Have I hit my ceiling?

As above really.

At the end of ssb2 my ftp jumped from 230 to 255 (3.2w/kg)

Since starting short power build I’ve really struggled to complete the workouts so I’ve either ended up cutting them short by bailing out, or by using the shorter -3, -4 alternatives.

The other thing I find is my heart rate rockets, i recently did Boncliffe -3 which is a 30 second sprint followed by 11mins at sweetspot and in the second and third interval my heart rate basically sat at 175-180bpm which is threshold!!

Question is, shall I just man up and keep persisting with completing the vo2 intervals at 100% intensity but maybe not completing all prescribed sets/use shorter workout variant?!

Should I forget my about heart rate at sweetspot as even though it was hard I still got through it?

…or do you think I have a scewed my last ramp test and my ftp is too high meaning I should read-test.

I have another ramp test scheduled in two weeks so should I just go with it?!?

sounds to me like you may have tested a bit too high.

I don’t think you should wait the two weeks if your training quality at the moment is suboptimal. why not drop FTP 5 or 10 points manually and see how you get on with completing the workouts.

IT is quite norml that your heartrate is higher for such intervals. You almost did a short all out effort.

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This! They’re called race starters for a reason!

Likely your body is just not ready for a VO2 efforts. I ran into the same problem coming off traditional base and going into general build. I had a FTP gain of 8% at the beginning of general build, but struggled heavily. I ended up reducing my FTP manually by 4%. I was able to finish the remainder of the weeks in GB. The 4% still allowed for challenging workouts, but it didn’t bury me or cause me to reduce the intensity or duration.

All the Build phases seem to be a noticeable step up from SSB2. I’d bet a lot of other users find the build phases challenging also.

Have you “failed” many of the workouts, or are you just finding them very challenging?

I’ve failed a few by bailing out early, but I’ve also switched to the shorter duration versions in anticipation of failure.

Im Starting to think it’s more of an adaptation to vo2 and annaerobic work in struggling with

Keep at it if you can physically complete the workouts. There is a big step up in mental focus required to complete these higher effort sessions, especially soon after an FTP bump.

What I can say with absolute certainty is that it has to be uncomfortable both physically and mentally to give you real benefits in a short timeframe. Think of that tough effort as extra watts being built into you, and learn to welcome the hurt as a sign that you are right where you need to be.

It’s remarkable how quickly your body can adapt if you are consistent. In three weeks time you could be doing the same workout at the same intensity and wondering what the fuss was about

There’s another option, that doesn’t require you to have screwed up the FTP test or to do the VO2max intervals at 100%. The relationship between your FTP and VO2max could be different, probably due to lack of VO2max training. When the workout calls for 120% of FTP, if you do 117% (or thereabouts), does that make the whole workout more doable? If so, then doing all the intervals at slightly reduced intensity should be better than skipping later intervals because the earlier intervals were too hard.

The most important thing about VO2max work is accumulating time at a high percentage of VO2max, not the exact power numbers. The power numbers are a guide for what effort is required to start accumulating time, but more time is more valuable than less time, as long as you are operating at a high percentage of your max.

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This!

Thinking your going to fail going into a session… not good got to get the head in the right place, yes the workouts are hard if they weren’t hard ypu wouldn’t be getting stronger and faster, my thoughts would be lower your ftp by a few percent see how you get on.