Road Cycling

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Man my knee aches this morning, think I'll give CX a miss for a bit :D Only hurts to walk though, so shall just have to cycle everywhere :D

I keep meaning to ask, does anyone use the "Fitness & Freshness" graph on Strava? I think it's a premium feature only. Keen to see what other peoples stats are, I'm finding it hard to improve my fitness score now, it's mainly just the fatigue score increasing these days. No power meter, so just basing on HR, my stats are:
Fitness - 53
Fatigue - 56
Form - minus 3
 
VeNT said:
Won a place on the wiggle Cornwall Tour
found out I'm diabetic.
what a day.
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Gutted for you, must be quite a shock but diabetes isn't something totally unmanageable with huge changes to a healthy lifestyle. I've a friend with diabetes and it doesn't stop him riding and putting me to shame!

janp said:
Didn't see a single cyclist on either of my commutes :/ Although got loads more punishment passes, I wondered if that's because more bikes about, so drivers were getting fed up. No excuse either way.
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There's no excuse, I had one from a lorry earlier. Scary.

Hope your knee is ok!

Jonny ///M said:
Well I managed out with the training bunch. Bit of a wet miserable night but it was good fun.
<snip>
Felt good to get out as I was sooooo apprehensive about going out and getting pumped but I'm happy how I got on.
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Sounds and looks like a good strong ride considering the weather you guys had!

FrenchTart said:
Awesome weather in Manchester too. Shame I bonked massively on the Brickworks. Watching everyone sail past me was fun.
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Saw this too, hope it was just going too hard in the hot weather? New bike?

daveski said:
Also started to see the occasional cyclist out - no helmet, riding on pavements etc.
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I see 5-10 of these daily. Easily 50% of the cyclists I see when commuting are pavement/no helmet.

Saytan said:
Fair weather commuters get right on my ****, and I feel much better for saying it.
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Dunks said:
I reckon I've seen more cyclists out on the commute home today than I've seen in total since the beginning of the year!
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Seeing tons too - I had to pump up a tyre half way and was passed by 4. Passed 6 on my commute. So I'm par 2 for the day? Caught up with another but hadn't the legs to overtake, felt good to be back out after the hard ride on monday and rest day yesterday.

https://www.strava.com/activities/285698284

Shadowness said:
Awesome chaingang last night! First of year for me, no idea I had the strength yet.

https://app.strava.com/activities/285369946

Great tide in too, loving cycling at the moment! And this weather :)
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Great ride, 24.4mph average! That seems around the average speed of chaingangs around here - it's going to be a while before I can ride at that pace! :eek:

You're not too far away from me, hardly anyone here is West Mids ;)

platypus said:
Discs to the Peleton. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah!!
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Was hardly a surprise!
 
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janp said:
Man my knee aches this morning, think I'll give CX a miss for a bit :D Only hurts to walk though, so shall just have to cycle everywhere :D

I keep meaning to ask, does anyone use the "Fitness & Freshness" graph on Strava? I think it's a premium feature only. Keen to see what other peoples stats are, I'm finding it hard to improve my fitness score now, it's mainly just the fatigue score increasing these days. No power meter, so just basing on HR, my stats are:
Fitness - 53
Fatigue - 56
Form - minus 3
Click to expand...

I keep an eye on it, but mainly use a Performance Management Chart (PMC) I have in Excel or on Trainining Peaks.

The reason your fatigue increases and your fitness doesn't too much is the following

Fitness = Chronic Tranining Load (CTL)
Fatigue = Acute Training Load (ATL)
Form = Training Stress Balance (TSB)

These measures were all created by Coggan and the Training Peaks lot, Strava has just mirrored it and changed the names and numbers slightly, which is confusing!

Essentially the above measure what happens as you train. Every ride is assigned a TSS score (=Training Stress Score, how hard did you work basically), or in Strava's case its a called training load. This increases your CTL and ATL. CTL is a long term measure which takes into account a longer period. ATL is the last few days I think?

TSB is the differential between CTL and ATL. So if you have a high CTL and a low ATL you would be in form, as you've trained loads in the long term, but are fresh in the short term.

The reason your CTL doesn't increase too much, is that you are likely at the point at which it becomes too much to increase. An example. My CTL is now around 80, that means just to keep it there I need to average 80TSS per day. Which is quite hard. To increase it I need to do more. Which is even harder without becoming fatigued.

Its all about balance, but learning to read it will help you plan to come into form at the right time for big rides and races.

That said, its not gospel, and sometimes your legs will not agree with the chart. For me its one of the things that helps to keep me really motivate though. My CTL has risen from around 35 at the beginning of the year all the way to 80 at present. I'll hope to get up to 90-100 before the end of the year.

