Sweet Spot Progression

Coach Jack Features and Questions
1

There’s a lot of app talk and not a lot about training.

I want to compliment Alex and Andrea for your novel approach to tempo training in your Sweet Spot Progression A and B workouts.

I took your advice and am training off an ramp style FTP rather than long-form test FTP. The difference for me is workouts just shy of 7% harder than what the long-form FTP test result would be.

The Sweet Spot A style workouts have a nice repeating structure that starts 70%-78%-84% and ends 72%-80%-90%. I did #4 tonight that has the structure repeat 3x (note that all of the intervals are really 75%-83%-90% of my long-form FTP).

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These are very manageable and a good way I think for recreational cyclists to work through building fatigue resistance.

If you do these I wouldn’t make them shorter then 75 or 90 minutes though or the structure is reduced. The 60 minute version only does 2x sets rather than 3x sets. The 3rd set is where the money is, IMHO.

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I’m sure there’s a good reason many coaches insist on long difficult intervals, maybe all the way up to 3x30 at 90+%, to get ready for racing, but if you aren’t racing that seems like a good way to burn out.

The only constructive criticism I have is the rests are quite long. I skip part of the 6 minutes at 40% at the beginning and will skip some of the between set rest at 40%, once I’m good to go I’ll skip to the start of the next one.

Dave

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I know, I believe bugs should come close to an end soon. At least it keeps the forum busy :slight_smile: Yes most pros prefer progressions over blocks, as you pointed out they are more enjoyable. Progressions tend to be natural other than sprints which can be reverse progressions :slight_smile: And yes in our app the longer breaks turn out great as it is so easy to just hit the next button if you start getting bored :slight_smile:

I am really happy you are seeing the value. This was all Andrea, my job was just making sure the developer did it right. I should get him to show up here some time. He is very friendly. He and I are both addicted to AI at the moment so we talk a lot.

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Even the A#4 workout has lengthy bouts of work. Each set has a 11 minutes of work, the first 8 minute progression, a brief rest, and then 3 more minutes at the higher power. Repeat that 3 times – so 33 minutes of work.

So there’s enough work that you’re doing something, but not so much work that burn out is a real threat.

The cycling nerd in me is still struggling with the concept of a long-form FTP test and really knowing what my capabilities are versus the ramp test, but I’ll get there eventually :slight_smile: Trust the process I guess!

Dave