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'SweetSpot' Ride vs 2x 20's

morpheusmorpheus
in General Training Discussions

 Yesterday's route made it tough for my scheduled 2x 20's.  According to Coggan/Allen, that sweet spot of .85 IF yields benefits.  So, I modified my ride and tried to hold the .85.

3 hr ride, 60 miles, IF .86, VI 1.2.

I know, High VI.  But, that's why I couldn't really knock out steady 2x 20's. (Guess I could've hit the pain cave)

I'm pretty good about sticking to these schedules, and don't plan on rationalizing/justifying my own changes, but yesterday was a detour from the plan.  My question is...

Did I gain something from the Sweet Spot ride as opposed to the 2x 20's?  ( I think so.)  Did I waste a day of training?  (I don't think so.)

Note that I ran pretty strong for 30' immediately after the ride.

 

Thx!

Comments

  • tuckermtuckerm
    You certainly didn't waste a day of training. Still a great workout. One thing I would suggest if you cant hit the prescribed intervals is to break them up in pieces when you can get the work in. Maybe like a bunch of 5' intervals at FTP. What you should aim to do is get in at least that 40' of FTP that is in the plan. Some of the intervals are hard to remember so some of us just remember that say you have a toto of 56 minutes at FTP to get in.
    Also note that our Sunday ABP rides are written to take advantage of this sweet spot training.
  • morpheusmorpheus
    T, if piecing the FTP minutes is OK, then all 40' (and then some) were hit. Good to know. Also, presently I'm in the SC plan (for an oly on July 10th), and there isn't a Sunday ABP ride scheduled. However, I'm looking down the road to a Half in October, so I've been getting in my own Sunday ABP ride pretty consistently. I've been watching the other thread about how valuable that Sunday ABP/Sweet Spot ride is. That's why I started dragging it over from the HIM plan and working it into my SC plan, even though I'm not officially starting the HIM plan until end of July. Stoopid? ( I think not )

    Happy Dad Day to ya.
  • Coach RichCoach Rich

    Chris: What Tucker said. I'm solidly in the "informal interval" camp. I do intervals, whether at FTP or 85% but usually FTP according to terrain, not time. The mountains and roads within a 40 mile radius of my house are dotted with little historical PR's (Pnorm, IF, time, etc) of performances I've done in the past and use these to benchmark myself. Short answer is to get in as much FTP work, as you can stand, in whatever manner works best for you and then your default riding gear around that is ABP, 80-85%. What we, as EN athletes, very rarely do on purpose is ride below 80% unless it's a warm up or cool down. The rest of the tri world feels that magical stuff happens as this low intensity, and it can have some benefits for Ironman athletes but there's certainly no "need" to spend any long amounts of time there, especially as a short course/HIM athlete.

    Yes, fine to do that Sunday ride as ABP. The best training events for you to do, week after week, now through the end of time are:

    • Long run, EN flavor, of about 1:15-30
    • Saturday 2.5-3hr ride, as hard as you can go, as much FTP work as you can schedule
    • Sunday sorta repeat of Saturday but, but only about 2hrs and if you can't replicate the FTP stuff, drop into your default of 80-85%.

    After years of training like this, I litterally can not ride my bike easier than 75%. Drives me nuts, voices in my head say "wasting time, wasting time, wasting time!!!"

  • morpheusmorpheus
    makes sense, thx.
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