Hey everyone,
I seek your advice and words of wisdom, having recently returned to the TR platform after several years away.
This has very much been a season of two halves for me. In the first half, I was consistently improving, getting stronger and having a blast on my new team. I was putting out my best numbers to date and had probably my favourite few months of racing to date.
However, I started a demanding new job at the end of May, and since then have watched my fitness gradually trend down, my performance slip away, and have had a generally disappointing season results-wise. I am going from being able to do 600TSS weeks comfortably, to more like 300TSS, so a big change. I start early, so cannot train before work. I sometimes get home late, so only have time for 60 min workouts during the week.
I used TrainerRoad in my first ever season racing (in 2014) , then got a coach and a power meter, and that has been my set up for a few years now. However, with the shift in my work/life balance, working with a coach was just an extra stress because I didn’t want to let them down if I missed workouts, and scheduling in calls and meetings was hard. So I’m back on TR!
I’d like to hear some stories of other people who have had a big change in their lives which has shifted their ability to train. How did it affect your performance? Were you surprised at how much fitness you could retain with a bit more specificity?
Did you adjust what sort of races you entered? I’m more of a road race person than a criterium typically, but lower volume is not as well suited for 2.5-3hr road races as I am lacking towards the end.
Did you change how you raced?
How would you prepare for the season ahead? Did you use any extra time available to get more hours in the saddle? Did you skip weights in the off season?
If there is a podcast episode which touches on the above, please let me know which one!