Background
I came from another platform, and started with SSBMV1 in mid-February. Completed that without any failed workouts, and saw an FTP increase of about 5%. Was initially planning to do SSBMV2 afer that, but due to winter ending early this year, I opted to continue with SSBLV2.
Went on a cycling trip after that, which was a 1200 TSS week. Not that many super-hard efforts, but the rides were long. Went hard up the hills, and the longest one were around 30 minutes, with slightly above FTP averages. Many breaks/stops during the rides.
Got a cold after that, and had 2 easy weeks. The 2nd week I did some easier workouts, like Pettit -1, Birch, and towards the end some of the easier sweetspot workouts (Carson -4 and Monitor).
Next week: Mostly outdoor rides, easy-ish with some efforts. Improved PRs up the local climbs by a lot and felt great. Outdoor rides were not structured at all, just “for fun” and going hard up hills. Complemented with Taylor -3 and Geiger +1, TSS:601
I was planning to start with SSBLV2 the week after that, but due to great weather I didn’t really. Lots of outdoor riding (not structured) w/hard efforts up hills. Only finished one of the TR workouts, Ebbets. TSS:736
Then we come to this week:
- Tuesday: 3 hr moderate intensity group ride
- Wednesday: Did Taylor-2. Felt great during this workout, and upped the intensity on the last couple of 30s intervals. Regreted not doing it earlier.
- Thursday: Attempted Donner. First interval felt a lot harder than I thought it would, but was able to hold ~95RPM and on power target (ERG) for the entire interval. Second interval felt brutal from the getgo. Was able to hold my usual cadence from the start, but it was slowly sliding towards <~90RPM. Brain was screaming stop. About 8 minutes into I was cooked. Tried to stand for a bit, but eventually had to stop. Took a few minutes breather and tried to keep going, but no dice. At this point I just decided to spin the legs out easy for a bit and abort.
What to do next?
Should I not have tried to do Taylor-2 and Donner back-to-back days, and at least had an easy day between them?
Failing to complete “Donner” felt really demotivating, as I have been able to push harder than that for longer stretches earlier.
Form is on an all-time high after all the training during the winter, so the outdoor riding is really additive. But am I maybe overreaching the volume/efforts with outdoor riding + the workouts from SSBLV2 plan?
Next scheduled workout (today) is Clark. Really not looking forward to hopping on the trainer again, and the fear of failing again is there… even though on paper it should be fairly “easy”
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.