What's your CTL ceiling?

BlueJersey

With a 40 hours full time job in the video gaming retail industry, 65 top. Mostly due to my inability to recover as fast as I want to after a 200tss session. Sure, if I can knock off 3 consecutive days of 200tss each, I can probably have a higher CTL. Age 33.

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peterpen

Perhaps you need to look at your recovery routines and rest day/week schedules? Or perhaps it's a matter of a 200TSS ride being triple your CTL - I've never done a ride that was 3x my CTL.

In any case, my CTL has been double yours and I have only done 3 consecutive 200TSS days one time this season. Typical pattern is:
M- off
T- 100-150tss
W- 200-250tss
Th- off
Fri- 100-150tss
Sa- 200-250tss
Su- 175-225tss
Rest week every fourth week (represented by the low end of the above numbers.)

As a 36 yr old with two jobs and two small children (but working with a coach who emphasizes proper recovery techniques) I find that my major constraint on building a high CTL is time, not recovery.

BlueJersey

Yeah, really don't have much time to train. Doing a 3 day block targeting specific race fitness system since Feb. 1 race day. Maybe 1 medium intensity ride during the middle of the week About 600+TSS. I stopped commuting so that I can make my training ride matters and have more time to recover. I only have 2 days off from work. I leave one of my day off for complete rest. That leaves me to train on my block training in the morning before work. Those are tough days. They aren't so bad early in the season. When I began to block train on my 1 minute power intervals, or 5 minutes power workouts, I have to struggle to get stay awake or focus at work.

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Uhl

Thanks for everyone's participation in this poll. It's comforting to know that I'm not abnormal in having a CTL limit of only 100 TSS/day.

After leveling off at 100 last year, I was shooting for 110 this season, but that didn't work out too well. I started breaking down in May after hitting a high of 100 the end of April. A too short of a break between seasons and higher intensity training this winter/early spring probably didn't help matters.

So after weeks of reduced volume and a full week off the bike last week, I feel much better now and have been easing back into things. I think a CTL of 80-90 will be much more sustainable for me.

In case you're interested, I've attached my training load chart as of June 20 (from my homegrown Excel training diary). The light gray line is last season's CTL.

Attached Thumbnails

 

NomadVW

Looks like the second half of 2007 will see me go a bit higher than my 130 CTL ceiling I voted on. Broke through 130 today, and will probably be in mid 130's by the end of August? End of September is when fall racing starts for me though, so 135ish will probably be my top end.

This was a 160 TSS/day week for me, and no sickness! Phew!

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daveryanwyoming

Very impressive, how many hours do you train per week?

Pelotonium

It could just be that you're using too high a threshold power in WKO+. Was your FTP measured or derived? Are you being honest with yourself on this one?

Just a thought...

NomadVW

Since the last transition, from cpeaks

Time/Distance, Sun to Sat
From To Weekly Hours Weekly Distance
6/10/2007 6/16/2007 17.486 553.135
6/17/2007 6/23/2007 15.0325 474.189
6/24/2007 6/30/2007 15.4564666666667 493.817
7/1/2007 7/7/2007 17.87415 579.684
7/8/2007 7/14/2007 15.59985 497.626
7/15/2007 7/21/2007 18.15835 580.411
7/22/2007 7/28/2007 16.7188 453.057
7/29/2007 8/4/2007 18.4674 532.682
8/5/2007 8/11/2007 4.9875 162.253

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Bob Dopolina

Those are some pretty good numbers! They won't tell you anything about anemia, though but based on those results you needn't worry, that's not the problem.

If you really want to check your iron levels (something I recommend you do every 6 weeks) check your STORED iron, not your serum iron. Your body will keep your circulating iron within a very narrow range and it will only drop significantly once you have depleted your stores and it is much too late.

Also check TIBC and reticulocite numbers. TIBC indicates wether you body has the needed ingredients to brew up some fresh RBC. If the numbers are low you need to do additional testing to find which of the elements you are lacking. The reticulicite cells are new, undeveloped cells that represent your future cells. Low numbers here can mean you are either in the process of replacing a lot of lost cells or can signal other, bone marrow related issues.

Also look at the circumference of the cells themselves. You need to make sure that you not only have enough RBC, but that they are of good quality.

Spend 15 minutes and have your doctor explain the test results to you. Also, go to the same lab for testing so that the results are consistant.

As I said, based on the information you did provide, I would look elsewhere for the problem but add regular blood work to your training regime.

daveryanwyoming

Nice job, you must be doing a real good job keeping your intensity up on your longer rides to hold the 900+ TSS/week on 15 to 17 hours. Nice work!

Rocket^

Uhl,

That Excel sheet you have is awesome! Any chance of sharing that with an Excel dummy like me?

Bullseye_blam

Another thing to consider is how much you are racing. It may be easier to attain a higher CTL when following your specific training plan rather than racing a lot [which may not optimize your training efforts and therefore not allow you to reach a CTL ceiling as high as could be possible].

-Eric

Steve_B

Just resurrecting this old poll. I found it while I was looking for some other stuff.

Age:43
Max CTL: 100
FTP: usually 290-300

I have achieved or gone beyond 100 a three times that I am aware of and, while I was initially OK and felt fine, it caught up with me and within 4-6 weeks, I started to feel mentally tired. Training and sometimes even riding would be a chore. Classic burnout. I might have been able to mitigate the effects had I taken some time away from the bike (e.g. a week) within that 4-6 week window but I didn't so I'll never know.

In any case, after going through this a few times, I've come to recognize the warning signs. For me, I'll notice that if I make a big CTL ramp too quickly, my attitude starts to sour. If that happens too many times, I know that I'm in trouble. Recently I started to notice it during a 3-week block of L5 and L4 that I had planned. Because of the sensations I was getting, I cut way back on the L5 work a little early and replaced most of the planned L5 TSS with L4. The season hasn't even begun here (first training races just started now that we are thawing out) so it's way too early to be burning out.