CTL building strategies

daveryanwyoming

I'd bet your guesstimate is low. I rode far fewer miles last season, have been averaging 8 to 10 hours per week on the bike this winter and my CTL is ~98 TSS/day at the moment and still climbing. Part of that's because I don't spend much time below Tempo pace and do a lot of SST/L4 this time of year. When I get back to bike commuting in the spring I'll get some more mellow miles.

I was wondering if that was part of your plan. Yeah, it changes things a bit but I still wouldn't target a 22 point increase in 5 days. I'd probably shoot for half that and expect to be really tired for the last couple of days of that deep dig. I'd also be really careful to stay fueled up, paying extra attention to critical half hour refueling after each ride and pay extra attention to staying hydrated with plenty of electrolytes for that kind of consecutive indoor training.

Let us know how it goes,
-Dave

ctgt

It'sa pretty mixed bag of km, that's for sure. Some commuting on a 30 lb. bike with panniers sometimes adding another 10-20, mountain biking, 2800 km on my good carbon road bike, couple of thousand on the Computrainer... I think I may have erred on the side of underestimation in determining the wattage and IF factor of these outdoor rides (I only have wattage readings from the Computrainer).



I was already thinking that I'd go buy some ELoad, gels and proper recovery nutrition for this venture, so yeah I was thinking along those lines too. Like I said, I'm likely to tinker with the "stages" a bit before I start too.

I will let you know how it goes. Of course, I still have to run the whole idea past my family, but they're usually pretty understanding of any riding I do before 9:00 A.M. (yes, I'll likely be running these races on GMT, or I wouldn't be talking about 3-4 hours/day)

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frenchyge

Dude, that's brutal. Not impossible, but improbable, IMO. I'm not sure why anyone would want to do that to themselves (especially indoors ), but definitely get yourself something nice for your birthday if you pull it off.

ctgt

OK, now I'm conflicted between taking good advice (from both you and Dave) to reduce the TSS, and stubbornly sticking with my original plan, and reporting back to you on how it goes



Now I think you actually do know the answer to this one. I'm pretty sure that it's safe to assume that none of my spring/summer competition will be doing the same thing, so I'm hoping for that boost to fitness that some would say you can only get from a stage race (can't you just hear Phil and Paul talking about how once you finish a grand tour, your body changes and you become a different rider?). And for whatever reason, I really don't mind riding indoors (I never use an IPod outside for instance), and I'm motivated by the numbers (km covered, wattage attained, TSS etc.)



Oooh. That's a good idea.


Thanks for the input. I will let you know either way. Now...any advice on how to approach the following?:

Honey (I never call her that, but that's the cliche), when the March Break arrives, I'd like to get up at 5:30 every morning for the first 4 or 5 days, and ride the trainer for about 80-100 km before we do anything else. I'm pretending it's a stage race.

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WattsAMatta

With job, wife, and kids, the bulk of my training happens between 4 am and 6 am, so I off the trainer and showered before anyone else in the house is awake, and nobody complains of neglect. So unless 'Honey' is an early riser, then you should be off the hook. Just be sure to get enough sleep between stages. Good Luck.

frenchyge

If your situation is anything like mine then she already knows you're crazy and it won't be a big issue. Now, telling her that you'll need your chicken and rice prepared at 10am everyday, will need your massage at 11am, and are then planning to nap from noon to 3pm everyday to recover while she cleans and tunes up the bike, when it'll be time for more chicken and rice..... that may be a different story.

ctgt

Maybe I'll start with that and settle on just the riding. That's good negotiating strategy, right?

Actually, the bigger challenge is that for every hour of exercise I get, she gets one too. She hates the trainer, though, so this time of year she won't likely "exercise" that option fully. She may get a full day of skate-skiing out of it though.

If this "works" for me, she'll probably get to do her own "stage race" the first 4 days of summer.

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ctgt

I hear you. I wonder what % of my total riding would be considered "prime-time", (non-commuting, daylight hours). If I had to guess, I'd say under 40% of it (and most of that would be in the summer). But don't all these trainer rides before sunrise help you realy appreciate the summer day when it's your turn to go out and ride a century or spend 3 hours on the trails?

It doesn't matter whether or not my wife is the early riser. What matters is whether the kids get up early. (isn't it funny how the same kids who are so hard to wake-up at 6:30 A.M. on a weekday are up-and-at-'em earlier on the weekned).

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ctgt

March Break Computrainer Stage Race:

Day 1: 82 km (4 laps of a 20.5 hilly course)-an actual race run every July

AW 217 2:39:00 TSS 187 new CTL 74.0 TSB -0.9

Didn't feel as good as I would have liked, given a positive TSB of 13.6 going in, but I'm fighting off a bit of a cold (which could ultimately cause me to "abandon" the race.

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frenchyge

Bummer!

ctgt

Stage 2: 64 km (4 laps of a favourite local loop-Ct course generated by GPS)

AW 224 1:53:50 AHr 165 TSS 149 CTL 75.7 TSB -9.0

Felt better than yesterday.

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frenchyge

Those distances and TSS numbers look a lot more reasonable than originally discussed. Did you decide to back away from the "go for broke" training approach?

Nice job! Keep it up.

ctgt

Actually, the two courses I chose for the first two days were on my original list (may have changed the order though).

Shorter warm-ups and cool downs, combined with slightly lower than anticipated wattages (wasn't feeling great, like I said), and lower duration (because I rode with the drafting on to make it more like a race, which I don't typically do, and therefore had a higher average speed than I originally guesstimated) all helped lower the TSS, but as you said, that's probably not a bad thing.

Tomorrow's challenges will come from the loss of an hour to DST, the need to spend at least an hour shovelling out from our most recent winter storm, and assorted errands and family commitments.


Total distance Day 1 (with WUCD) was 90 km, Day 2 was 75 km

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rmur17

hmmm ... you rode with drafting on and only averaged 33-34 kph? that doesn't sound right ....

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