I am brand new on trainer road and haven’t decided a plan yet - although Sweet Spot Mid Vol I would definitely be where I would start. I am also brand new to training with power and indoors; I am having loads of fun and am very grateful I can train consistently over the winter months. Did I say I was new to structured training? I’m new at everything and am very excited.
I’ve been learning and studying the process of structured training through reading through the plans on TR and listening to the podcast (only if it features Amber) has taught me a lot too. I have a question on training based of training zones / energy systems purely based of % of FTP.
disclaimer - I use an infocrank power meter (superdoooper accurate) both indoors and outdoors testing at 240 (I’m 65kg) with a ramp test and outdoors at 270 with a 2x20min test. I can’t seem to figure out how to stress my body within zones accurately in order to get those ‘adaptations’.
I can hold 220 without much effort indoors for 3 hours+ and sweet spot work even at 95% is a breeze. I can consistently hold 95 or 100% for over an hour. However, when it comes to anything about 105% I completely crash. This is why I think my ramp test score is relatively low and my v02max workout zones at 120% based off my 240ftp seems about right although the sweet spot work based of the same FTP is way to easy?
What should I do? Do I have an abnormally low v02max? Is it because I’ve never trained my v02max before? Should I train it sooner rather than later since I have a background of endurance miles anyway and skip base phase for the moment (Since most of my rides are below threshold over the past 2-3 years of riding). Should I add more sprints to my endurance and sweet spot rides? DO I EVER HAVE A CHANCE AT RACING FLAT RACES ON ZWIFT? (last question is a joke, kinda).
Sorry as I’m not very concise (blame my dyslexia) but I’d appreciate ANY feedback on how I can train with an FTP that greatly skews towards endurance efforts.
What do you mean when you say that you “completely crash” at 105%? Even going all-out, most people can only keep that up for 20 minutes - perhaps your expectations are just overly optimistic?
How long are you trying or expecting to hold ~105%, if it’s over 30 minutes nothing seems out of wack to me unless I’ve misread or misunderstood something.
That’s what I mean - If I go all out I can hold 105% for 20ish minutes which is normal. But I can also hold 95% for 2 hours. Meaning my SS intervals which are 20-30 mins per interval don’t feel particularly difficult. and given SS low volume base has a lot of SS work I am worried I am doing work my body is already use to?
Well…maybe start with SSB II instead. Mid Volume includes 1 VO2max workout per week and 1-2 Threshold sessions. That should be a good mix to test the waters and after that you can tackle build.
Plan builder also took me Straight into SSB II by the way. So nothing wrong with that i think.
Yes, performance in the range of 105-120% of FTP does reflect your recent training history. The good news is that this is very trainable.
The discussion at
and especially Coach Chad’s response is a good one on this topic.
Given you are new to indoor training, one thing that is definitely worth looking at is your cooling setup, as the lack of air movement versus outdoors can definitely hamper your performance at higher effort levels. Experienced indoor cyclists usually have multiple and powerful fans, and can sometimes be found sneaking around local airfields at night “liberating” propellers from light aircraft in a bid to further increase the airflow in their pain caves.
