Just finished a Big Week! We went away Thursday to Sunday (Easter weekend), so I ended up having to do half of week 9 and all of week 10 in 8 days. I did Circus late on Easter Sunday and then Malevolent on Easter Monday, but then moved right into Week 10 and did Exigent on Tues and Exemplar on Wednesday. I then did Serrated Friday morning, a 60km gravel group ride on Saturday (instead of Potpouri), and then Baffling Beau on Sunday. I am pretty saddle sore today
I was pretty disappointed after finishing Mosaic in week 9 at only 95%, so I was worried about Serrated (and genuinely worried about whether I would continue in the plan), but it was brutal but doable. What helped I think is that I finally bought a fan
A lot of people seem to say Circus is the hardest workout, but I found it a lot easier than Mosaic, Serrated, Kirizuma, or Malevolent. Maybe this is because I am a mountain biker, so I often do short spurts of high watts to get up punchy sections.
Finished off Week 11 last night. It was a tough week to figure out an optimal workout order. I was pretty wrecked after Week 10, so I took Monday and Tuesday off to rest my crotch. What I ended up going with was the following:
Breakfast Returns and Thew were both really tough, but I mentally prepped and could get through the hour by just taking the intervals one-by-one and staying ahead of ERG mode. Aspire was definitely the toughest of the week, the first over/under took a lot of mental energy to keep going at the recommended cadence, luckily the second over/under was easier, but then in the third they had me standing for the overs which did not help! My legs had almost nothing left in the VO2 intervals, the final 10 seconds of the final ones were really hard. But I did it!
I am pretty happy with making it to the end of the workouts considering that after Red Unicorn in Week 1 I wrote on Strava “That was friggin brutal. If this is Week 1, I am not sure how I will make it through all 12 weeks”
I didn’t fail any workouts but had to take an extended rest break on Purple Unicorn, and I had to turn down the intensity and take extended breaks on Mosaic and Cool Cucumber (this was because I had done Kirizuma the day before). I think Mosaic was the hardest in the plan for me. I also found 15.9 really hard because I did not know how to mentally prep for VO2 intervals yet. And Purple Unicorn of course.
I did the 20min FTP test tonight. I was a bit worried because I have seen posts saying the Ramp Test at the start often overestimates FTP and sometimes the 20min test at the end doesn’t show much improvement. But I prepared mentally and feel like I really nailed it!
I am very happy with these gains! Pretty big feeling of accomplishment tonight. Now I plan to move to outdoor training to work on getting my ride length longer in preparation for a 60km mountain bike race in June.
Start of Build Me Up
Weight= 75kg
Ramp FTP test= 208w (based on Intervals.icu calculation not Zwift)
W/kg = 2.77
Today
Weight= 73.5kg
Ramp FTP test= 224w (Again based on Intervals)
W/kg= 3.05
I thought I’d had 3 days rest, but it was only 2 and probably should have left it another day or two as I felt the fatigue still once I got to the last few minutes.
I started the end of Feb and used 210w in Zwift for the workouts. I didn’t change the FTP during the workouts despite a small percentage of them being a bit easier than expected compared to online comments. Usually the more sprint based stuff.
I followed all the workouts other than the pedalling drills (hurt my knees) and the odd workout which I did outside instead. All in, I did it in just over 11 weeks. I followed Eric Schlange’s blog on Zwfit Insider which I found really useful to gauge the hardness of the workouts and I always started the ‘week’ on a weekend and did the harder workouts first.
So with the fat loss, I’m ‘up’ 10% which I’m very happy with. I’ll enjoy the Summer outside now and get back on this or maybe another plan October/November.
Oh and no extra rides other than 3 short easy ones outside.
My background was relatively fit (Insanity/boxing etc) but only once a week, one hour rides in the summer until last December when I picked it up and started Zwifting.
Hey guys. I’ve just started week 2 of this plan and after some guidance/curious how you guys found it.
Ramp test result: 247w
100kg.
I did the zone bench marking as my first ride and as a result dropped my ftp down to 230w because it was tougher than i felt a bench marking ride should be.
I went on to do Devedeset, this was tough, still 8/10 so dropped to 220w.
Then the fun started, with Red Unicorn. This was an absolute blood bath for me towards the last set.
