Answer: Testing days aren’t always your best days. Muscle fatigue, unpreparedness for the discomfort of testing, poor pacing, or low motivation can all lend to a lower FTP result. When you test at a lower FTP, it commonly comes down to one, or a combination, of four things: 1. You weren’t sufficiently recovered following your…
Answer: The High-Volume Sweet Spot Base plan has a very specific training load, in both volume and intensity. This allows for a very high TSS relative to all other training plans. This high training stress score does not translate directly to other plans, including those in the Build Phase. High-Volume Sweet Spot Base is in…
Answer: The emphasis is no longer placed on growing fitness like it was during the Base and Build phases; rather, the focus of the Specialty phase is placed on event specificity. A reduced TSS allows flexibility for weekly racing opportunities during the final phase before your key event. The Importance of Dropping TSS as You…
Answer: FTP increases and applying different forms of training stress require small planned decreases in TSS to maximize training benefits. Reduce TSS Between Training Phases to Get Faster Within a progressively structured training plan, each new week sees a slight increase in the overall amount of stress (TSS), while each workout sees a similar bump…
Answer: For most athletes, no. Depending on the familiarity and experience with an FTP value, athletes can realistically sustain the power level of FTP in a range from about 40-70 minutes. ** Our default testing format to estimate an athlete’s FTP was changed to the TrainerRoad Ramp Test since this post was published Why Your…
All Cyclocross Specialty training plans are improved to be more specific to your riding and racing goals. What’s New All Cyclocross plans include even TSS weeks to allow riders to easily integrate training races and higher-priority races into their training. To prepare riders for rapid-fire repeats seen in ‘cross racing, these plans put an emphasis…
Working hard will only get you so far. There comes a point when you need to strategically plan how to best use your hard work to maximize fitness gains — that’s what training smarter is all about. By exploring our training plan process, we aim to clarify the purpose of each training block you’ll work…
Every cyclist will miss prescribed workouts in their training plan at some point, but it’s not the end of the world. The key is knowing how to adjust your training plan to keep your training on track. Training Interruptions Whether you’ve become sick or found yourself on vacation during the middle of a training plan, it’s…
Fall is here. This is the time of year when most cyclists start their base training. For many riders, this means ramping up their training volume to get in as many miles each week as possible. As well intentioned as this type of training is, it’s not the most effective way to train. If you want…
From a fitness perspective, only minor disparities exist between cyclocross racing and short track XC racing, but there are enough differences between the two to merit individual plans for each. These subtle differences inspired only mildly different plans, but ones that can build on one another really well as you use your STXC training & racing as a brutal and…