Well, assuming your power data is correct and you have been healthy, I don’t know what other conclusion to draw from what you shared with us. You say your recovery is fine, but just have a look at your data.
When was the last time you were coached? Was that recently? Have your life circumstances changed (job stress, family stress, young children)? Have you been sleeping enough?
My power data comes from a new KickR - I have no reason to doubt it.
I was coached a coupe of years ago. At that time my commute was 80miles per day more than today - my job stress is much less.
The conclusion is - we all have to find what works for us.
I would say this is to be expected for SSBMV1. Though not so much for SSBMV2.
For what it’s worth, traditional base doesn’t evolve around 1-2 sub threshold sessions per week.
Anyway, the mid volume base plans have 1-2 threshold sessions plus a mix of endurance, sweetspot, and VO2 max. So ultimately, very similar to what you have done before.
IOW, I doubt your plateau was due to the plan itself. It was either too much and you didn’t realize or you were in for a plateau anyway. Likely because it seems like you reduced volume quite by a bit (2 sub threshold sessions plus 5-6 hours of endurance vs 5-6 hours from the sweetspot plans).
This sounds like you have introduced a new way of measuring power. Wouldn’t be surprising if this is the culprit.
The KickR correlated well with my Stages PM
Not plateaued - coming off a quiet off session / 1 month Sufferfest.
For me - I need those long Z2 rides.
You seem to have figured things out for yourself. Though I guess there is merit in considering some of the questions and recommendations expressed in this thread.
Whatever it is, happy training.
This is my approach too.
On adaption weeks I also find that getting longer workouts done early in the week means I’ve got less boring noodling to do and I’m compliant with the prescribed plan.
Yep - lots of good suggestions in this thread worth considering.
For me the most important is that we are all different and we should do whatever we find works for us.
Happy Training.
After following this thread since the beginning I just want to chime in… trying to be a bit objective…
Background: Did TR LV, got good gains as a noob, wanted to ride more, tried MV and got burned out. This winter I really wanted to ride more structured, and also more consistent, but knowing that I got burned out from the MV plan, I was lost…
And I think that being lost is worse than anything, since I was quite new to the sport (started in 2018, just noodling around, 2019 got a watt meter and went hard allt he time, 2020 I was a bit lost).
Fast forward to October 2020:
Got a coach who setup a polarised schedule, did 2 intensity days per 8-10 days maybe, with some tempo intervals thrown into my zone 2 days. All in all I rode about 7-9 hours a week.
For me this has worked perfectly due to the following very simple reasons:
My highest FTP on TR was last summer I believe, 290w @ 81kg ish. It is now 285w @ 77,5kg… and its just February…
The past 2 weeks I have been riding 40 hours while on vacation, and being able to do that is completely new to me… and my subjective feel about this is that TR doesn’t prepare you for spending a lot of time on the bike, but rather just how intensity feels on the bike…
Yesterday I did 3x20min (8 min rest in-between) @ 270w in 32c sun (combined with around 2,5hr of zone 2 before and after intervals). This is after 36 hours on the bike the last 10 days… something that I honestly feel is something that I couldn’t have done if all I had with me going into vacation was TR LV plan…
Take away:
I feel that the take away is a little bit like rolling resistance when discussing tires… You want to feel the road buzz (intensity) because you feel that its fast (making you fast)… while a lower pressure (polarised) on a wider tire might be as effective, it doesn’t give you that buzz… hence you choose what you feel is giving you more… And this ends up burning people out…
And if the only response people get when they burn out is “are you sleeping enough and drinking 120g carbs per bottle / workout?!” its gonna lead to a lot of people who are lost…
Now this is of course just N = 1, but I honestly think that TR would gain a lot more by introducing a polarised plan, and picking up those who doesn’t fit in the square box otherwise…
Like some have mentioned before, telling someone to just substitute their Sunday ride with a z2 ride, or doing other changes to the plan, is not why people pay for TR… the product is mainly the plans (and more)… and its not as simple as just changing things on your own… If people had the knowledge for that, they probably wouldn’t pay for TR in the first place 
Looking forward to the podcast in 43min!
Yeah, a lot of that “no pain, no gain” still in the back of my mind and I suspect many others. Going slow and easy can’t possibly make me faster
Question for those hitched to the strict POL wagon…
What does the ideal 4-5hr endurance ride look like in terms of IF or zone distribution within the ride?
Saying it should be (coggan) Z1/Z2 is a huge range. That’s all the way from soft pedaling/noodling at a pace that could be done indefinitely to what I would do for an IM bike leg or even a fast solo century (0.75 IF). That becomes pretty darn fatiguing after 3hrs or so and would, imho, be more difficult to complete 3 times a week than doing 5 SS sessions.
From browsing DJ’s rides it looks like he sets a hard cap of like 70% FTP or so, and then is almost always within 20 watts of 60% FTP, making the total IF around .6…but it’s hard to say without knowing his exact FTP in January. Also looks like 99% of the time is pushing the pedals. Almost no soft pedaling/coasting on descents.
Now I’ll go get my popcorn ready for the TR podcast.
Various coaches I know cap it a 70% to ensure you dont go to hard.
0.65 IF for 3.5 - 5 hrs is typical.
I only kinda use power to direct these types of rides. Mostly I use RPE, breathing, and HR. That said, it might be more beneficial to keep a “steady” power and let the other factors do what they do (i.e. it should feel harder in hour 5 than in hour 1). IF-wise, my LSD rides are like DJ’s 65-70%.
Wow, after the Adaptive Training announcement today this turned out to be a very poorly timed for Dylan Johnson.
I’m sure he is working on a new video as we speak haha… can’t miss the moment
Polarized vs Pyramidial 
welcome adaptive training… good thing Dylan made a video that reviews old ways of training
best answer they could give to this video.
Nate: Here is adaptive training. “it beats a lot of coaches. Sorry, coaches. I still love you for accountability and this sort of stuff (lol).”
wouldn’t surprise me if the DJ video was a staged video…now watching the podcast.
Hey DJ…say this and that…we know the issues our platform has.
“weeks later”
BOOM!!! new product launch to combat all issues in DJ video.
The expectations were set by the podcast-crew.
There are many caveats and potential dealbreakers. If free outdoor rides were not supported, it’d be already not usable for me.
But until it’s released, in dubio pro reo. We can judge them, when the feature is live.
You really believe that? Lol
