Hello! I’m nearly through my first month of the subscription and have just finished week three of my SS1 plan. This week is my regeneration week so I don’t think there is a need to wait a few more days before looking at some of my data.
Not sure exactly what I should be asking for, but I’ve pretty much FtFP’d so can you ‘do your thing’ and let me know what all that data means and if I should be doing anything different - thanks!
Cheers,
Ben
Hey Ben!
So you have been doing pretty good #FtFP! It makes a huge difference. This was past weekend was a big weekend for you!
So first thing we can look at is your Performance Manager Chart. Here is the screen shot.
Really look at when you started training this year around January 26th. Your CTL - blue line (fitness)has been steadily increasing throughout the plan! That is what you want to see. You want this to continue as you complete base training. If you look at the dotted blue line that is your projected CTL based on planned TSS. You are just going to continue to increase your overall fitness in the coming weeks.
The yellow line is TSB (fatigue), in TrainingPeaks they call it Form. But really this is fatigue level. You got down to a -35 before this rest week. So that is pretty low and a good time for rest week. You may even hit some lower TSB levels in the coming weeks as you continue to ramp your CTL up. Just make sure you keep the easy parts easy and regeneration weeks easy so you can fully recover.
The other thing I looked at was seeing how you did on your weekend sweet spot group rides. Here is the screen shot from the ride on February 29th, so this past weekend.
You did really good on this ride! A lot of times riders don’t hold steady power on group rides, get too much anaerobic power, time in zone 1 and etc. But you did really good keeping most of your power aerobic. You actually did have 41 minutes of your ride in the sweet spot range! Perfect! You also didn’t just do all your efforts at the beginning and it was a pretty evened out ride. At 2.5 hours into the ride you had a nice 15 minute section at 183 watts, which was 86% of your FTP, so basically a tempo / sweet spot effort. Really good.
You are coming up to starting sweet spot burst intervals. These will feel quite a bit harder at first. You are no longer going to be riding steady but adding a 5 second burst every 2 - 3 minutes. This will elevate your heart rate more. The goal is to burst and keep the power on after each burst and stay in sweet spot. Bursts are meant to help emulate the stochastic nature of bike rides, where you have to give it some ‘gas’/hard efforts to get up a steep section, out of a corner or close a gap to a wheel. Do your best.
I did look at your other sweet spot group rides to see if I felt your FTP was pretty accurate. I didn’t see any reason to change it at the moment. If you start hitting some group rides harder or races that is something we can monitor.
Another thing to look for over the next 4 weeks would be your heart rate compared to power. I see during your sweet spot efforts it gets up to averaging 178 bpm on the last efforts the previous two weeks. Maybe over time we will not see it get so high. Also your heart rate on the endurance rides has increased with fatigue, but that is normal this early in the training phases. For instance Sunday first hour was 143 watts @ 142 bpm and last hour was 136 watts @ 149 bpm. So there was some cardiac drift there. Over time we would like to see that decrease a bit. But that isn’t too bad. The Pw:Hr was 9.56% Get that under 7 and you are doing good!
Hi @Jake - that’s great. Thanks for all the comments and insight:
I’m about to purchase the SS2 plan (that’s going to roll into the climbing interval plan to the steamboat gravel plan). Do I just add that plan to start the week of the second field test in SS1? Or is there a different way to combine noting the plans I’m going to line up back to back?
So - just replying to my own post!
I just bought and added the SS2 plan to my calendar and basically lined it up so the first field test lines up with the second field test of the SS1 pan. Seems to make sense.
So as I mentioned above I had planned on following SS2 with Climbing intervals and then the Steamboat Gravel plan. That’s another 12 weeks of training. With SS2 now on my calendar I have 15 weeks between the end of SS2 and Steamboat gravel. How should I best fill that up/plan that out?
Cheers,
Ben
You’re a subscription member I’ll go back in and adjust the plan for you. Putting those two plans together means there is too much time before the next regeneration week. So I’ll add that. Also you don’t need to do a second field test this close to the first.
As far as plans look at sweet spot 3 and your hill climb plan or a road race interval plan. Maybe a mid summer break before repeating something like sweet spot 2 and then on to Steamboat.
Keep your subscription and every 4 weeks we can go through this and the best course of action, combinations be the plans the best we can by adjusting weeks, add or subtracting and etc.
Oh great - thanks @Jake! I’ll have a look once its been updated. Once I get closer to the end of SS2 I’ll reach back out to more specifically plan the follow on plans and get them in the calendar.
