I’ve been considering repeating sweet spot mid II after completion of the prescribed 12 weeks of base. I will be finishing up the first 12 weeks of base sometime mid-February, so tacking on another 6 weeks would put me finishing up base at the end of March -right before a trip to Belgium to do some riding and and watch the Tour of Flanders. I was thinking this short vacation would be a good little break between base and beginning build.
I have just began racing road and I’m only a cat 4, but will be racing somewhere 4.3-4.5 w/kg and I’m more concerned with overall fitness throughout the year and preparing for the following season of racing as a cat 3, rather than peaking for an “A” race or anything along those lines.
To boil it down, I’m just wondering if I will build better fitness overall if I go with 18 weeks of sweet spot base before beginning build, or if I should just stick to the prescribed plan since I’m fairly new to structured training and see where that takes me.
I had this exact same thought last night so hope someone replies. I need to work out how to structure a TT/Crit race season between April and September also
I might suggest an alternative to add some variety, and that is to do weeks 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 of Sustained Build Mid Volume. Swap one of the weekend rides for something longer and outside if time and weather permits (3-4 hours). That gives you a 2 on 1 off program for 6 weeks with the second rest week coming before your trip (week six of the six week suggestion).
When you get back, take a rest week (if the travel and riding was demanding) and then depending on your race program and fitness you can decide what to do next. It doesn’t get much love, but I’m a big fan of the Short Power Build. Particularly for racers doing a bunch of crits or short XC mtn stuff.
If you have time for it, it’s almost always wise to add onto the Base phase. Considering you are new to structured training, I would recommend doing just that. You can finagle and make other combinations work, but to make it clean just redo SSB2 and then continue onto your Build.
For reference, I’m repeating SSB1 three times before I move onto SSB2, Build then Specialty. I’m doing this because I have “Too Much Time” and I’m adding weightlifting, rowing and additional rides (MV+) to each consecutive SSB1.
Nice, I hadn’t considered redoing SSB-I before moving into SSB-2. I guess there are many different routes I could take to incorporate 6 more weeks of base. I am doing Land Run 100 in March, so it might be best for me to make the final 6 weeks of base more focused on longer outdoor rides while peppering in some weekday intervals.
in a similar situation with time, I’m repeating SSBMV2 for 18 weeks of base and then into build and specialty. I also thought about going right into build and adding an abbreviated 6 weeks of build before jumping into specialty. I think both could work well from reading some other threads on the forum.
The “Too Much Time” and “Not Enough Time” articles are being updated to reflect our current recommendations, so they have been pulled down in the meantime to prevent confusion.