Sustained power build MV - key workouts question

Training
1

Hi All,

I am currently in week 2 of sustained power build MV. This past training block i have done SSB 1 + 2 and short power build. Afterwards i went back to SSB 2, before ending up in build again. Goal is to focus on longer efforts as I have the Marmotte coming up in June.

With the weather becoming much better the last few weeks, I’m doing much bigger outside rides, which is amazing. (mostly pure Z2 outside during the week and some longer climbs in the weekend (5-20 min)). However, it is now much more difficult to do the 3 threshold or above workouts during the week and getting enough recovery. I skip the sweet spot session for my longer outside ride, but I will problably skip another VO2 max session (over-unders seem to be the key workouts of this plan).

My question is now, should I either skip the short vo2 max repeats (bashful, baird,…) or rather the longer vo2 repeats (red lake, raymond,elephants,…)? Based on the progressions, I would problably skip the shorter vo2 max repeats, but will I miss some important training adaption by ignoring this “power zone” completly? (the outside rides don’t really contain these shorter vo2 max burst of 1 min)

Thanks in advance!

2

Do whatever is more closely related to your race. With the marmotte the longer efforts are probably more important. So I would the shorter vo2s farther out from your race (early build) and as you get closer to your race imitate it more (late build/spec). Remember that these differences probably don’t really matter. This answer can depend on how close you are to your ceiling in ftp and what your tte is though.

Btw skipping the SS for a longer ride is great.

3

I was indeed also thinking about mainly focussing on over unders and longer vo2 max intervals. Is there a benefit in trying to do some short vo2 max bursts during my outside rides to keep these systems triggered? I indeed focussed on these during my previous build, but don’t want to lose these gains.

I am actually interested in the different adaptations between 108% vs 120% FTP.