Is a 6-10 watt higher than the target threshold power an indication of FTP increase?

Just wondering if it’s an indication or not. I’ve done sweetspots and threshold workouts with a 6-10 watt higher than the target power for each interval.

Yes, with the caveat that you weren’t completely burning yourself to do it. If you were doing 10 watts more than the target power in a SS interval and it was still the normal, hard but manageable effort that it should be then your FTP has probably increased.

How many weeks have you been training for, and what stage of the plans are you at.

I’ve already finished SSBLV1 with a 180 FTP. Kind of awkward actually when I had my ramp tests (yes, I had two ramp tests) and a 20 minute FTP test at SSBLV2. Surprisingly I got 172 FTP?! A decrease of 7 watts. I was fairly well rested when I had those. I didn’t change my 180 FTP after that. Now I’m at the second week of SSBLV2, what you’ve said were right. SS and thresholds were hard but very manageable even at a 6-10 watt higher than the target power. So I was thinking of were the FTP tests I’ve done correct?

Sometimes the test does not go well. Some people do not test well. If you are finding the workouts easy or very very manageable, no harm in manually bumping your FTP 5W and giving it a go. :+1:

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Thank you for ya’ll inputs. Will try bumping my FTP with a 5W increase.

Hello again, just an update tho. I increased my FTP to 5 more watts. I had the Clark workout this morning which is a sweetspot. I was a bit bored though I felt working hard, but not to the point I’m gasping. It’s just that I feel like I’m restricted by what I can do more. Now my question is should sweetspot workouts feel like a bit boring? Is it alright to disregard the rule of 2-3% FTP increase recommendation? Say increase it to 5%?

Honestly it sounds like you’re of the “no pain no gain” mentality. Training is about working the edges, see how you feel after 2 weeks, how’s your fatigue, can you handle the load before thinking you need to up the watts.

Kind of yeah. If it ain’t destroy me, am not satisfied. I remember my sweetspot workouts during SSBLV1 which were really hard. It is just that now I’m at SSBLV2, sweetspots felt like tempo-ish workouts to me.

I find sweetspot intervals are a chance to catch up with box sets etc. I can zone out, and it makes the 90 minutes workout go by much quicker, without this it would definitely be boring.

If you’re feeling particularly brave you could always do a ramp test before one of the 60 minute sweet spot workouts just to see where you’re at… :grinning:

Start doing more 6x4min @120% VO2 workouts. :+1:

There should be NO gasping during a SS workout. EVER.
If you want a gasping workout, see above.

Just means you are getting stronger. And just to be clear, the SSBLV2 plan only has 2 actual SS workouts in it, the rest are Threshold (SSBL/MV2 are not at all SS plans), so now you’ll be doing the same duration intervals, just at a higher power (this is kind of the over-arching theme of TR plans – raise the power curve vs extend).

You could always do a 3x30min SS…I bet that would end up not feeling like a tempo-ish work out. :wink:

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