To me it just sounds like you’re not feeling great if you do a ride that is difficult relative to your weekly training load (i.e. high TSS ride relative to weekly TSS) or high intensity. I think that it is pretty normal to have some after effects from efforts like that.
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Oh, did you do the BMTR Flat 100 too?
You’re not alone. A longer endurance ride that gets me to 100TSS is much easier on me, but if I do anything with intensity it takes me longer to recover than most it seems. A frisky 1.5 hour road ride last week really set in the fatigue to the point where it effected my weekend plans. Not cool - interested in the responses here since I have been dealing with this for a long time.
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I used to be trashed and useless for the rest of the day after a 3 hour group ride.
I solved this with better aerobic fitness. Two winters ago, I did 11 weeks of low intensity base miles - 65-70% of HRmax slow - 10 hours per week average. By week 7-8 of this block I was breaking all my PRs on Strava. More importantly every intensity was being done at 5-10 bpms lower. I’d finish those group rides and be ready for more.
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Very interesting. Sounds like MAF training… I do a fair amount at that intensity but not as much as you did. Maybe lockdown could be a good time to fit more in…
What is your weekly volume in hours and TSS? How many days do you ride? How is your TSS distributed across the rides?
Don’t forget the ABC of cycling:
Always
Be
Chowing
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Just put down a lot of zone2 rides, and mix in some intervals. Easy to say, but it works if you’ve got 8-12 hours/week to train.
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270TSS over about 6 hours.
I’m more 6 hours a week.
oh man, yeah I can see 100TSS from a single ride hurting bad. Thats over a third of your weekly training stress! I did a quick calculation for my equivalent based on my TSS from last week. I’d be in the fetal position for the rest of the day and smoked for another 2 days.
I don’t think there’s a silver bullet for this. A 100TSS ride at 270TSS/week and 6 hours is going to have more of an impact than if your normal weekly TSS is 400 or 600 or 800 and ride 8 or 12 or 16 hrs. I’m sure that some of the specific advise re: adding z2 or intervals or whatever will work, but I think they’ll work because they will up your overall volume and weekly training load, which will make 100TSS rides not be so huge relative to your ‘normal’ weekly volume.
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That’s a really interesting way of looking at it. Maybe I need to bump up my weekday TSS a bit. It’s hard to do somewhere over an hour at race type intensity without getting around 100 TSS or so. Cycling kind of relies on those type of efforts for a good drop ride or Zwift race so maybe to not suffer on the weekend so much I need to up my weekday TSS with more zone 2.
no easy answers and @Craig_G hit the nail on the head saying there is no silver bullet. For what its worth, about 4 years ago I got to a place where putting down back-to-back 100-200 TSS days was possible even on a 6-8 hour/week average. But it wasn’t easy, had a LOT of intensity (lots of .9+ IF rides), and had a lot of unscheduled recovery (like 9 consecutive days in early March for “knee recuperation”).
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@Power13 desperate times call for desperate beers, so teach your family to ask before they buy beer!
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That base block was inspired by Seiler but I later learned that cooincidentally the HR was almost right on MAF. I did at least one or two 3-4 hour rides during that block.
I did the same base black a year later and didn’t get the same bump in fitness because I was going into the winter with great endurance.
I need that sign!!
And bonus points for the old school Technics receiver!!
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I used to have this exact issue.
I now run in the 800-900 TSS range per week. However, I have almost unlimited time to recover. What you can recover from depends on so many factors. Age, training history, diet, sleep etc.
I would guess that a normal working masters athlete would really only deal with something in the 500-700 TSS range. Maybe, maxing out at around 12hrs a week. Obviously, this would crater some folk and be too little for others. It’s quite individual.
It basically took one year of doing big volume, mainly Z2. I’m now able to rapidly recover from most days, up to about 150 TSS. There’s absolutely no way I could have done this on the 6-8hrs per week I used to ride.
A 3hr fast group ride previously nearly killed me. Now, I often ride 4hrs the following day.
I personally believe the secret is in the volume of your base training. Both the weekly sustained load and the total number of months you dedicate to it. The more you do, the more you can handle. It’s a snowball.
The other posters are on point re nutrition. In order to rapidly recover you need to nail your before, during and after nutrition strategy. I’m stunned just how much I have to consume per week.
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Thanks Me Bandit, that all makes sense. More Zone 2 for me. I used to do 20 hours a week when I was around 20 and did nothing other than recover off the bike. I had a 35 hour a week office job and would sneak into the toilets for a 40 minute nap on the loo every day. Other than that training, racing or recovery. Now at 45 with proper job and family it’s all a little trickier!
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Sleep
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