This is my first time using TrainerRoad although I’ve done interval training in the past…but not quite like this. I’m now on the last week of Sweet Spot II and I find myself dropping the intensity toward the end of workouts and its taking me more than 48 hours to recover from the workout. I think anything above FTP really wears me down.
Which is all to say that I think this is really helping me grow - but damn, this is hard work! I expect hard work on the bike, but recovery time is really where I feel it.
I was getting increasingly crabby, decided to delay or perhaps skip a workout.
Just sharing, curious if others wanted to commiserate.
I would challenge you to consider a variety of factors as to why you’re feeling this way
How is your sleep?
How is your fueling on and off the bike?
Any extra life TSS (don’t discount it)
Are you doing any other training like strength or running?
A lot of these things if not actively accounted for can really detriment training especially at the end of blocks
Sounds like you’re doing either the LV or MV plan. How long has it been since you took more than one week without any intensity above sweet spot?
SSB-MV has threshold and VO2 workouts, so it seems more like a build plan to me than a base plan. I was physically and mentally spent by the end of my last build phase. Looking back and considering SSB-MV/LV as a build plan, I had been doing intensity (i.e. build plans) for more than six straight months. I ended up doing SSB I HV specifically because it had nothing above sweet spot and it did wonders. I just finished the recovery week last week and was mentally and physically ready for harder intervals.
This is significant non-cycling TSS. A great suggestion is to do Low Volume and add endurance rides where able as my guess is the combination of the 3 along with mid volume is what’s leading to what you’re feeling.
I would also disregard the notion of “too much intensity” in SSBMV2 as if you’re time crunched base has to be less base like due to time constraints and minimizes the impact of life tss
Does anyone follow the suggestion in the weekly notes of the training programs to substitute Z2 rides for either or both (for MV) of the last 2 SS workouts of each week?
I seem to have made a rookie mistake and did not mention that I’m doing the low volume plan. I took a look at the weekly tips and I don’t think I saw any sort of suggested substitutions.
Perhaps this is just too much for me at this very moment. I think I’ll just give myself a pass and continue to try hard in the future.
My first time through SSBLV2 I completely limped to the finish line. I repeated weeks 3456 and crushed it. Just one person’s experience but might be worth a try.
Well no wonder you struggled. 3456 weeks without a recovery week sounds exhausting. I can only make it through 5 weeks, max, before I really need that recovery week.
5 weeks before a recovery week does far more harm than good. Don’t feel like you’ve failed if you need to skip some of the sessions in the last week as TR has set this plan up poorly.
My advice would be to start your recovery week early before you dig yourself a deeper hole.
SSB2 should be increased to 8 weeks with 2 recovery weeks i.e. week 4 and 8. Hopefully it will change when the new plans are released.
Completely agree. SSBMV2 is off, VO2, recovery, threshold, off, threshold, sweetspot. That’s 3/4 hard workouts per week. Even with an accurate FTP, that is a hard plan. There’s no margin for error with stuff like Spencer and Lamarck. If your FTP is wrong, you’re screwed.
At 45 I’ve learned that sort of plan is too much stress for my body and I end up over training with all, or more, of the symptoms described by the OP. Those threshold and VO2 works out require 2 days of rest for me.
My advice would be to drop workouts if you don’t feel sufficiently recovered or switch out the threshold workouts for some sweetspot with roughly the same or lower TSS.
Please note that what is to come is only criticism on the topic and not on the person.
I can’t stand it anymore, that absolutely normal lifes (for recreational or cat 5-3 racers) are looked upon as “stressful” and everyone parrots about “other stressors”.
If you have a dayjob and a family you will have some constraints. You have to ask the question, if you are willing to change your whole life and optimise sleep and recovery (which IS huge, no doubt about that …) or if you choose a not-so-intensity-packed plan and
look forward to every workout instead of dreading it
safe the stress of having to align everything (food, sleep, familytime) with cycling.
Course sleep could be better. It always can. But how is your relationsship ending up if you go to bed at 9 pm instead of 10 and don’t drink that occasional sip of wine with your spouse?
Course work is moderatley stressful at times. If not, you don’t reach for anything at your job.
Course kids are mentally (and physically) demanding a times (ok, all the time) but they are beautiful!
This is no significant stress at all. THIS IS NORMAL. If cycling is not your job.
I agree with LV + endurance though … but be cautious, as LV is kinda demanding too, as shown above.
