Moving from Sustained Power MV to Rolling Road Race Specialty MV?

Training
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I just finished sustained power mid vol… early in the plan i maybe had a 50% adherence rate (I was introducing more lifting via personal training and I believe i over-trained a little bit because I scored way too high on my initial ramp ftp test due to being accidentally tapered/over-caffeinated/carbo-loaded)… the last 4 weeks (after I finally realized what was going on and scored a more realistic FTP) I did really pretty well. I do want to prepare for a road race so I thought about moving on to my specialty mid vol plan as rolling road race (not 40k tt)…
My question is… Is it really advisable to mix and match basically any plan like that? I wasn’t too happy with the very first workout in the rolling road race specialty plan… it was merced +1 which has no coach text… I guess I would have hoped to get a bit of coaching about what to expect as I begin a rolling road race plan… Merced was hard of course… hitting 40 second 380 watts intervals was basically impossible for the 6th and final set of 5 intervals.

In the future should I plan out my season a little bit better? I usually do a monthly 14k time trial series which i’m serious about, as well as maybe 3-5 road races (it’s my dream to hang on to the end someday and then maybe win a sprint finish or something), and 3-5 crits (not serious at all about them other then trying to never crash),

Also, I have a question about my training strategy…
I have a road race in july that is sorta my A race i guess… I’m starting the specialty plan now, I will hit the A race close to the end of week 5 which seems to me like OK timing… all of week 4 is endurance intensity … basically: geiger +2 would be the last workout with intensity levels above endurance… and that is the last workout of week 3. so after geiger, all i have is: (no particular order) 3 pettit, 2 mokelumne, fletcher, and cheaha +1… Is all of this endurance work supposed to leave me fresh for a rolling road race or especially dull and weak? I’ve read the theory of taper is to keep intensity but lower volume… it seems like these endurance rides do the opposit…

Soo why do all these plans seem to have these dead boring endurance weeks weeks imbetween the intensity interval stuff? are the dead boring endurance weeks essentially recovery weeks to be done imbetween 2-3 week training blocks?

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  • Main Plan Notes:

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  • Weekly Tips:

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  • Recognize that the the workouts in the plans are likely used in various plans, and may not be specific to the same goal overall.

  • Each workout is set with intent to work on one or more energy systems. As such, any notes if present, will be more specific to that idea. Some do include “race” or “event” specific info, but it is somewhat generic in most cases because of the shared nature of many workouts.

  • Reading the Plan specific notes and Weekly Tips are the best resource you have that is directly tailored to the plan you follow, to gain an overview of the objectives.

  • Not sure how you think there is mix/match here? Maybe you are expecting that a Rolling Road Race Specialty would normally follow a General Build phase?
  • That is a common approach, but not the only one that can work. Using Sustained Power to improve on long power can be just as rewarding depending on your needs and plans to apply power, even if you do the RRRS.
  • Yes, always. If you plan to continue in this world, you need to learn from your successes and failures. Take that info into the next step and apply what you can to improve your results.
  • Rinse and repeat…
  • No, the Specialty is set to have your “A-Race” on the final Sunday of the plan, in week 8.
  • That’s not to say you can’t do your current plan, but it is not the approach that is designed with a properly timed Specialty phase.
  • You are essentially in the “Not Enough Time” zone, and should review this info to see if you should alter your plan.
  • The actual taper weeks are the final 2 weeks (#7 and #8) from within the Specialty plans.
  • The weeks you are mentioning are NOT taper weeks.
  • Yes, week #4 in the Specialty plans is a Recovery week, just like any other Recovery week in the Base or Build Phases. They are meant to allow the body to recover and rebound, absorbing the prior weeks of hard loading, and increase in strength, capability, etc.
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WOW!
I was not aware that there was so much to read about these plans especially the weekly tips!
I had only ever added plans via the calendar which doesn’t really seem to indicate there is much to read about it.

thanks for the information as well…
Isaac

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Adding one more bomb to blow your mind…

  • You actually have access to the Plan info and Weekly Tips right on the Calendar (assuming that you added a plan after the functionality was added some months ago):

  • Click on the “Plan Name” Annotation at the beginning of the first week and you get this:

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  • Click on the “Week #” Annotation at the beginning of any week and you get this:

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