Thankfully as I’ve gotten past my period of unmanageable school/work stress, this hasn’t been as bad lately, I think the only way to manage this would be switching out the workout for an endurance one instead (I wouldn’t just not ride).
Yeah hoping if I can increase the volume, start working in some resistance training, my body will have no choice but to respond. I feel like I’ve been making baby steps for a while but still making progress.
Yeah I kind of wonder about this, I think if I did drop back though, I would nail the workouts and AI FTP wouldn’t take long to bump me back up again. From what I have read in the past, its generally not advisable to hold back your FTP in favour of progressing through PLs. For me, I find everytime I get a PL of >3.0 in SS, Thr or VO2 I will get a AI FTP bump. which sets me back to ~2.0 for everything.
In the past I have generally been able to overshoot the AI FTP with my ramp tests and feel like I can generally get through a workout like Half Dome at 105% throughout my training history (I believe I have done it at least at 102% the whole thing not too long ago and then cranked it up on the down ramp cool down to keep me at ~65% FTP for the cool down rather than dropping to like 40%). However, there are other workouts that I have encountered that I can’t do as well. I also feel like my performance really varies with my general fatigue from life stress. This winter, spring was brutal in that regard but hoping to be in a more sustainable routine now.
Sorry everyone, was away for a few days on vacation at the cottage with no internet. Did get almost 11 hours worth of outdoor riding in though! A nice break from the blue blocks 
What gearing do you use for the trainer? Do you ever change it for different interval types? For long intervals at high sweet spot or threshold I think a fast speed gear is best to get the flywheel really moving.
Sometimes in ERG it’s almost more of a mental challenge to keep cadence up for long sustained intervals…I know I have struggled with it and sort of why I went that path with my feedback. Would also make sense with your lower heart rate. If you can get your spin up it might help.
Sometimes I’m curious how much trainer type, cadence, flywheel speed etc matters and impacts training.
I can sit at 290-300 for good stretches outside. A 260 watt 10 minute effort inside is excruciating.
Usually just keep it in 53 and middle of cassette 17-18 maybe?
I thought you weren’t really supposed to shift during intervals, when I am spinning well rather than grinding I do find with some intervals I will end up overshooting at the start then get a v-drop where the trainer drops my power despite my steady cadence to hit the avg at the end of the interval, sometimes though by the end my avg is still a couple points below target because of the drop in power ERG mode caused.
Yeah you shouldn’t really shift during intervals. Just depending on the type I might pick a different gearing. Like for a a short/short workout (30s on / 30s off or something similar) some trainers need a much easier gear (small ring up front) to change the resistance fast enough.
TR recommends small ring and middle of cassette at all times. I prefer big ring for the long stuff so was just checking that. I think it’s easier to drop cadence in the small ring (so trainer flywheel isn’t spinning as fast) so was just trying to rule that out as an issue for you. What trainer do you have?