So I did a century today and my “fatigue” on intervals.icu went from blue/fresh to tipping the red zone (385 TSS, 0.78 IF, mostly zone 2-3 wattage).
But imagine doing back-to-back rides in zone 2… it must go off the charts on intervals.icu? And is this actually reflective of fatigue?
For instance, Mark Beaumont did 80 days 450km per day. Big tour riders also do weeks on end. Are they so fit they do not fatigue or get in the “red zone”? Or is this metric not so useful when you ride mostly in zone 2-3?
This is all based on TSS, which is ultimately not a perfect measure, so you have to take the TSB chart (Form) with a grain of salt, but I do think this points to the fact that you need proper recovery time after long efforts, particular if you’re not racking up tons of base miles already leading up to the big ride. I ride 6hr TTs (so century-ish) and usually take close to a week off after each race.
I’ve had day rides (by day I mean all day) and multi-day rides give “form” values of -136 & -98 in intervals.icu, took five and two days respectfully to get out of the red zone - started back with indoor workouts a day or two after that. I don’t have a power meter on my MTBs so intervals.icu worked out the TSS from my HR data. Yesterday I did ride (120km & 2400m of ascent in 9hrs on MTB) with an estimated TSS of 550, see my recent post in the “Where did you ride outside?” thread. Felt tired today until about midday then increasingly fresh. I’ll head out for a steady ride tomorrow.
As above if you do lots of endurance you get used to it, plus most of the time you are in Z1 or Z2 just because you can’t ride for 16-20hrs a day at any other intensity.