I’m trying to do higher volume through my sweet spot base phases, and so far so good. Currently doing:
Mon: off
Tues: 1.5 hour sweet spot
Wed: 3 hour endurance
Thurs: 1.5 hour sweet spot
Fri: 1 hour endurance
Sat: 1.5 hour sweet spot
Sun: 3 hour endurance
For my second base phase I was looking at using the ssbmv2 plan as a template, but also looking to make a couple of changes to add some volume
Mon: off
Tues: 1 hour vo2 + 30 min endurance
Wed: 3 hour endurance
Thurs: 1.5 hour sweet spot
Fri: 1 hour endurance
Sat: 1.5 hour over under/threshold
Sun: 3+ hour endurance
Basically looking to do the prescribed vo2 on Tuesday and add 30 minutes of endurance at the end, change the threshold workout on Thursday to a slightly longer sweet spot session, keep the over unders on Saturday, and keep my longer endurance sessions on Wednesday and Sunday that I’ve been doing. Does this look doable? Wondering if I should do a shorter endurance/sweet spot on Sunday since I’m increasing the intensity on Tuesday and Saturday.
I’m doing similar, minus that endurance ride on Wednesday. The longer sweet spot rides work well on the SSB1 plan, and I think for SSB2 I’m going to do exactly what you described this season. Last year what I did was a longer VO2 workout variation for Tuesday, but that was tough with Mills and Spencer. Taylor -2 is easily swapped for Taylor for me, and Bluebell for Bluebell +2.
As for the Sunday rides, if you need the recovery at the end of the week then you might need to prioritize whether there is more benefit for you in the weekday rides or a long sunday sweet spot ride. For me - I only hit two 2hr sweet spot rides in all of SSB1 & 2 last year, so I’m putting more focus on that this season.
Otherwise though, I’ve been and will be doing very similar to your plan, it sounds good to me.
Nothing wrong with a bit of modification - I did high volume (all sweetspot) last year but that was a bit too many hours and I think I need a bit of intensity. So I lengthened the midweek aerobic ride to 90mins - Andrews or Brasstown maybe. Made the Thursday ride 90 mins but more fast start sweetspot than threshold - Clark, Ebbets+2 or Buffalo maybe. Kept the Saturday o/u or threshold session and lengthened the Sunday ride to 2 hours of tempo or easier sweetspot - Wright Peak -2/-3 or Junuea -1/-2 or a 3.5 hour outdoor ride if the weather was decent and my mates were around. Added a gym session Monday and have Friday off…Now in SSB2 week 2 - will see if it works but as they say “if you do the same every year you get the same outcome” - may work/may not - but maybe I can squeeze out some more performance without a bigger time commitment. Plus it is less tedious that SS session number x - 2 hours again!
this looks great, although i’d use friday as a second day Off or recovery (<55% FTP) for 1 hour max. you don’t need much more endurance then. rest up for the weekend rides.
Thanks for the advice @brendanhousler. I was actually thinking about shooting you a message after I read a few of your responses on other threads. If you don’t mind, I have nother question I’ve been thinking about:
Would you keep a long endurance ride (3+hours) on your schedule into your build and specialty phases instead of the long Sunday sweet spot session?
I’m not a coach but I have found that if I have done over/unders or threshold on a Saturday I can do a 3 hour aerobic endurance ride on a Sunday. But a 2 hour sweetspot session is a really tough ask and since coach Chad advocates a longer rid as an alternative if you have the time I would go for it - especially as in my case I can do it in a group with friends which is more sociable.
most likely, since i’d rather see an athlete in Build hit harder workouts than just ride a TON of sweet spot; that said I’d have to see the exact weeks that you’re talking about. hope that helps, let me know if it doesn’t and you have other questions.