Are the endurance rides the week before a scheduled ramp test nessasery if I plan to use FTP detection? I feel good and would preffer more sweetspot and threshold. I plan to keep the long endurance day since a lower stress day would be nice before I start SSB2. I don’t feel like i need a week of low stress rides.
I doubt it has to be there now but an easier week helps you with adaption.
doing endurance rides isn’t about prepping for a ramp test, it’s about giving the body recovery from the work done over the block. so skip easier weeks at your own peril
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I just always thought it was more for the FTP test… i agree that sometimes you need a break from high intensity… but a week is a LONG time when your activity training. I imaging i would be more interested in a week of endurance if i was 3-4 months into training but it’s still early (1 month in). I follow the adaptive training religiously so not sure what would happen if i swapped out those rides.
common wisdom is do 3 weeks of work/1 week easier. doing workouts several times a week over months with no break is a recipe for overtraining and burnout
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You’re probably right. I think im just anxious for more progress this early in training. When the hard rides come I KNOW i will wish i took the endurance weeks as prescribed. I’m also older than i once was.
As a 400 meter running in college, I just don’t remember a week of low stress work during early training.
Your body can handle more training stress without a break better at a younger age than an older one. However, you simply cannot compare only the recovery parts of training. You have to look at the total training load you currently have and how much you will have in the near future. And there’s the fact that you might benefit from a rest week more than you would from continued intense training.
If you’re only ever doing endurance rides, you might never need a rest week. But it is still likely optimal to include one periodically.
The one thing almost all coaches agree on is that progressive overload (slowly ramping up training load) and periodization (work, then recovery) are the best ways to improve. You’re trying to skip the periodization part. That’s not going to serve you well.
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No, that has nothing to do with it. The default FTP tests, especially the ramp test do not incur a lot of fatigue anyway.
You should not think about endurance rides only in this way.
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First of all, it is not “sometimes”. A rest week (i. e. a week with about half the volume and only easy endurance rides) is scheduled regularly and an absolute necessity if you want to get faster. The underlying training principle is called periodization. Typically, you have 3 weeks of load followed by 1 week of rest. Do not skip rest weeks! And do not make your rest week more intense by fiddling with the workouts! You need rest week to be able to train most of the year for several years in a row.
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This is the time when you will get faster: during the preceding ~3 weeks, you will have literally destroyed quite a bit of your body, and during rest week your body has time to invest energy into repairing your body and adapting. That is, e. g. your muscle cells will not just be repaired, they will be made stronger to better cope with the load.
I don’t know when that was, but sports science has progressed. Most (all?) sports use fundamental principles like progressive overload and periodization in their training plans now.
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You get stronger when you ease off the pedal, not when you push harder. Sure do the sweetspot and threshold instead of the recovery week but you will end up a weaker rider.
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I agree that the recovery weeks are vital but I don’t actually take an entire week off (I do two days of intervals per week and on “freestyle” ride). I usually take 2 days off in a week so I take 3 off during a recovery week so:
Monday: Off
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday - short Z1/Low Z2 ride
Thursday - Off
Friday - Z2
Sat - whatever I want - usually something tempo if I’m indoors
Sun - Group ride/whatever
Usually by the weekend I feel good enough to push it - but I’m still not doing any threshold/Vo2/SST specific work - just something a bit harder than Z2. If I take a full week off/only doing Z1/Z2 that first interval day SUCKS.
But this is how I do it - everyone can feel differently. But I never skip these weeks. Once in the summer I did a 90 mile ride during this week (endurance pace) - mistake.
Believe it or not, but that ‘endurance week’ is when you’ll make most of your gains. Skip it at your peril
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Agree, if you are not right on the limit 5 down days is plenty.
The down/recovery week, as others have said, shouldnt be about the ftp assessment. A peroid of a lighter training load should be taken to allow adaptations and taken as required, doing an assessment (ftp test) or not makes no difference.