Hi, just finished SSBHV1 and feeling good. Because of last years experience (*) i chose to drop my avg weekly TSS by about 150 which will make my CTL end on 110 instead of 130. Now with SSBHV2 and allot of vacation time coming up I’m wondering if its ok to bump my fitness as much as i believe my body will handle, or is it stupid to have much higher CTL in base than i can handle when outdoor season starts? (many races and travel reduces my training time). Also allot easier to get much TSS every day in SSB.
*In 2019 i raised my TSS allot, and during the 12 weeks of SSB i avg 123TSS daily (including rest weeks).
The last 3 weeks I was on my max and i didn raise TSS/FTP much.
After the last recovery week i got the flu, same as a few colleagues at work, so i let up training some, 1,5 weeks after me and also colleagues got flu round nr 2 which hit a lot harder and i let up some more for another week. Then i pushed way to hard and too early for 5-6 weeks before my body started to respond again.
I had a great spring season with good watts, but i noticed my HR was very low the entire season, and i actually didn get normal HR before the fall after a longer easier period, also when the HR came back to normal my watts raised and got new watt PR’s
I’m not sure if any of this can relate to if i overtrained during last years SSB but im a bit afraid to do it again.
TSS and CTL ≠ fitness.
They’re somewhat useful numbers for planning progressive loads in training, assuming you’re doing a similar mix of training intensity from one week to the next. But they’re a means to an end, not an end in themselves. And they’re not so good at comparing different types of training. For example, you can handle much more TSS doing Z2 endurance riding than you can doing VO2 and Anaerobic intervals. But if you’re racing crits or any other events where you need high end power to succeed, then you will be much “fitter” for those races after you’ve done the lower TSS high intensity training than after the higher TSS endurance base.
To your question I think doing extra TSS achieved by extra endurance riding during base when you have time on your hands can be a good idea. But not if you’re pushing the limits to the extent that you’re risking illness or overtraining. Getting sick twice in a fortnight might just be bad luck, but it could also be a warning sign that you were overdoing it and suppressing your immune system. I would be pretty wary of ramping up volume again having just been through that.
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Again thanks for very good feedback.
I do believe i did a bit too much last SSB period, and probably was on/beyond the limit for the last few weeks. But i did not fail any workouts and i did feel good after i did recovery, think it was unlucky that me and a few others at work got 2 flu rounds back to back. Pretty sure i won’t make the same mistakes again by pushing so hard during and after sickness to get back into plan again. And that probably caused me to have low HR for a few months (even though i did have good watts and good races).
I will increase my TSS with SST/Z2 during SSBHV2 if i feel i have good legs, and also try to listen to my legs/overall feeling day to day and week to week.
I only got 100,7 CTL at end of SSBHV1 versus 119 last year.
So my goal will be to maybe end at 119 in SSBHV2 instead of planned 110, this will hopefully be perfect for me this year.
Then use vacation days to try keep my fitness high during build and speciality instead of doing a 3 week boost before races start.
New plans.
I will do extra Z2 during SSBHV2 if i can manage the load.
I will try do some extra big days during early build which will make it a bit polarized. also made build longer.
Then i will do 9 weeks specialize/race period where i will mini taper for the A and B races.
I won’t do recovery weeks here, but will try keep my self fresh and ready for races all period.