My question is: How hard are these sessions meant to be? It feels a little counter intuitive to have all these rides being a real effort?
I have Orange unicorn coming up this week and i’m wondering if i should drop my ftp again to 210 or whether this plan is just a bit of a b****h.
This is all beginning of prep for UK Dragons ride (Devil) in June 2025 so need to get this right!
I’m guessing it’s the sustained nature of the efforts that’s causing you the issues.
How are you fuelling? For these workouts if you start drinking sugary water as soon as you begin the workout at the rate of 80g of carbs per hour you’ll likely find it really helps. Plenty of carbs with your regular meals over the preceding 24 hours as well
If you’re already doing that, go ahead and drop your FTP again. You can always nudge it back up a little bit later on.
For example with Red unicorn, 1 min @ 175w, 30 sec @ 230w x6, x 4. In the last set, the 175w isn’t enough of an ‘under’ for me to get any recovery so i feel like i’m on a constant ‘over’ for the duration.
I’m not fuelling at all, just water. I tend not to bother with anything < 90 mins but, fair comment that i oddly hadn’t considered like i would for outdoor rides! Thanks for provoking the thought, will give that a bash for Orange Unicorn & see how i go.
Let us know how it goes. With the carbs, it helps to think of it that you’re fuelling for the workout you’re in and the next one to give yourself a head start on your recovery.
In retrospect, personally I found Build me Up to have too many days of intensity per week, but everyone is different. Even the easier sessions are not easy.
I had my first hard fail at Red Unicorn, (died halfway through the second to last interval), lowered FTP a bit, still couldn’t get through orange unicorn, lowered FTP, still couldn’t get through red unicorn.
What I realized is, for me the ramp test overestimates my FTP, so I would have started the plan at a different level based on a 20min test (or intervals.icu’s eFTP) if I were to re-do it.
I found the build me up plan really got hard in about the 7th week, I was questioning all my life choices that week.
As others have said, fuelling yourself is important. Last winter going into BuildMeUp I had been doing intermittent fasting (only eating 12pm-6pm), but I had to stop that in the first week because it wasn’t sufficient for the workload. I found it critical to eat carbs on the bike, and then properly eat throughout the day. You also need to up your protein big time for recovery.
I couldn’t have gotten through without music. I had to really up the intensity of the music too!
Do you have a fan? I bought a fan near the end of the program and it seemed to be the difference maker in keeping my heart rate below fatal levels
Starting Build Me Up this week for my second time through.
I am coming off two months of reduced cycling and my FTP gains from last winter have been lost.
I was happy with it last winter and am interested to see how it goes the second time.
Purple Unicorn just as bad the second time round. That final set of over/unders pushed me to my max- my body was about 1 second away from giving out when I finished.
I am in week 2 of BMU and I have halvfems left for this week. Wednesday is my end/start of the week. The hardest adjustment I have been having is control of my power and cadence when standing. Hopefully through training I can improve that.
Do others join other rides on top of the BMU? I did an extra 42 miles last week and was pretty tired. I blamed some of that on my holiday diet and company…
BMU gets pretty intense at about the 7th week so I wasn’t able to do much else at that point. But everyone starts from a different fitness point I imagine.
Last winter when I did Build Me Up I was training for an endurance event, so I was tagging on a really long zone1/2 ride each week, but as Aaron said, it becomes very hard to do that in week 7, and weeks 9-11. Week 8 is low intensity, but your body may need the rest to get ready for weeks 9-11 which are very intense
This year I am in week 6 and haven’t done much extra other than a few longer cool downs (like doing an extra 15-30mins easy after a Unicorn) and some nordic skiing. I may even replace some of the easier rides in weeks 7-12 with nordic skiing.
I am finishing up week 3. Just did the yellow unicorn and almost launched cookies. I’m hoping the holiday diet is to blame… I do have the Ol Tucson 10er coming up on the 18th but after that I may really limit my IRL rides until I finish. My legs are definitely tired.
Wow, glad to see this thread is still going strong from when I started it over three years ago! Took a big break from Zwift with injury but back now and did Back To Fitness and currently on the Zwift Racing plan (which is absolutely brutal). Might give BMU another go next winter. My FTP is currently 60W down on when I finished my last BMU so a long way to go…
