Things were going perfectly in build. Hitting every work out. And then my winter group ride started going long. I have basically replaced my 45 mile 20mph Saturday ride with 65-70 at 21mph the last 3 weeks. And Ive been animating those rides because I felt so good. Last week I nailed my first two workouts, but the third was a disaster. I rode again my Saturday ride this week but didn’t feel as good. Then my workout this morning was a disaster. I think I’ve been pushing 575-585 TSS the last few weeks when I was closer to 475-500 before.
Is this overtraining or is this just how hard the last week of build is. These planned workouts are pretty intense.
I was thinking of abandoning build (last week). Doing some easy rides to replace those, like petit for this week and through next week. Then I was going to restart build, but replace my hard day with a petit and use that Saturday ride as my hard day. And then space my training out a bit better as I was loading up the front of the week to give me a day off before my hard day and before my saturday, which meant my first two workouts each week were back to back after riding all weekend.
Previous Schehdul
Monday - Intermediate
Tuesday - Intermediate
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - Hard
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Group Ride
Sunday - MTB or 1.5 hours on Zwift
New Schedule
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - Intermediate
Wednesday - Easy
Thursday - Intermediate
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Group Ride
Sunday - MTB or 1.5 hours on Zwift
Anyone have any thoughts? Is this a mini-wall or is this just me losing confidence?
As far as goals go. I don’t have any races I’m preparing for. Being able to have fun on my weekend rides is a priority for me.
Thanks!
How well are you sleeping?
How well are you fueling? Are you timing your nutrition appropriately?
What does your diet look like?
When are your workouts compared to the rest of your day?
Are you carrying a lot of other stress outside of your training? i.e. mental stress from work, relationships, etc.
That “small bump” in TSS may not seem like much, but there are other factors to consider if you are not allowing yourself what it needs to be successful for the increase.
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Good question. And probably relevant. These past two workouts were fasted at 4:00am. I’ve trained since November fasted at 4:00 am, but about 3 weeks ago my 2 year old got sick and since wasn’t sleeping great and had been fighting sleeping through the night until last week. The first disaster ride was the first early ride I could manage in a 2-3 weeks. Perhaps my body needs to get used to it again but I had been fine for a few months.
During these rides, how much of the time are you actually working and it which zones? Depending on the size of the group and the terrain, I’m guessing that they’re not much harder than your scheduled workouts.
As @bigdaddynewt has already mentioned, I think nutrition and recovery are the key to unlocking this.
As I said, I’m one of the animators on these rides. Doing lots of turns and long hard pulls from 5-10 minutes each. Most pulls at 97% of FTP on the flat with surges up to 150% on rolling hills. My TSS for this ride alone is around 270, according to my power meter.
But like I said, this is like an additional Hard ride on my schedule that was probably an Easy ride prior to the last few weeks.
I think you are answering your own question. You are working harder and not giving yourself chance to recover,.
Nutrition and sleep are all important but not overdoing it also has value.
Drop one of the harder workouts early in the week and do something abit easier suvh as sweetspot and see how you go.
The weekend ride sounds a really good workout and porobably well worth continuing with.
You can’t quickly overtrain. Overtraining is very different from over reaching. You’re more overreaching so you need to chill the frig out on the group ride or take another day or three to recover. 270 tss is enough stress to put most of us hobbyist needing extra recovery for a couple days after.
If you want to overtrain back up that group ride with another 270 tss the next day followed by the normal TR workout schedule. Rinse and repeat for a month or two. Your body will fall apart in ways you never thought it could. It’s different for every person and I’m no medical expert but, having been there I can tell you it can take weeks or even months to recover from overtraining. Not many get there. Only the biggest type A morons (like me) can do it. 
Thank you. This is good feedback. I think what I’m trying to do is prevent overtraining. I’m glad to hear this is more of a chronic issue than an acute one. The acute fatigue I’m feeling is hopefully addressable with a few minor changes. To me 500-600 TSS should be okay in the long run, but perhaps I hit this too quickly.