Hi there, I’ve got a 200km sportive coming up in May with 3,000m climbing… 9 weeks away. I’m in reasonably good shape. I’m a sprinter so no probs with top end, but my Sustained Power on climbs is absolutely terrible. I’ve been doing weights through the winter and lots of Z2 with some threshold thrown in. Going forward I’m planning 2 long rides per week at Zone 2 (1.5hr indoor, 4hr outdoor), 1 x weights session and I’d like to do 2 higher intensity workouts of an hour. Any thoughts on whether I should do a MAP or Threshold building block to improve Sustained Power?? P.S I’m 50
I would do a 4wk MAP followed by a 4 week Threshold.
Definitely agree that if you’re gonna do a Vo2max block, nows the time. But the question of should you, not sure we can answer.
What’s your FTP like (relative to your five minute) and how long can you hold it? How do you feel later on in your harder rides?
FTP can keep going up much longer than four weeks if you haven’t trained it rigorously yet, and extending TTE by training FTP will have a far bigger boost to your “durability” than any other type of hard interval.
Interesting question and replies, thank you. I am a sprinter too, love half is easy, pain shakes, revolver and pro rides, there are so many recovery periods, but a hill any bigger than a matchstick or a 10 min effort substantially less than FTP and I fade badly
This is spot on with 9 weeks to go
Alternatively, you could dial up the the gravel grinder or mountainous gran fondo plan and just set the end date as the day of your event.