This sounds like you have a MAP weakness with a relatively strong FTP and sprint. What is your MAP as percentage of FTP? The ramp in Half Monty is used to set your MAP but the FTP is set via the 20 min heart rate section (plus some other magic). It would be worth giving it a go to see how things compare and how your workouts feel on those numbers.
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According to my laboratory FTP and MAP blood and respiratory stress test a few months back, my MAP/FTP ratio was 108.7%, which is pitiful. 115% is considered about average for a racer. On a watt-per-kilogram basis, my power curve actually looks pretty strong in all areas except hammering for 3-6 minutes. Iām totally dependent on others to pull me across any sizable gaps, and the only thing that sometimes saves me in a five minute climb is that Iām pretty lightweight, so I naturally climb well. A ramp-type test typically ends with the rider having notched up to the lower end of AC power, through their entire VO2 range. Since I blow up easily on VO2 hammers, Iām guessing a ramp test would underestimate my FTP, since it would be basically testing the weakest part of my power curve.
Iāve decided that I donāt really need to overthink this too much. Iāll just fudge my 4DP numbers upwards until the hardest workouts leave me fearing the Black Hole of Death to at least some degreeāthe way it used to be.
@Erik_Midtskogen Have you tried the ProRides? I find that those work well for me to mirror what I experience in racing.
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Right now Iām just following whatās in my SYSTM Advanced Level, High-Volume, All-Purpose Training Plan, except with my FTP and VO2 values pushed up a bit. Iām also adding more base volume than what the plan calls for. Maybe Iāll try subbing in a Pro Ride with a similar power profile to the one my training plan calls for, if itās a HIIT Tuesday and my CTL/ATL form isnāt underwater. Others have mentioned that the Pro Rides can be intense. Iām wondering if they have that same vibe and the music. I do my SUF training with a pretty decent hi-fi system, and in the past there have been times when I think the thing that enabled me to get that last drop of performance out was the sight on the screen of the rider in front of me hammering, and the driving beat of the soundtrack.
Actually, now that I read your post again, I can see how Half Monty might be worth a try. Besides, itās already scheduled into my Training Plan at the halfway point. It will be interesting to try it out.
Different vibe and no music. You are in an actual race in the Pro Rides so you hear: the brakes, the gears, road, the breathing, the yelling, the DS in the team car but no tunes.
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I love this about the Pro Rides. Itās so close to actually being out on the road riding with these people. Time just flies for me when doing them. Theyāre a great complement to the traditional Sufferfest workouts.
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Maybe your just getting tougherā¦ 
I actually think there is more to the concept that you become accustomed to the suffering the more you do it. For me I know from the time spent doing sessions itās going to hurt, but i also kind of know from experience I will probably get through the session without cracking. That kind of changes the tone of the suffering which you could describe as being a bit āeasierā, even though itās not really,
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Thereās more than just perception involved. I can go back and look at the raw numbers for a Nine Hammers session from three years ago (when I was weaker than I am now), and see the wattages were much higher than those for my most recent one. Today, Nine Hammers feels to me like nine relatively short pulls in a range just above or below my FTP, because thatās what it actually is, just going by the numbers.
However, I have discovered at least one of the traditionally hard sessions which they have not toned down for the masses. A couple of weeks ago, I did āThe Trickā, and it was exactly as I remembered it: As the time approaches for each one-minute attack, you dread what you know is coming, and at about the forty-second mark on the last couple of intervals, you start to have doubts that youāll make it through clean. The last 10 seconds of those last two intervals are just sheer willpower and pain tolerance. That dynamic used to be SUFās particular secret sauce. āThe Trickā remains today as a taste of the old SUF.
And the reason for doing sessions like that isnāt masochism. The reason is that in every single real group-start race you do, there is going to be at least one moment where youāre not sure youāre going to be able to hang with the pack (or the breakaway, if youāre so lucky). During that moment, youāre going to feel as if youāre dying. If you donāt simulate that circumstance in your training at least occasionally, then in a real race, when that moment comes along, youāll be gapped off and out of the race. Itās harsh, but the reality is that in the drafting sports, the main activity consists of trying to knock the other riders out of the pack. To prepare for that, you have no choice but to do some sessions that are extremely painful.
This applies to group-race-specific training only, BTW. If your goal is simply general fitness and the ability to ride faster, or even triathlon racing, there is no reason to focus on any interval shorter than about 5 minutes. Research has shown that training your sprint and your attack actually lowers your FTP.
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