I have almost 700 TR sessions under my belt, so I’ve had my share of failed workouts.
I marched through SSBLV 1, and moved into SSBLV 2 without any change in FTP. Things were progressing very nicely, until the final week. Lamarck had to be adjusted down, but I limped through it on Thursday.
While licking my wounds, I thought I’d give myself an extra recovery day, and tackle Leconte on Sunday. Felt good and rested this AM. Got extra sleep ALL WEEK due to quarentine, so felt locked and loaded for a killer session. After the first 10 min interval of Leconte, I knew it wasn’t happening. Lowered intensity 5% for second round of 10 min interval, but HR was out of control 5 min into the third 10 min interval.
Bailed at that point.
Attempted 45 min version of Monitor, but during second 6 min interval, HR was in the red zone. Usually it’s at least 15 BPM lower for that effort. Decided to bail again.
Not sure what’s going on, but assume rest and recovery is in order.
Thoughts? Comments?
Not being able to do Lamarck (4x10 at FTP) should have been your sign. Any time you can’t complete steady state sweetspot or FTP work usually means you either aren’t eating enough, or you need rest.
Usually I rely on mood. If I am tired and not motivated to even do an endurance ride, it’s time for an easier week.
If you want a deeper dive, post a public profile link or Strava and a few of us can take a look.
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I guess there are many aspects to consider (mental/physical) but what worked really for me and I am pretty much sure at this stage it wasn’t a placebo, was to increase calories throughout the day.
I am assuming that cooling isn’t the issue as you have stated having many rides but increase in temperature will cause heart rate to go up.
The other thing I’d look at is fuelling. Track calories to see that you are actually getting enough. If all those things are in place than you could very well just need a break.
I’d guess many of us might be carrying some unaccounted stress with the pandemic. Quite possibly that may be affecting you too.
Along the lines of signs for me. Along with inability to perform to potential, and lowered desire to train; I usually find when I’m at my limit and needing a break my temper grows short, I’m easily irritated, and find I get in little stupid fights with my wife.
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As someone else brought up, I think I may be internalizing more stress than I realize with the coronavirus pandemic. I am a small business owner, and although it’s been a financial nightmare, I’m constantly reminded by people to be thankful for what I have.
Also, I’m 49 years old, and cleaned out all the gutters yesterday. Maybe that fucked me up more than I thought.
Note, I use 3 fans, and have cold external air blowing on me from one of said fans.
My biggest question…where do I go from here?
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(you’ll need to flip your profile to public for us to see your link)
I’d check in with yourself and see how you are feeling. Stress can take a huge toll, and much of the advice I’m seeing these days is recommending dialing back on the intensity or overall load for a number of different reasons. If there ever was a time to take a rest week and ease up for week, it’s now.
An easy week followed by a “ride how you feel” week likely would help you recharge and recover as well as being a good move from a general health perspective. You (and all of us ) really don’t want to be in an immunocompromised position right now by eating too little, training too hard, etc.
Thank you for your input.
Also, I thought my profile was public. In looking, I can’t seem to find out how to make that change, (if it’s needed)
Flip the Account section from “private” to “public” and save
Not sure I agree with this. I did Lamarck +1 on Thursday and had to drop 5% off the fifth and sixth intervals (handled the first four, but only just) and still crushed Leconte yesterday and Cartago today, with Andrews on Friday for a bit of extended “recovery” in between.
I guess my point is really that everyone is different. 4x10 @ FTP may be hard for some but over-unders may be easier because of the variation.
I don’t see a Lamarck+1…unless you made it custom?
Generally speaking, by the time you get to Lamarck in the normal plan progressions, IMO it shouldn’t feel hard.
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Ah, I guess I did make it custom because I needed a 90 minute version. It’s basically the same ride but with 6 intervals instead of 4.
How are you testing? I don’t see any Ramp Test or other type of structured tests
Agreed. I didn’t expect it to tear me apart. It hasn’t in the past (Lamarck). Something was off on Thursday, and continued into Sunday. I have no reason to believe it’s anything but fatigue. Just looking for guidance on where to go from here. Someone already mentioned a recovery week, followed by a week of “see how I feel”.
I figured you would bring that up🙂. Not to open up a debate…but, no need to do that as often, with my experience. It’s well documented that FTP varies day to day. Based on how I felt today, I’d say my today FTP was/is about 20 watts lower. I was overfatigued, and perhaps was not mentally ready.
More importantly would be performance during sessions over the last 6-11 weeks. No hiccups with my current FTP. None.
Not trying to argue anything one way or another. It just stood out to me. If your FTP is set too high, even if you are completing sessions, you are carrying more load than is designed and are at more risk for getting into a fatigue spiral (I know this from direct experience 
)
You seem to have a process you like, so not going to try and convince you otherwise.
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I hear you, and I agree. I, too have been down the road of overreaching. I spent the spring of 2018 doing sessions with an inflated FTP. Didn’t make the progress that one would think.
WRT my current situation, I turned SSBLV 2 into a 6 week vs a 5 week progression. (That’s when I thought I’d be going on spring break, and was trying to coincide recovery week with spring break). In any event, for this guy, maybe the 6th week of training stress was too much.