Happy not to do a second field test - thanks! What should I ride on that day instead of the field test, as the first ride in SS2?
Cheers,
Ben
I’ll put a workout in replace of the field test. Give it a few more more weeks before we test again. Maybe at the end of SS2. I will look at your data again and we can determine if that would be necessary. If not by the end of SS3 for sure!
Hi @Jake - I just had a look at the changes you made - you really don’t like me do you! I think I’m working hard now during SS1. Looking ahead at rides during the second half of SS2 is not a smart thing to do for morale! A field test followed by an hour of endurance; that’s just mean.
Lol! It’s a weekend and coming off some rest so you should feel ok. Honestly after you do your test, just take it really easy and slow for 10 - 20 minutes. Recovery, eat, drink and catch your breath. Then just do some low end zone 2. You’ll have the next two days off to recover. Haha!
One day at a time! That is all you can do. The training for today helps for the efforts tomorrow kind of thing.
We will touch base again in a few weeks and see how things are going! #FtFP
Hi @Jake - it’s been about 5 weeks since this first data analysis, so though it would be a good time for another one! Have just replied to this original thread so I can keep the history together. I’ve got 3 weeks left of my SS2 plan and have pretty much been FtFPing. Some key points:
I have 3 weeks left in SS2 and then need to decide how to line things up for SG. I’ll do the SG plan, preceded by Climbing Intervals (based on previous advice). I think that’ll leave a few weeks spare. So am looking for advice on what to do to fill in the blanks and have everything lined up.
Thanks again for the coaching subscription option. It’s been really useful for both data analysis and plan modification. Great product!!
Cheers,
Ben
Hey Ben!
I will take a look at your training and replay back here! Glad you used the same thread that is the best way to do it! Sounds like you have made some great improvements! FTP of 212 watts to 232 watts (indoors) higher outdoors which we would expect. Right in that range.
I will also help you set up the next several weeks of training and make sure we fill in the gaps. Great job #FtFP! It really pays off.
Your field test was outstanding! You averaged 254 watts. What is really incredible about this is that the week earlier on your 2 x 10 test efforts you only did 252 and 234 watts. So with a few days of recovery you were able to really hammer out a fantastic effort! Plus that effort was super consistent from start to finish, so you were within yourself, but also maxed out. Really good job there.
Looking back at your Performance Manager Chart and you continue to ramp up your CTL really well! By next week you will be ready for a rest week! You have had some pretty sharp ramps and quick build ups. Some of this can be from coming from 0 in the data. But you have built up to 69 CTL! Last time we chatted you were at a 34. So you have more than doubled in 5 weeks! That is outstanding! You will go just a bit higher by the end of the sweet spot 2. It actually will drop slightly with the much deserved and needed rest week.
Looking at this previous Saturdays sweet spot ride you crushed it! You did a 90 minute effort right at 97% of your FTP! You need to use 243 as your FTP now if you are riding outside as that is the number from your field test. Only using 234 watts inflates this ride a tad, but still, it is an outstanding effort! Using 243 watts as your FTP this 90 minute effort is still nearly 94% of your FTP! So well up in the upper end of sweet spot! Pretty incredible. Good way to start the ride as most gravel events are fast from the start as you hold onto some wheels and get yourself in a good group. So great practice for that.
You can also see all the training time in Zones 3, sweet spot and 4. This is good! Really keep the pressure on the pedals. Also doing 276 TSS in under 4 hours! That is over 70 TSS per hour! That is a hard pace for 4 hours!
I see you did a similar effort he week before for 45 minutes. This is all good! Once in a while I would recommend splitting the efforts up over the course of the endurance ride. Not all efforts will be made in the first 2 hours of a race. Some will have climbs later on and you will want to train your body to go hard later on. When you do this make sure you are really focused on your nutrition plan and hydration. you want to be well fueled late into races so your body can produce the power when needed. You may not be hitting the high end of the zones, but it will be a good test of endurance.
So to help you fill in some blanks after the Sweet Spot 2 pan is over why don’t you apply the STBGRL plan now and climbing intervals. This way we can see what we have and what it looks like. Best to work backwards sometimes and that is what this would do. Even sweet spot 3 would be a fantastic plan to start up right after this sweet spot 2 plan. Could be the best option. But regardless we want the 6 week STBGRL plan on time to line up with the race. So getting that in helps us see the big picture.
Thanks again @Jake for the analysis and guidance!
