Should I continue my normal training , reduce training load, rest week or completely off week?

Training
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Hi TR team,

I am not sure my current training status and how to move forward. Am I too far off from the original training plan?

Last weekend, I did a 5 hours ride and I could not sleep the entire night afterward, could be due to coffee which I took in the morning and noon.

I dont feel like I am ready for an intense interval training this week and it has been like this for 3 weeks. Here is a post noticing my performance decrease a few weeks back before a fondo. I took an advise from TR community and was able to recover and performed a short threshold before the fondo and I did pretty good in the fondo.

The week (week 22, last week) after the fondo, I planned a reduced load week for myself despite the planning telling to continue the normal training. I expected to perform a threshold session but I could not finish it. I even lowered the intensity to 89% and I still cant finish it. And in Sunday, I tried to do an outdoor ride with my friends, I was able to PR some segment but the power was not higher. My garmin tells me that my FTP dropped from 240w to 228w. And I could not sleep the entire night as I stated in the beginning.

As of now, I felt a lot better after taking 2 days completed off (I even took a sick day for my work…). I feel like I can do z2 but not threshold or VO2max.

I have a big fondo (150miles, 13000ft) coming up by the end of this month, and I am not sure how to adjust my current training plan to it with my current physiological conditions.

I started season 2024 with mid volume fondo plan with 5-6 hrs per week of training time, but I have been adding 1 more higher intensity z2 ride, some stage races, and higher intensity weekend ride to the end of my week for the past 6-7 weeks which brought up weekly 10+hr which I can handle with a lower intensity. Current training block last 8 weeks with no rest week in between which I feel I much needed.

Should I continue my normal training , reduce training load, rest week or completely off week? or any other suggestion. I need some inputs from more experienced athletic.

Much appreciated.

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If I am understanding this correctly, you have been training for 8 weeks straight without a rest week? I would expect you to be tired. Take a rest week. A few days complete rest. Ok to go out for a few short spins if you feel motivated for it.

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Hey @Andrew_G, thanks for reaching out.

Oh golly, what a pickle. No stress, we’ll get you back on the right track and back to your usual self.

What’s going on?

I think we both know this was very likely nothing to do with the coffee you consumed at noon :wink:. Sleep can become impaired when you are overreached.

What caused this?

It looks like you haven’t been accepting all of the adaptations indicated by RLGL?

It looks like you did some Threshold and VO2 max Workouts on Yellow days and an unstructured ride on a Red day :upside_down_face:.

If you have a workout scheduled on a Yellow day, Adaptive Training will suggest you adapt your scheduled workout to an Endurance workout. Likewise, when a red day pops up on your Calendar we recommend taking the day off from all forms of training stress and focusing on recovery.

In addition, last week was a scheduled Recovery Week, but you did a 90 minute Threshold workout and a 5:12 hr ride at the weekend :woozy_face:.

What should you do moving forward?

First things first, don’t panic. If you are sensible now, this will just be a little blip.

@KonaSS said it best. Take this week completely off. If you feel better after a week off, jump back into your Training Plan where you left off. If you need more time, take it. Be sure to be honest with yourself.

Moving forward, I strongly reccomend that you accept the adaptations suggested by Adaptive Training. They are there to protect you from this very scenario.

If you are wanting to add in additional rides, on top of your TrainerRoad Training Plan, I suggest you reduce your training volume.

Recover during recovery weeks.

Follow the Training Plan and accept the Adaptations prompted by Red Light Green Light, even when you are adding rides above and beyond the Training Plan (no matter how easy you think they are :wink:).

Be sensible now and you’ll get back on track in no time. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Take care of yourself :mending_heart:.

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Much more detailed and helpful advice above, but I’ll add: if you have to ask if you should take a rest then you already know the answer.

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Thanks. I will take a complete off this week to see how I feel next week. I was contemplating about this because I have a fondo coming up by the end of this month.

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I should probably take a complete off this week… but I have a big fondo coming up by the end of this week. Not sure how much performance degradation I would take with the complete off.

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Might get a performance gain being completely rested. Maybe two full days off and two recovery days (true recovery).

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I am confident this would be the case :muscle:.

However, I suggest you make a decision closer to the time about whether you should do the Gran Fondo or not, based on how you feel and how you are recovering.

I fully understand how much it sucks to miss events but missing one event now will suck much less than missing a large portion of your season beacause you didn’t dig yourself out of the hole now.

For future events, like Gran Fondo’s, make sure to add them to your Calendar as A, B or C events so that your Training Plan adapts accordingly. Check out this article for help on prioritizing your events.

You can add an Event to your Calendar by simply clicking the date on which you’d like to add your event. This will bring up a popup menu where you can select “Event”.

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SarahLaverty, Thank you for the advise.

I will closely monitor my physiology closely before the fondo. I think that no matter what I will still go. If I am not in good condition, I will do a shorter route and focus on completing it instead of competing.

I believe that I have marked this event as a B. I should probably mark it as A.

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Ah yes, I see it in your Calendar now!

I read this so I was ust looking at this week, but I see that you said the follwing in the comment above:

Fingers crossed you’re feeling back to your usual self by then :crossed_fingers:.

Look after yourself :mending_heart:. Let us know if you have any questions for us in the meantime :slight_smile: .

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Thanks~ It was a typo… my brain was not working lol… it is end of this month.

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You really do need a rest :joy:

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