Little extra Recovery time on SSB and Planning Build Phase (mid volume)

Training
1

Hi,

I’m a 46 year old rider, looking to get faster.

I went into SSB1 with a ramp test giving me an FTP of 246, managed very good compliance with the plan on SSB1. After the 1 week recovery week at the end of the first 5 week block I had a minor cold (just a niggle), but tried the ramp test and in spite of the fact I pushed right to my limit got an FTP result of… 231. This was out of kilter → I could tell I was improving from the end phase of SSB1.

So I took an extra week recovery (repeated the recovery week), made sure I got plenty of sleep, and re-tested with the ramp test 1 week later. FTP 248 → a 1% increase, and pretty much what I was expecting.

I’ve seen similar last year, so have come to the conclusion that I need a little extra recovery time from what’s baked into the plan.

So, question:

For SSB2 do I go “5 weeks on, 2 weeks recovery” or… add a recovery week in the middle somewhere (say between weeks 3 and 4)

What about the Build phase? 4 weeks build + 2 weeks recovery?

Recommendations from others?

2

I change the full SSB1 and SSB2 as a combined experience.

End result is 4:1, 3:1, 3:1 for the final setup that is 13 weeks total (vs the 5:1, 5:1 for 12 weeks total). You can steal some aspects of the link to apply to your SSB2. Maybe a 3:1, 2:1 or the opposite could work?