Originally Posted by
awilki01 .
Don't discount that 85% of FTP just yet. I personally do my SST intervals at 90%, but if I'm tired or just unmotivated, 85% is great. I don't think the body does anything drastically different between the 85 and 90% mark.
Think about this - you can do more time at 85% FTP than you can at 100% FTP - and, the difference in subsequent adaptations from the stress is relatively insignificant (according to the chart below). So, I'm personally sticking to that SST range for now until I get closer to my TT event. That's not to say I won't have some full out 100% efforts every now and then before that time - especially during periodic 1 hour FTP testing.
With all that said, everyone is different. I may find out later that 100% is where I need to put my time at this time of the year, but for now, I'm going to go by the literature I've read since I don't have enough time on the saddle to see what best works for me.
A quote to chew on from the website I got this chart from (the Chart's origin AFAIK is from the "Training and Racing with a Power Meter" book):
http://www.fascatcoaching.com/sweetspottraining.html