Matching weekly TSS, Racing and Making Training Plan Adjustments?

Training
1

I know many others are in the same boat as me so sorry I know this topic must get old. I’m reading a lot but still I feel the need to post my own topic on the forum…
I wonder if how I choose to incorporate my races into my rolling road race MV plan is a good methodology. (I have a feeling a lot of this is very individual, one size does not fit all, and it does come down to managing stress to make sure you aren’t ever over training but at the same time pushing to drive adaptation to meet fitness goals)

Right now my general approach is to think of it similar to a budget where I have a certain amount of money that I can spend…
----i equate this to the total TSS for the week That I have planned. I believe I should generally try to make sure that my total TSS falls somewhere in that range…
Here is how the beginning of my rolling road race specialty plan mv has gone so far…
week 1.
Tuesday: ramp test (coming off of SPBMV) I did +2 watts from last ramp test… meh not great… but i know I was a little more tired coming off a crit weekend… I want to succeed at my workouts and races so I was just fine with that FTP.
Weds: cut out the endurance ride and did Merced +1 instead due to the 4th of july… max aerobic capacity work. went perfect.
thurs: july 4th took the day off… rest day… ate a turkey leg… LOL
fri: diamond valley road race +2 race simulation thing… (moved sat ride to Friday due to a crit on sat.) went great!
sat: category 4 criterium 56 TSS pretty hot day
sunday… antelope +2 (i’m completely floored that I was able to survive all this sweet spot! thanks to sustained power build plan probably!)
week 2:
Monday: I did striped +1 anaerobic capacity… despite this being the 4th hard day in a row, it went very well and i got some soreness WOOT!
Tues was light weight lifting and rolling away the soreness.
weds was outdoor pettit,
Thursday I did my monthly B time trial race, FIrst in my category, 7th overall! WOOT!

Saturday (today): I was struggling to decide what to do… I did Kern -2, aerobic capacity work… but I chose to reduce the TSS so that the total TSS for the week would line up with the goal TSS for the week based on the plan… (was this a good choice? I feel like I could have done more but I guess I want to hold back for my “C” road race on sunday) I basically have no idea if i should have done any workout at all… or maybe gone harder… i feel like this is a very academic question as I could have done basically anything.
looking at my training plan, basically for week 2, I had Kern +1, Winchell, and carillon to choose from, only 1 could fit here on sat, I chose to go with a Kern variant, and I figure that my sunday road race will give my TSS very similar to Winchell and Carillon put together.

Sunday: “C” road race 51 mile road race which will be maybe 200 tss.

Okay that’s my main question above…
but… below… Here are My conceptual understandings of how training is just like a budget… LOL feel free to read and tell me if I am off or wrong about anything or if i’m forgetting something!

a budget just a budget, and if i go over or under my target amount of money to spend, that’s generally okay to a point…
-----This is similar to how important it is to get the critical workouts in and how not all TSS is created equal so for example if you did a big group ride with lots of tempo/sweet spot work, you might need to go overboard on total TSS just so that I can get the important work in that week.

I have several categories in my budget under which i need to spend my money… groceries vrs rent vrs school etc…
---- this is similar to the different types of workouts, rest, and recovery… Just like a healthy budget, where one should be driving each week to spend their money wisely, we cyclists should be trying to get a balance of different types of workouts that take us closer to our goals (sprint, crit, road race, time trial etc)

Now in budgeting, it is critical to be able to roll with the punches… when a big expense comes along, we offset that expense by diverting money from something else to break even.
— in cycling this comes up ALL THE TIME! example: I may have a plan but i end up getting sucked into doing a 3hour, 250 TSS race paced group ride on a weds night. so now i need to rest/recover…

Thanks to anyone who read all the way through my post! <3

2

Ok, wow, that’s a lot to digest. Also naming workouts you did doesn’t really help as we’d have to go in and look into every workout to see what you’re talking about. You are waaaayyy over complicating this unnecessarily and appear to reaching paralysis by analysis.

Don’t sweat the small stuff, training and fitness is not about nailing a workout or a week’s TSS, but rather consistency over weeks and months. You want to be heading in the right direction and learning your fitness, fatigue and recovery. Making adjustments to the plans to accommodate B and C races is expected. As long as you’re getting in the 2 quality interval sessions, some recovery/z2 rides and rest days, matching TSS exactly is not a requirement. C races by their nature are training races so no taper is needed. B races may necessitate a couple days taper, but that’s about it.

I’d put more energy into the workouts you do rather than if you picked the perfect workout to do.

4 Likes
3

how do you know if you are being consistent over weeks/months if you do not look at some metric? that metric could be TSS right?

4

well, you are the coach and need to apply both guiding principles and knowledge of yourself to make the call… so I suggest two things to do:

The low-volume plan is the backbone of road race speciality, go back and read the stuff at the top Log In to TrainerRoad and look at the 3 days of intensity as the foundation of structure in your mid-volume plan.

Then, at a minimum read the two speciality sections in the training plan guide, starting here:

Hope that helps.

2 Likes