I don’t do TrainerRoad plans (although I use the product). My training is pretty simple. I do blocks focused on zones with a goal to extending TTE. So a typical approach for me would be:
8 weeks of sweet spot (3 weeks on, one week off)
2 weeks of VO2
4 weeks of threshold (3 weeks on, one week off)
I generally do 6 - 8 hours of riding a week. 2 intensity based sessions, 1 short endurance ride during the week (60 - 90mins) and then a longer 2 - 4 hour weekend ride at endurance pace.
I had a great 2024 cycling wise. I progressed to 3x30 for sweet spot, did my longest ever cycling event and set personal PRs on certain Strava segments multiple times.
Had 2 weeks off at the end of August. Came back in September and did a sweet spot block progressing out to 4x15 along with some fun end of season group rides (they were hard).
Got sick at the end of September and took 3 weeks out.
Since then it’s been a total mess.
When I got back on the bike I struggled to put out any power and my heart rate was pretty much 20 BPM higher across the board when training. Endurance rides had threshold heart rates and sweet spot rides pushed my into VO2 HR territory.
I’ve dropped by FTP by 10% (which really hurt ) and that hasn’t made much difference.
I’m struggling on what used to be achievable intervals. I did 3x15 SS at the lower FTP and it hurt more than it should have.
This co-incided with moving indoors back on to the trainer. I do have good cooling and last I check my indoor and outdoor power meters did match.
Today I pulled the plug on my sweet spot ride and just did 45 minutes easy endurance and legs still hurt.
Given how sudden the change was, I went for a blood test, which came back normal.
Anybody have any adivce on how to diagnose what is wrong?
Do you know what the “sickness” was?
If it was covid or anything else affecting your respiratory system, that would account for the elevated HR
See the many threads and posts on peoples experience on returning to training after such an incident. My own experience with Flu and then Covid was extended periods, into the months, where HR was high, recovery from sessions took longer and general fatigue was real.
The general rule for non-illness time off is that it takes twice the duration to get back where you were before time off. That’s already 6 weeks. And back of the napkin math suggests you’re maybe 2-3wk back into things at this point.
If you were sick enough to need 3 weeks off the bike, you also likely lost fitness and muscle mass just from the catabolic state of the illness itself, which is going to make that 6 weeks even longer to get to where you were before you were sick.
If we’re talking about like hospitalization or major surgery during that time, we could be talking about months depending on specifics.
Had 2 weeks off at the end of August…
This makes things even more difficult because it means you were just starting to get into things, which will add even more time to get back.
Last year I was in a similar situation. It took about 2 months of consistent training to get back to where I was before. My FTP had dropped from 320 to 270. It comes back fast though.
IOW. You likely lost a lot of aerobic fitness between August and October. Retake an FTP test, expect to see a drop, and then start training again.
It will take time to come back, but will come back as long as you’re honest with yourself with what your current capabilities are, and consistent with your training over the next months.
I wouldn’t bother to test TBH, just ride. Get some easy hours in, ride as hard as is comfortable and give it a month maybe. If feeling better and able to hold higher numbers, test and start ‘training’ from there.
Luckily it’s the perfect time of year for it, and probably an ideal plan for many people regardless of sickness
are you using the same power meter? You mentioned doing hard group rides, which clearly would have been an on-bike meter. Are you using the same power meter inside or relying on the numbers from the trainer?
Have you calibrated your trainer recently?
It sounds to me like you have a reading difference between two power meters.
Outside, I have an Assioma Uno pedal. Indoors I use a 4iiii Fliiiight, which uses magnetic fields to generate resistance around the wheel - so the technology is pretty different from most turbo trainers. The turbo trainer does not require callibration.
I haven’t checked recently whether they’re still in sync (different bikes) but I can’t think of a reason why they wouldn’t be given the non-calibration nature of the turbo.
You took 3 weeks off of exercise and didn’t ease back into training.
I just had nice fitness and form, but had a minor operation and took 2 weeks off the bike. When I got back on, I rode easy for 1 hour everyday for the last 2 weeks. I just did my first interval workout, but did so at what I knew would be a very manageable effort level. I hope to go for a long ride next week (3-4hr easy endurance).
Sounds like you took 3 weeks off then assumed you could just get right back to it. For me, I’m expecting similar fitness to return within 6-8 weeks, and I won’t train hard until it does because I know I can’t make those numbers that I was before the break
We have the first week of November, which means you haven’t given yourself the time to ease back into training. As @cnidos wrote, the rule of thumb is that it takes 2x the time to recover your fitness.
I would definitely re-test your FTP and ease back into training. Just subtracting 10 %, because today is Thursday isn’t a good approach, you need reliable numbers to base your training off of.
This is relatively vague, but as a general comment, maybe you don’t use the right progression. Maybe you are ramping up too quickly and/or are burning out because you are repeating the same thing over and over again (just sweet spot, just VO2max, just threshold).
Typically, you would mix different kinds of workouts to address different systems that are all working together to make you faster.
My rule of thumb after sickess is minimum one week / 10 days of low intensity riding with no intervals.
Then I will intoduce some tempo efforts in the second week before finally getting back to a training plan in the third week.
A 3 week lay off suggests you were quite sick. I had similar last year and it was about 3 months to get back to the same level from the point of sickness.
Good news is its off season, plenty of time to rebuild.
I wouldn’t expect to lose 10%. Moving back to indoor training can be rough for a few weeks so that along with sickness is surely impacting your rpe.
The high heart rate sounds like COVID. A friend is a coach and he says he sees that with his clients pretty consistenly. He says 3 months is not uncommon.
I had a mild case with only a really stuffy nose in early August. I took time off the bike and followed the recommended return to sport protocol. I am only getting back to my normal HR for a given wattge now. I have bounced back from the flu in a week though I was sick as a dog. I had the flu shot and the COVID shot on both occations. The vaccines seemed to reduce severity, but COVID seems to be messing with people differently.
) and that hasn’t made much difference.
It just feels like a lot to lose 
(although reality is reality).
. Time to back it off for a while and build back up slowly.