Hi
Back story first
Been really busy at work since Jan 55hr weeks forklift truck engineer so can be very physical sometimes.
Also started a mid volume gravel race plan 5.5-7hrs per week.
Just this week did Gould +3 on Friday but bailed after 45 mins Saturday Spanish needles -1 finished but multiple pauses.
Sunday group ride 65miles 2500ft 154w avg NP 194 so should have been easy but over 2 hrs in zone 4 142-162hr felt wasted every time I tried to pull it lasted seconds.
Do you think it’s fatigue creeping in??
I’ve got one more build week then a recovery week etc etc.
Just sounds like you need to find a balance between work and hard rides.
If you are bailing Fridays workout, taking pauses on Saturdays workout, then it seems very counter intuitive if you’re then going out on a hard group ride on Sunday.
Can’t do it all if you have both work fatigue, struggling with workouts and then trying to fit in fast group rides.
I would recommend doing a few endurance rides until you feel that your body is back, if you still got a lot of long hours at work. And then start putting in 1 hard ride a week, if you feel that its doable.
Consistency is key, rather have 1-2 hard rides per week with endurance rides for the rest, than failing each workout due to fatigue from life/work and whatnot.
Also maybe try to go down to Low Volume plan, and add 1-2 endurance rides on top of that instead (hard group ride is not endurance rice…)
Your endurance rides shouldn’t have any time at all in z4-z7, zero, nada. Sure, sometimes you might tough tempo, but its not on purpose, rather something that automatically happens if you maybe stand up for a bit to rest your bum or whatnot.
The key to real endurance rides is to stay in z2. So for you that would be under 190w.
Its mean to be easy, so you focus on mitochondrial adaptations.
Try that and see how it feels
If you are used to riding hard all the time, it’ll be weird at first. And the most important thing is to totally ignore the speed on these rides. If you encounter a hill, shift down and keep the watts under 200w, its fine to go slow.
I just ride with watts, HR, map and ride time on my Wahoo when doing z2 endurance rides.
Also, don’t forget to fuel for these rides, but you can delay the feeding a bit for endurance rides if you make sure to eat enough before (a few pieces of toast with some jam on is my go-to for longer endurance rides).
So for a 3hr endurance ride ill eat first after 50min, and ill have 65g of carbs every 50-60min during the ride.
If you are doing these back to back, or any type of riding back to back days, make sure to have enough carbs at night to fuel for the next day!
I have a hard physical job, and doing mv. There are times i feel like i can barely drag myself onto the bike. The great thing about AT is it flat out works. Patience is the key, and the survey questions really work.
And that will keep you fresh for the hard stuff!
