I am doing workouts from the build plan at the minute but due to work for the last 5 weeks I have been doing 450tss on week 1, and then 250 tss on week 2, 430tss on week 3, 200 on week 4 and 400tss on week 5. I’m just doing a mix from the build Mv plan but not sure whether to take my recovery week or not. Only thing is , on the weeks where my tss is low I am still doing a vo2 workout and an over unders workout but obviously have 4 days off on them weeks so not sure whether to take recovery week or not?
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Your not getting a lot of TSS cumulative fatigue which is mainly what drives improvement so your CTL is rather variable…in this case it really will depend how you feel - with a week on/week off - then you shouldn’t be that fatigued…but it isn’t the most effective way to train. You need to build volume and TSS over a few weeks then recover - you don’t really need to recover from one week of training.
Yeah, thanks for that. I am curious about how accurate tss is on a whole for example if I do 2 x over unders, and a vo2 max effort in a week with 4 days off, that is bound to fatigue me more than doing the same tss with endurance and SS stuff over 5 workouts and 2 days off. So is it not hugely instrumental to what actual workouts you do and not necessarily your tss total??
Indeed there is plenty on the threads about not all TSS being created equal. I did the HV SSB last year and was racking up 600-700 TSS weeks without huge fatigue as it was all sweetspot - haven’t the time this year so I have been doing less volume and more variety and as you say this week I have had a VO2max session, some super threshold repeats, McAdie yesterday for the O/U and 2 hours SS today as our group ride was off due to the wind again. I found Tallac+3 a real grind today as I was pretty fatigued where as 5x15mins SS isn’t normally a big deal for me as I race a lot of 50 mile time trials which is about that pace…but yesterday I was right on the limit on the overs (175bpm against a max of 179) so was pretty tired today. The point is I have another week 2 weeks of the same regime before I have an easy week and I will keep pushing unless I start bailing on workouts. But yes lots of stuff near your FTP will fatigue for less TSS - that’s why you only really push it occasionally - in my case I am in SPB as my tt season starts in about 3 weeks.
Good stuff. I’m taking a year off races this year. I have been doing ultra stuff the last few years so just toying this year with different ideas to try and get faster. Done a ramp today and got 206ftp but last week I done 2x 30 min intervals at 196watts and Spencer +2 on my 220 ftp so I’m thinking a week of easy stuff could benefit me( maybe over training other years possibly) I seen a good bump after my last easyish week so will try again( learning about my own body just)
If you can do 2x30 mins @ only 10W below your FTP and knock out Spencer+2 with no issues then your FTP is higher than that test indicates!
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Yeah I knew that. Wasnt worried about it to be honest. Gonna take a week easy now and work my way back into maybe starting 2nd phase of Med Build or possibly starting from the start of build again but definitely gonna keep my 220 ftp. Maybe will try ftp test at the start of next week again.