How long do you SST?



jetnjeff

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Mar 17, 2006
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I am curious as to the maximum duration every one can do at SST?
How often you do this type of effort?
And how long the fatigue effects your PE on your next series of training sessions?
 
I often - like most weeks do a 2-2.5 hour ride at SST, IF is around 0.90.

I do it to make the most of my limited training time but get in an endurance ride mid week.

I can train the day after, how i feel depends more on what else i have done that week.
 
jetnjeff said:
I am curious as to the maximum duration every one can do at SST?
It's rare that I do any rides longer than 3hrs, but a hard 3hr ride would still fall into what I consider to be the sweet-spot (ie, upper L2 to lower L4). For me, pretty much any ride longer than 1.5hr will be SST, which would be 3-4 times per week.

After a 3hr SST ride, I could train again the next day but it wouldn't be anything above SST and also not for another 3hrs.
 
frenchyge said:
It's rare that I do any rides longer than 3hrs, but a hard 3hr ride would still fall into what I consider to be the sweet-spot (ie, upper L2 to lower L4). For me, pretty much any ride longer than 1.5hr will be SST, which would be 3-4 times per week.

After a 3hr SST ride, I could train again the next day but it wouldn't be anything above SST and also not for another 3hrs.
My definition of what I consider to be a good SST ride is about 85%-90% average power for about 1.5-2.5hr. I try to do them on steady roads so NP is right around there too. I wouldn't call a ride thats 75% or less ave and an IF of .86 to be SST ride at least by adaptation standpoint. I call that an endurance ride where I don't **** around too much and am on rolling hills. At think that one mistake people make with SST is that they say "I can get a whole ton of hours in at low 3 NP- lots of SST mens lots of FTP" but looking at their ride file they spent a lot of time total screwing around coasting down descent and a lot of time near and over vo2max power. While that might not be bad and could be very specific- it's not going to flatten your PD curve below Pvo2max much at all. Which IMHO is really the biggest benefit of SST training especially for an individual with 5/60 above 1.25 or 20/60 ratio above 1.07.


Greg
 
Agree with this. I don't have hills around me (completely flat), but when I've been in moutainous areas in other countries, my normalized power for longer distances goes through the roof, primaily due to the long recoveries on the downhills and high efforts on the uphills.

I think there's a big difference between an IF=0.85-0.90 ride in the hills and in the flats. The hills allow time for recovery whereas the flats don't. NP and AP should be close to each other. The fatigue sensation associated with such constant power workouts is much higher for me than a highly variable ride.

Of course, another reason for my overly fatigued legs on my SST rides is where they fall in my training week - Tue - 30+ minutes at L5, Wed - 60+ minutes at L4, Thu - 120+ minutes at L3.

gvanwagner said:
My definition of what I consider to be a good SST ride is about 85%-90% average power for about 1.5-2.5hr. I try to do them on steady roads so NP is right around there too. I wouldn't call a ride thats 75% or less ave and an IF of .86 to be SST ride at least by adaptation standpoint. I call that an endurance ride where I don't **** around too much and am on rolling hills. At think that one mistake people make with SST is that they say "I can get a whole ton of hours in at low 3 NP- lots of SST mens lots of FTP" but looking at their ride file they spent a lot of time total screwing around coasting down descent and a lot of time near and over vo2max power. While that might not be bad and could be very specific- it's not going to flatten your PD curve below Pvo2max much at all. Which IMHO is really the biggest benefit of SST training especially for an individual with 5/60 above 1.25 or 20/60 ratio above 1.07.


Greg
 
The below made me think: That is why I posted this question!
Cause I tried a 2 hour SST (after a warm up) outdoors on Wednesday for the first time and in northern NJ that means rolling at best with a hill here and there as well. I was a bit too exuberant as was my training partner and many of the early hills were supra VO2. I did manage a NP of over 80% of FTP but the AP was just several Watts into L3(AP=237, NP=256). The IF was .82 with a VI of only 1.08. (I Killed myself on the downhills trying to keep the power up) Only an hour 10 had an AP above 80%. The VO2 efforts all were less than 2 minutes some much less.

So if I get you right the SST interval should be in L3 and 4 only and average in the SST area.




gvanwagner said:
My definition of what I consider to be a good SST ride is about 85%-90% average power for about 1.5-2.5hr. I try to do them on steady roads so NP is right around there too. I wouldn't call a ride thats 75% or less ave and an IF of .86 to be SST ride at least by adaptation standpoint. I call that an endurance ride where I don't **** around too much and am on rolling hills. At think that one mistake people make with SST is that they say "I can get a whole ton of hours in at low 3 NP- lots of SST mens lots of FTP" but looking at their ride file they spent a lot of time total screwing around coasting down descent and a lot of time near and over vo2max power. While that might not be bad and could be very specific- it's not going to flatten your PD curve below Pvo2max much at all. Which IMHO is really the biggest benefit of SST training especially for an individual with 5/60 above 1.25 or 20/60 ratio above 1.07.


Greg
 
jetnjeff said:
The below made me think: That is why I posted this question!
Cause I tried a 2 hour SST (after a warm up) outdoors on Wednesday for the first time and in northern NJ that means rolling at best with a hill here and there as well. I was a bit too exuberant as was my training partner and many of the early hills were supra VO2. I did manage a NP of over 80% of FTP but the AP was just several Watts into L3(AP=237, NP=256). The IF was .82 with a VI of only 1.08. (I Killed myself on the downhills trying to keep the power up) Only an hour 10 had an AP above 80%. The VO2 efforts all were less than 2 minutes some much less.

So if I get you right the SST interval should be in L3 and 4 only and average in the SST area.
I would think that .82 IF and a much lower ap wouldn't get a true SST benefit if your only doing it for 2hrs. A VI of 1.08 isn't too bad but it still changes the whole "flatten the curve" benefit that I keep harping on. That being said, if those are the roads you have to work with then I guess there's no choice. I think on a solo ride you could have closed the VI gap a bit. But yeah for my rides I like to see AP to be within the 85% range for 1.5-2.5hr. Of course when I started doing a lot of rides like that I could only do 80% and now Im up closer to upper 80s. Course I had a lot of flattening to do. If you could get those rides up into the upper 80s AP then I think you'll find yourself not just doing more power for longer but inducing a lot of very beneficial adaptations.

Try looking at your power file on 1 min smoothing and seeing how long your spending in the 80+ region. if your not finding a lot of 10-15+min chunks than it might not be the workout your expecting.

Not that I mean you should micromanage every ride but Ive done a lot of 80+ NP rides that looking at power fill don't induce even close to the same adaptation as 80+AP. From when I lived in a very rolling/steep climb area. I spent a load of time above 360 watts and a bigger load of time at very low power (and I really did try to nail the downhills) and that showed that very clearly with a 20/60 ratio of 1.20+, a 5/60 of 1.35+, and very crappy sub threshold power, recovery, and endurance.
 
80+of AP I presume?

gvanwagner said:
Try looking at your power file on 1 min smoothing and seeing how long your spending in the 80+ region. if your not finding a lot of 10-15+min chunks than it might not be the workout your expecting.
My 5/20 is just over 1.25, but I have only done a couple blocks this year.

I Have worked on my 60m power on the trainer but have't went all out for a 20m, so I don't have a good 20/60 to look at.

with a 20/60 ratio of 1.20+, a 5/60 of 1.35+, and very crappy sub threshold power, recovery, and endurance.
 

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