I know power is king but what HR zone would people generally be in for sweet spot intervals? Mcadie +1 today so 12 min intervals 95-105 ftp- I was hovering mid zone 2 i- inches into 3 when I bumped up the % intensity a couple of notches. It could be time for a retest or does that HR zone look reasonable? Or should I ignore HR completely?
For me 95%-98% FTHR by Friel zones. But it can take a while to get there. You were riding above SS power zones. I’d stick with power over HR for SS
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Try to only look at your hr for the last 2 or 3 intervals to gauge if you need a bump in intensity. But you should be getting to or possibly going above your threshold in an over under, but it might take a few intervals to get there.
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Mcadie +1 is an over/under workout, not a sweet spot workout. It should feel extremely challenging - if you are able to complete this workout without feeling like you’re right on the edge of failure you are likely in need of a re-assessment of your FTP
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Over-unders at 95/105% would probably equate to Z4/Z5, by my understanding
Given it’s basically an average of 100% you would expect Tempo/SS HR to drift in to SS/Threshold as each interval and the workout progresses.
Z2/Z3 would indicate that you’re probably not getting the adaptation you seek.
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Thanks for the reply. I guess in my head I didn’t differentiate between workouts which are sweetspot and those which are over/under- I was just broadly looking at the sessions in the sweetspot programme. Retest for me so.
To be honest I don’t think heartrate should dictate the intensity of your workout, this is where I would use actual watts and RPE.
From experience I find that HR can vary up to 10 BPM (average) for the same workout performed in the morning before work compared to performing it in the evening after work. The same goed for starting a workout after a longer period of rest (say 3 days compared to 1) or when you have done a harder workout the day before.
Bumping the intensity just because your heartrate is lower than expected could in some cases turn a tempo ride into sweetspot and sweetspot into threshold.
I would just trust the plan. Coach Chad has spoken about the plans increasing intensity anyway as you progress through them. As long as you stick to the regular FTP tests to keep you on track, I wouldn’t adjust the intensity based on HR.
That being said, if RPE is significantly lower than expected, I would work an FTP test into your schedule by replacing one of the intervals and supplementing it it Taku +1 or something similar.
Hope this helps:)
What you are looking for from HR in SS work is consistency. If at the end of your first 20 min interval you are at 165 BPM you want to be at 165 BPM at the end of your last 20 min interval. That means you’re aerobically coupled for that level of exertion, and you can move on to higher intensities. Also you can look at power/hr over time as a tracker for your aerobic fitness. During your workout though, HR is largely usselss.