"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - When to fit in AWC workouts?

Is it better to do AWC workouts after a rest day or before a rest day? Put another way, is it better to let the quality of the AWC work suffer from being at the end of a training block or let the rest of the training block suffer from doing AWC at the beginning?

Since my FTP is disproportionately low compared to the 5" to 5' ranges, i have been inclined to do the former. Is this reasonable?

I'm with Greg Lemond on this one: short intervals are early in the training week.

One note though, your FTP is low, is that your race limiter? If you're losing races because you never get the opportunity to unleash a final sprint, then there's really no reason to train the sprint. Last year I gave up 1' intervals and sprints completely for ~6 months, and focused on VO2Max and FTP. That worked out really well for me. I was able to hit SST 5 days in a row, without building up too much fatigue, so all 5 were great workouts. FTP climbed quickly.

Your hardest workouts should come after a rest day followed by easy(ier) work. Here a rough example of what im doing right now.

Day 1: Active rest day *easy on the bike or plyometrics*
Day 2: FTP work (FTP work is harder than AWC for me)
Day 3: AWC work
Day 4: SST work
Day 5: Rest day (no bike riding)
Day 6: Balls out weekend group ride with the fast boys (4 hours)
Day 7: FTP work / SST work on TT bike (3 hours max)

I say do it at the beginning of the training block once you get your FTP to where you want it. Until then though, I wouldn't dedicate a workout specifically for it, especially if you say it's your strong point.

Thanks guys, that sounds like as close to a consensus as i've ever heard on BF :)

As to why i am doing AWC at all, well i'm just trying to have some form for the races coming up in 2-3 weeks. I figure with regards to that time frame, my ftp is what it is (assuming i work it enough not to lose any.)

Do you guys think this is wrong? Even with races in 2-3 weeks, should i forget about the AWC and just work L3 and L4?

Yeah, go for the FTP. Do enough AWC work just to give yourself some confidence, but it will go up with FTP anyway.

There are two ways you can raise your FTP.... push it up or pull. Balance your weekly workouts to where some days you are pushing and some you are pulling. AWC work will help pull it up (but its not as effective as longer duration SST work *push*).

+1 to everything said. consensus is right.

AWC is not my limiter either, but I'll see some high end work in early season crits and group rides, so I may only give 2-3 workouts any structured 1' type intervals, all on steep hills (specific to my target races).

Bikeforums rocks.

-L