I’ve been following the planned training for a Climbing Road Race and was in the specialised phase in the last few weeks before doing a ramp test earlier today. I have been able to finish all my training in the last few weeks, and riding outdoors too.
Today during the ramp test my legs felt heavy, I wasn’t able to reach my peak HR during the ramp test but had to bail the test early since my legs wouldn’t go any further.
Below is an overview of my TSS from the last few weeks. I haven’t been able to get my FTP up during any of the ramp tests. While I know from last year I did had an ftp of 277, right now I’m stuck at 255 and I’m not making any progress.
I’m looking for advise on how to proceed. Should I take some rest? Should I alter my training plans? Just keep going?
Looks to me like you’ve only been consistent for the last 6 weeks or so. Your last 4 weeks are the 4 biggest volume training weeks of the year, and the 2 before that were your 6th and 7th biggest training weeks of the year. So you’ve more than doubled your training volume in this block, and jumped into a Speciality plan without having a solid block of Base and Build before it to provide the necessary foundations. Not surprising therefore that you’re carrying a lot of fatigue!
What to do next really depends on whether you have an event you’re targeting, and if so when? If no event then I’d recommend taking a week (or more if necessary) of easy riding, keeping everything below Z2, until the legs start feeling fresh again. Then start over with a Base plan. Looks like you’re doing quite a bit of non-TR training, so probably go with a Low Volume plan and then supplement with other rides, just try not to go too hard on those non-TR rides (and/or substitute a hard non-TR ride for a planned hard TR ride).
Thanks for the recommendations @cartsman and @Pbase. I indeed put less effort in during the base and build due to being busy at work. I’ll take some rest / take it easy right now and start another base phase which will hopefully yield better results for my FTP.
@Pbase I’ve checked AI FTP and it says my FTP increased to 262, which is marginally better then 255. I know I can do better, so cutting corners during base/build phase won’t help.
@Helvellyn as @Pbase and @cartsman noticed my efforts during base/build didn’t match up with my efforts in the specialised phase.
Not sure when your road race is (are you training for one?), but take a rest week, and then resume, and might be best to ballpark 400-500 tss for those next 3 weeks as opposed to hitting that 600 mark again. A little less might keep you fresher for the “work” and harder efforts.
Are you currently focusing on high-intensity or low-intensity training?
I’ve seen a lot of cases where ‘repetition of high intensity and rest’ is quite effective if you haven’t reached the peak FTP.
Looks like you doubled your average TSS recently. I’d say your body isn’t quite ready for that amount of intensity. You should look to ramp your volume up over time, modulating it based on how recovered you feel and only increasing it, when you feel like it’s sustainable. There is a huge difference between 250 TSS and 400 and that 600 TSS week probably warranted recovery immediately following. I’d perhaps dial it back to 300 TSS and see if you can do that consistently. And with that lower volume, I’d shoot for the moon in terms of difficulty in those workouts. better to make your (very few) hard workouts really hard than to have all your workouts be lukewarm.
Could be just a day where you under performed on the ramp test. Take a little time and retest. My experience is 3-5 % higher when I take a ramp test vs AI detection. Also I never hit my max HR on ramp tests. Close but not peak. I think I pull the plug a little early. I say this cause I often end up bumping my workouts by 3-5% the week after an increase in FTP. Still being able to complete my workouts without going all out.
