Wait. 5-8 A WEEK?? 
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Just checked mine overall.
I increased CTL from 63 to 80 as of today. This on 16 weeks (my season). Including rest weeks (2 in total), and 1 fatbike race priority C. Basically 1 point per week.
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That is impressively consistent. My last ramp period was 2 months and looked much more chaotic:
Didn’t end up able to ramp up before my race this past weekend and am still in the low 80s, but looking to ramp up again to ~100-120 over the next 8 weeks.
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Well, I said I aim for it…not that I always achieve it. 
But it is not hard to do really, especially when you are building volume up.
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Ah,I was using a rolling average. On a weekly it might range from 2 up to 5+ (last week was 5.2) It generally trends toward 3 3.5 if I scope it to a 30 day rolling average.
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That’s 30 CTL in 4 weeks. 60 in 8. I’d say that’s very, very, very hard to do.
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Sure, but like I said, at some point you begin to plateau and that rate is not sustainable.
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I’ve just done ~4-5 per week for the past 4 weeks after finally not being sick all the time. Taking a recovery week now. Honestly probably could have been even more aggressive, just didn’t have time. Rate limiting step each week was work, not fatigue. Will aim for a similar rate for the 4 weeks going forwards, and will then likely level out for the rest of the season.
This is really just going from like 4h a week back to a normal ~10h per week level though, and a CTL back to where it normally is in-season. If I was pushing into uncharted territory in regards to volume/TSS I’d ramp slower.
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I’m at 60, but it’s ramping up quickly.
Yeah no kidding right… Not sure why I even ride my bike after looking at everyone else.
February was a month I don’t want to repeat, dropped 3 points on CTL. On the plus side I’ve mostly recovered from a non cycling injury. Win some, lose some. Onward.
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I was thinking the same thing haha.
I did a quick bit of back of napkin math…my max tss in a week based on allotted time would come out to 88. That is the absolute…unreasonable max, which would require not missing a day, and not taking a rest week for that to be my 6 week average.
At 52 now. If I get to 75 or 80 I’d be more than happy.
This is not in any way meant as an insult to anyone, and no I don’t mean that in a “with all due respect” sort of way where I then proceed to insult.
But, for the folks in awe of larger CTL’s/training volumes - what is it that’s preventing you from training more? I can obviously only speak to my own situation, but I work a ton and have a family, but still force the training in as that’s priority #1 after both of those things. Unfortunately, being fairly advanced in finance working for PE backed companies I feel somewhat confident most aren’t working more. So really just curious what the barrier is?
And again, I really hope that’s not offensive to anyone.
Currently getting over a cold so after a week and a bit off have dropped down to 86, was above 100 after my last block of tte work and while it probably won’t get back above 100-110 until I start racing I should be mid/high 90s after my next block of higher intensity work.
Nah, not offensive. People need thicker skins.
For me, family is the big constraint. If I was single…I’d go for 2-3 hours after work no problem most days.
As it is…I’ll go an hour a day before work tue-thurs, go for ~ a 200tss ride on saturday and sunday. It’s tough for me to figure out how people get dramatically more hours in than that.
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I’d say the ability to do the work without wearing out. Even if it’s all Z2 work, my body can only handle so many hours a week. If I set a goal of more than 2-3 CTL a week, I’m going to burn out pretty quickly. Age, fitness, training history, time available, sleep, genetics, etc. are all going to play in here though…as well as your personal definition of “larger”. For me, I’m better off aiming to gain 1-3 CTL per week over a longer period than trying to gain 5 CTL per week and then frying myself and having to take extended down time which results in an endless roller coaster with a lower peak.
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My comment was honestly a joke and I completely understand why I have a low CTL. I work a pretty standard 8-5 job and have 3 kids in various after school activities. So between spending time with my family and my job I just don’t have time for big long rides during the week.
It’s also a hobby for me that I’m trying to take more seriously. So in short, lack of priority and lack of consistency leads to low CTL.
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I am a private attorney working lots of hours and have a kiddo and make 12-15 hour weeks work regularly. But I will say that I’ve only been able to do that since my divorce, which forced a far more equal (read: still not equal) distribution of childcare responsibilities. And this is only one kid and also requires heavy grandparent involvement. I assume I have it much better than most with small kids and a demanding job.
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So a week has 168 hours, let’s assume 8 hours of sleep, that leaves us with 112 hours awake. A somewhat demanding job starts at 50 hours a week. That leaves us with 62 hours left.
Now the minimal stuff. Say you dedicate 30 minutes for showering and each meal, that gives us 36 hours left per week.
I don’t commute, but most people do. Let’s assume 1hr day. That leaves has with 29h left.
People need some down time, read a book, relax….say 1hr per day. That gives us 22hr left.
Every week has some chores we need to attend, work in the house, supermarket, doctor apt. Let’s say this is 2h per week. That leaves us with 20 hours available.
Now the difficult part, you want to dedicate time to your love ones and perhaps some recreation for yourself, watch a movie, concert, etc. Say 1 3h activity per week and you dedicate 1hr per day to your love ones.
That gives you 10 hours left for training. Say you also want to lift, 1hour per week. Then you can ride your bike for 9 hours.
That’s how people end up around that kind of volume.
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