Dismal power numbers

fleshbroiler

My winter training has not gone according to plan. A couple of minor injuries and some fatigue issues caused one of my meds created some interruptions, but I thought I was back on track. I had a couple of satifactory efforts on 1/29 and 1/30 but things took a nose dive right after that. My average power numbers have dropped about 20%. I only have power data going back to August, but I've never experienced this before. One change in my weekly workouts since the end of January is I've started playing lacrosse one night each week. The game runs about 90 minutes and I definitely run my ass off. So a few questions,

[1] Is there a method I can use to come up with at least an approximate TSS value to help me track this?

[2] Are there any cross trainers out there that have experienced decreased power numbers when adding another activity?

[3] Anybody experience a similar dip in their power?

[4] Any other thoughts or comments?

__________________
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daveryanwyoming

Sure, estitate the IF of your other workouts relative to your best hour long intensity for that effort and keep track of the time spent in that activity. TSS = IF^2*hours*100. So if you estimate lacrosse for instance as an IF 0.8 activity and spent an hour playing you'd get 0.8^2*100 = 64 TSS for that hour. It's a rough estimate since it's hard to really know the IF or how many minutes you were getting after it vs. resting but it'll get you close.

It's not surprising if the activity tires you out a lot. If you're fatigued you won't put out your best power numbers and the lacrosse could easily be leaving you pretty fatigued. That's not necessarily a problem as long as you can still do some steady training. You have to be fresh to see your best power numbers (hence the rested part of full on 40km FTP testing) but you don't have to be fresh or even put out your best numbers to be getting good training.

This is part of the whole 3 weeks then rest mythology. Preplanned rest weeks allow you to rebound, feel fresh and often but out big power numbers. But that doesn't mean you're actually fitter than the rider who doesn't take the rest week keeps plugging away at training, doesn't see peak power numbers but is continually training and encouraging training adaptations during those times when the other guy is resting and feeling good about hitting high power levels. Just because you don't see the big numbers(aren't as fresh) doesn't mean you aren't getting the training benefit and continuing to improve. If you overdo things and can't start or finish your workouts, then yep you need some time off but steady appropriate training loads can have huge benefits even if they're submaximal and keep you a bit tired.

It happens from time to time, usually due to fatigue as mentioned above. Or after a layoff from illness, injury, end of the season break, etc. So far I've always rebounded to even higher power levels after one of these backsteps but they do happen.

If you're able to stay with your training and at least put out solid SST efforts then just keep plugging along. If you've been doing regular L4 or harder work you might back those down into SST/Tempo and hold the efforts longer until you start feeling better. During heavy periods of racing I often do just that when I'm starting to struggle with harder training. Invariably I rebound after a week or two of longer steadier SST/Tempo work and usually rebound to higher power numbers. It's counterintuitive, but if you start to struggle it often pays to back off power and extend interval duration rather than trying to push through with higher intensity work. I think it's partially psychological and partly due to the freshness/accumulated fatigue I was talking about above. But either way it helped me stave off mid season burnout a couple of times last year and always led to higher peaks once I bounced back.

Good luck,
-Dave