Peaking too early

Training
1

Okay so I’ve had a great cyclocross season and have done great training leading up to where we are so far.
Results have been good. Mostly top 5 and a near miss on a win.
Base 1 4 weeks inc rest
Base 2 4 weeks inc rest
Base 3 4 weeks inc rest
Build 1 4 weeks inc rest
Build 2 4 weeks inc rest
Peak …
I suddenly feel over trained and there’s a disconnect between my legs and rpe.
The same thing happened last year and I moved the training a month to compensate for this.

The real question though is why can’t I get to the peak phase. I had hoped to race for another 4 weeks yet. And have 3 more races to do in that time but find myself having to take this week completely off the bike now to try and finish the season off strong.

2

Sounds more like you’re fatigued than like you’ve hit an early peak. Did you race during build? Maybe that was just too much. I think most in the cyclocross thread have found that it is hard to do more than maintenance training during the season, because the races take so much out of you.

Hard to comment on your specific base-build plan without knowing which plan you followed, what volume, and how you fit the races in.

1 Like
3

I think you could be right. As soon as base 3 was complete it was September and straight into racing and the first build phase which looked like:

Mon. Day off
Tue 120 ENDURANCE, 2x25min Threshold with 10sec sprint every 2min
Wed 120 ENDURANCE, 6-8x5min VO2max70-85rpm, 4min between efforts
Thu Day off
Fri 120 ENDURANCE. 6xsmall ring sprints 1 gear change, 3xbig gear sprints 1 gear change, 3xbig gear sprints 2 gear changes|
Sat 90min 30min warm up 3x30sec with 5min RECOVERY
Sun Race

So do I need to do 48 hours completely off to see if it fixes it? And if not the same again?

4

Also I’m 41, although felt like I was in the form of my life. Never felt better on the bike.

5

Just a side note to consider: Do you Ramp test? The Ramp test might favor your type of rider (CX…) so your FTP result might just come a tiny bit high and training gets a little too stressful.

There is a whole thread about that topic:

7

I assumed it was 2 hours with the intervals described the rest of the time endurance but I’d like to know that as well.

I would sleep for days every other week if I did those intervals per week.

8

Yes the rides are based in the endurance zone except when the intervals take place.

9

FTP is pretty spot on @ 229w. I’m 57kg. I’ve actually been pushing towards rising it this season but have held off, despite being able to push towards the higher end of all my zones while doing intervals.

10

Can you post your 20wk TSS tracking? Hard to determine what may be going on without all of the information. Ideally your last 52wks of TSS data would be helpful to see to rule some things out.

11

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12

Another thing is my 12yo daughter has had a stinker of a cold which started about 10 days ago. I didn’t get any obvious signs of it but could this maybe explain it also?