Of my many weaknesses, repeated threshold is the most glaring. Hell hath no fury…never make it through the second effort at 100%. Defender? More like surrender.
How do you recommend training for these FTP repeated efforts. As I live surrounded by 1-5k hills I could really use the skill.
Hi and welcome to the forum, @Oldfatguy! Have you tried the Threshold building block plan? I feel the same as you about sustained efforts and tend to do the plan a couple of times a year.
What makes you surrender?
No. Thanks much and I will give that a try
I finish the first, and sometimes second, long threshold effort in zone 4. By the third I am quickly in zone 5 and after a few minutes there I just sort of lose the will to continue.
One component to improving repeated threshold efforts is using “extensive” intervals at power just below threshold. An example would be building up the amount of continuous time in zone (just below threshold) you can sustain over a training block, progressing from something like 3x10min → 3x12min → 2x15min → 2x20min → 2x25min etc.
The other side of “extensive” is “intensive,” where you progressively build up the amount of power you can sustain over shorter intervals during a training block.
The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast has a couple recent episodes discussing extensive vs. intensive interval training:
There’s also a TR forum thread discussing threshold interval progressions here: Extensive FTP interval progression - Training - TrainerRoad
Thanks much. It is great to get such specific advice!