Yeah, the 2x10 test effort was my first attempt at kind of pacing an all out effort. Didn’t go very well - the field test was much more successful!
I updated my FTP to 243 and zones in TP and recalculated the rides from the weekend and the threshold workout from today so the data is more accurate. TSS from my big ride dropped from 276 to 256, which makes sense.
My stubborn side came out on the weekend, hence my 90 min SS interval! I hadn’t planned on that. This coming weekend I’ll spread out my SS time over the 4 hour ride and aim for some good intervals during the last 90 min of the ride. Your comments about nutrition and hydration also noted. That’s something I’m looking at as I’m not used to eating on the bike, so working on that. I have a tendency to under-eat and under-drink.
I just purchased the SG gravel and climbing intervals plan and have added them to my calendar in TP. I think I’ve lined them up correctly. It looks like I have 2 weeks to fill in between the end of SS2 and the start of climbing intervals. Not sure I want to purchase SS3 to just use 2 weeks of the plan, but am open to ideas.
Also, I accidentally purchased the beginner version of the climbing plan instead of the intermediate. Can you please swap that out? Thanks!
Cheers,
Ben
Hey Ben,
It’s not like the 90 minutes straight Sweet spot was bad, just good to change up from time to time. Like I said most gravel races will start off hard like that and you will hold power through a steady decline, so not a bad thing to do that type of effort.
I will change out those plans for you. I will also help us come up with a plan to fill those two weeks. In all reality one week will be a recovery week between sweet spot 2 and the interval plan. We really just need to add a week to the end of the sweet spot 2 to make a 3 week build. I will do that for you.
Sounds like a plan @Jake! I’ll just continue to FtFP the next couple of weeks and will check in with any questions on the connecting weeks and the climbing interval plan.
Cheers,
Ben
Hi @Jake - can you let me know when you’ve had the chance to switch out my climbing interval beginner course for intermediate in TP. I’d like have a look through the course and see what it’s all about!
Cheers,
Ben
Just applied that plan for you so you are set with that.
Hi @Jake - I just had a good look through the climbing interval plan and have a few questions:
Cheers,
Ben
Hi coaches! Just looking to get some advice on the above questions as this week comes to a close so I can plan what I’m doing the next week or two before climbing intervals needs to start.
I’m happy to re-do one of the harder SS2 weeks if that’s easy (and makes sense), but need to make sure the plans are lined up properly etc. Thanks!
Cheers,
Ben
Hi Ben,
So first thing I did was fill in next week before the climbing interval plan starts. What I put here was kind of between a rest week and ride week. You don’t need to full rest as you are coming off a regeneration week but you want it to be light before you start the climbing interval plan.
I also removed the two field test in the next 2 weeks. Yo just completed one on the 8th and do not need to perform another one. Actually the one on the 8th looked really good. You did 108% so that was an increase in your FTP 
! I however did keep the field test effort in at the start of the Steamboat plan. At this point it will have been like 12 weeks from your last. It may not go up but regardless will be a great 20 minute training effort!
As far as the day with two rides in during the climbing plan you are suppose to do both those. Since you are doing Steamboat ideally you would just complete them in the same ride. So you would either do some of these ‘climbing’ intervals before or after your group ride. Mix it up when you do it. You could even do 1 full gas effort before the group rides and one after. Though these may all be solo rides now so you will just have to work on pushing yourself. Riding at 70 - 80% of your FTP. Much like you would in a long gravel race. But mixing in these longer ‘climbing’ efforts. Looking at Steamboat you will some climbing early and late. Most likely it will be full gas at the start and by the end you will be doing just what you can to get to the finish.
Since you do not have these long climbs in your area you will just have to do 8 - 20 minute full gas efforts on the flats / rolling sections. Try to find a section where you can keep pressure on the pedals for the majority of the effort. With Steamboat there are long sections of uphill but the steeper pitches do fit in that 8 - 25 minute duration depending on your ability. So focus on that range. But also don’t forget to put some of these efforts at the end of your ride as well. But remember it is still important to put efforts early on in the ride. This is when you can hit the higher power outputs and get a lot out of the intervals. At the end it is more about survival. But this is a way you can also practice your nutrition and hydration strategies. The better you can feel after 3 or 4 hours of hard riding the better off you will be.
I also added in the regeneration week just before the Steamboat plan starts. You will need and want that rest week!
So you should be all set now. Let me know if something doesn’t line up or make sense. Thanks!
