Training
Today
Training
Today
The most fitness per hour that structured training has to offer.
Sweet spot is the range just below threshold — roughly 88–94% of FTP — where the training stimulus is still close to threshold but the recovery cost drops off sharply. That trade is the whole idea: if you have six to eight hours a week rather than sixteen, sweet spot buys you more sustainable power per hour than anything else.
This plan runs eight weeks in two four-week blocks. Interval volume grows from 2×15 minutes to 3×20, with a recovery week closing each block, and the rest of the week is genuinely easy aerobic riding. The easy days being easy is what makes the hard days possible.
It ends with a 20-minute FTP test, which is also the input for whatever you do next. Sweet spot base is the first rung of the classic ladder — base, then build, then your event.
Every session below is a real workout you can open and ride right now, with or without the plan. Applying the plan puts them on your calendar on the days you choose.
| Week | Focus and sessions | Load |
|---|---|---|
1 week | Open the block Week 1: 2×15 at sweet spot. Hold the low end of the range — you are setting a baseline, not proving anything. | 4.6 hours |
Sweet spot is riding at roughly 88–94% of FTP — the top of Zone 3 into the bottom of Zone 4. It sits close enough to threshold to drive real adaptation, but far enough below it that you can accumulate 45–60 minutes of it in a week without needing days to recover.
Start at 10–15 minutes and build toward 20. This plan progresses 2×15, 2×20, 3×15, then 3×20 across eight weeks, which is a ramp most riders with a base can absorb.
For riders training six to ten hours a week, it usually does — sweet spot accumulates far more time near threshold per week than threshold intervals themselves allow. Riders with much larger volumes tend to get more from a polarized approach.
A build block. The sustained power build plan is the direct continuation, and after that a specialty plan for your event — century, gran fondo, hill climb, or criterium.
Training works in blocks. These plans pick up where this one leaves off.
The build block that follows base: threshold intervals and VO2 max work, holding onto the aerobic volume that made them possible.
Eight weeks aimed squarely at threshold power, bookended by two identical 20-minute FTP tests so the result is measured rather than felt.
2 week | Lengthen the intervals Week 2: 2×20. The second interval is the one that counts. Settle in and let the trainer hold the watts. | 5.2 hours |
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3 week | Three intervals Week 3: 3×15 — the same total time, split differently, plus a tempo day. The biggest week of block one. | 6 hours |
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4 recovery | Recovery week Week 4: recovery. One short sweet spot session keeps the feel without adding load. Everything else is easy. | 3.6 hours |
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5 week | Block two opens Week 5: back to 3×15, and the long ride goes to two hours. These should feel better than week 3 did. | 6.1 hours |
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6 week | Push the volume Week 6: 3×18, plus an hour of continuous tempo. This is the week that separates the plan from a set of workouts. | 6.4 hours |
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7 week | Peak week Week 7: 3×20 at sweet spot and a three-hour ride. The hardest week of the plan by some distance. | 8.3 hours |
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8 recovery | Taper and test Week 8: back off, sharpen, then test. Ride the openers the day before the test, not two days before. | 3.4 hours |
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Applying the plan schedules all 32 sessions from your chosen start date. You pick which days of the week you ride.
Start Sweet Spot Base