of course, I could jump back into base and do more SS, but I’m also thinking of adopting the indoor-outdoor plan (due to family and work constraints, the vast majority of my training is indoors).
Dom @xDOMx ! Congrats on all your improvement Not surprising from doing such a good job FtFP’ing.
For plans - and your group rides - I am inclined to recommend our road intervals plan because that’s what a good spirited group ride is. You may do all those workouts indoors and the plan calls for a hard group ride on Sundays. I think the VO2 & Anaerobic work would complement your sweet spot base and threshold work nicely.
Of course you could do sweet spot part 4 which is 1 hour short only during the week and has the long sweet spot TSS ride on Saturdays which you could sub for your group ride.
Can’t go wrong with either and could do both for the next 12 weeks.
@FRANK - have looked through my plans, where I’d like to improve, your (excellent) advice, potential events (not races, just big rides with friends etc)…I think I’ve come up with a way forward.
So far, my season has been:
November > December: resistance plan
January > March: SST
April - now: hill climb intervals
As such, I think the following is where I will land:
This week: regen week (based on past Fascat regen weeks), but with a ramp test thrown in there to see where I stand
W/C 17 May for 6 weeks: road race intervals plan (work on VO2 & anaerobic)
Then, mid season break: one week off the bike entirely
Then, SS Part 4 Polarised for 6 weeks (work on SS and VO2)
Then, road race intervals plan again for 6 weeks
I guess that’ll leave me with a first peak at the end of the first time doing road race intervals, then a second peak after the second time doing that plan!
After that, I’ll see where I stand (it’ll be around the end of October, so perhaps move into resistance again).
Rather than a ramp test I’d go for a strava PR between 15 - 25 minutes if you have one nearby. Maybe one of your most coveted segments??
The rest of your plan sounds solid. I’d do sweet spot part 3 post post season break. With regards to ‘peaking’ I’d just try to ride strong throughout the summer rather than peak - unless you have a goal in mind you’d like to peak for?
I actually did a PR attempt at one of my target Strava segments for the HC intervals plan last weekend, so may give that a miss tomorrow! Noted on the logic though.
I’m just re-listening to the post-season break podcast (a classic from back in September 2018), so thinking about perhaps moving from post-season break into foundation > 10 week resistance plan > 18 weeks of sweet spot > HC intervals (if HC intervals are doable again in Japan by then!). I’ll see how timing goes though as I can extract SS part 3 out of the 18 week plan and implement it if I have time with the off-season and how that works with races in 2022.
Not really aiming to peak this year as there’s no races for me, more that it seems that it may happen naturally with those plans (definitely found I got a mini peak with the HC intervals plan!).
Given all the plans I already have from you guys, I will need to pick up road race intervals, sweet spot part 4 and foundation before the discount code runs out (tomorrow AM, Japan time)!
Not surprising from doing such a good job FtFP’ing.