A huge TSB hole

Training
1

I’m not a big TrainingPeaks user but this year I’m returning to training after 4 months off entirely, so I’m using as many tools as possible to keep an eye on things.

Over the past 4 weeks I’ve been building up my endurance miles (no intensity) and checking in on TP I’ve managed to build up a TSB score of -60! I’ve quite naturally dropped in to doing about 800 - 1000 TSS a week but I think the fatigue has crept up on me and I woke up from a big ride (where I felt great) with a fever and muscle ache all over!

You can see a reasonable increase in TSB when I took my first rest week, but as soon as I started to ride again the fatigue really piled on, these numbers all look very “danger zone” according to the literature so now I’m thinking it makes sense take a few days off entirely and really try and shed the fatigue.

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2

After 4 months off you could have lost 25% of your VO2MAX and FTP. For the past 4 weeks how have you been determining that your rides were at endurance pace?

3

I reset my levels down about 20% and used a lactate meter to check my zones for endurance riding.

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4

I just turned on the new “red-light-green-light” feature, and it put almost my entire calendar for the past 3 weeks in the red!

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5

Those are some big TSS numbers for coming from a few months off. Maybe you need to build up a bit slower.

I usually manage to go below -100 TSB a couple of times in the summer, but it’s always after one-off “event” rides.

That being said, I find TSB the most useful measure in all the apps for me - when TP says “you might be more tired today”, it’s usually right.

One thing to check is that your FTP is set correctly in all the apps and doesn’t create unrealistic TSS numbers.

6

That’s a great point @splash - my FTP on TP was still set at 355 so the TSS scores are probably even higher! Being reflective of the training and my feeling I suspect I am more fatigued than what is showing up on the bike, and it’s off the bike where I’ve actually been tired for a few weeks and not leaning into it so much - so today is a family walk in the sun rather than another 5 hour monster in the hills around Nice

7

General guidelines if I recall are to not go below -30 often or for too long for risk of non-functional over reaching/over training. Also, doing more than +100 TSS week over week is ill advised. Sounds like to built back up too much too soon without appropriate recovery weeks.

8

You don’t have enough data after your break for the outputs of the PMC to be accurate. Ignore them until you have been training again for at least 3 months.

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