As a comparison though, mine is:
Fitness - 62
Fatigue - 62
Form - 0
 
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My proper PMC tracking chart from Excel, shows the last two years progress.

Blue = CTL
Red = ATL
Yellow = TSB

capture.jpg
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
I keep an eye on it, but mainly use a Performance Management Chart (PMC) I have in Excel or on Trainining Peaks.

The reason your fatigue increases and your fitness doesn't too much is the following

Fitness = Chronic Tranining Load (CTL)
Fatigue = Acute Training Load (ATL)
Form = Training Stress Balance (TSB)

These measures were all created by Coggan and the Training Peaks lot, Strava has just mirrored it and changed the names and numbers slightly, which is confusing!

Essentially the above measure what happens as you train. Every ride is assigned a TSS score (=Training Stress Score, how hard did you work basically), or in Strava's case its a called training load. This increases your CTL and ATL. CTL is a long term measure which takes into account a longer period. ATL is the last few days I think?

TSB is the differential between CTL and ATL. So if you have a high CTL and a low ATL you would be in form, as you've trained loads in the long term, but are fresh in the short term.

The reason your CTL doesn't increase too much, is that you are likely at the point at which it becomes too much to increase. An example. My CTL is now around 80, that means just to keep it there I need to average 80TSS per day. Which is quite hard. To increase it I need to do more. Which is even harder without becoming fatigued.

Its all about balance, but learning to read it will help you plan to come into form at the right time for big rides and races.

That said, its not gospel, and sometimes your legs will not agree with the chart. For me its one of the things that helps to keep me really motivate though. My CTL has risen from around 35 at the beginning of the year all the way to 80 at present. I'll hope to get up to 90-100 before the end of the year.

As a comparison though, mine is:
Fitness - 62
Fatigue - 62
Form - 0
Click to expand...

Thanks for this Thomas. Really good read, and makes a lot of sense. Your right it's quite motivating, one of the first thing I check after a hard ride :) I think my scores are a little out, as I didn't have the Garmin for a 6 week period.
Your right, I think I've reached a point where I've maxed out all my available time for training. The last time my fitness score increased, was over Easter where I had 5 days off work.

Did you create the PMC chart yourself? And would you recommend looking into training peaks?
 
janp said:
Thanks for this Thomas. Really good read, and makes a lot of sense. Your right it's quite motivating, one of the first thing I check after a hard ride :) I think my scores are a little out, as I didn't have the Garmin for a 6 week period.
Your right, I think I've reached a point where I've maxed out all my available time for training. The last time my fitness score increased, was over Easter where I had 5 days off work.

Did you create the PMC chart yourself? And would you recommend looking into training peaks?
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Its a chart I found on the web somewhere, can't remember where now. I don't mind sending it across if you want a copy, drop me a mail in trust. Training peaks is useful tool as it has a fair few features that Strava lacks, but its more useful if you have a power meter, as is Golden Cheetah. I think the code Stages14 will give you a free 30 day premium trial if you want a go on it.

These charts and data, are one of the reasons I'll never go back to training without power meter data. There's too much data I'd miss out on!
 
I agree, i havnt cycled much over winter, but when i did i used a bike without a powermeter, i got back my carbon last week which has stages power meter and it was just so much better, having the data there is awesome. For instance there is a 11min hill on the way back from work, i need to put out 400w at the top of it for a section, if i go over 250w at the bottom by the time i get to the top ive already blow up. If i start at 200w then ramp up as i go, i can manage it.

Power meters are brilliant. I think along with aero wheels its the best bit of kit you can buy
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
My proper PMC tracking chart from Excel, shows the last two years progress.

Blue = CTL
Red = ATL
Yellow = TSB
Click to expand...

Very good graph that, I like this side of stuff, but don't ride with power all the time due to not swapping round pedals etc, so usually ride the road with HR then TTs with my power, I'd like to combine these to get an idea, but don't really feel paying strava for it. I'm just wondering if this is something I could chuck my commuting low effort rides, along with my HR road rides and my TT rides, although I get a good idea when I'm tired :D
 
Yeah, I love it. I'm essentially a data analyst for work, so love looking into all of the data, and watching the trends. Mostly because I despise the idea that I might be standing still. I love riding, but I don't ride 10+ hours a week to be the same standard as I was last year. May as well use everything in my power in order try and further myself!
 
Yeah I somehow need to convince the boss that I need a power meter with my new bike.

Ah now thats an interesting dilemma I've just given myself. Do I drop the Di2 and get a power meter...?
 
I know that :p, but the original plan was to have another 6 months saving before I bought a new bike. Don't think her indoors will go for that, might have to look at trying to guilt her into a birthday/christmas present.
 
Thomas. PLease. said:
Yeah, I love it. I'm essentially a data analyst for work, so love looking into all of the data, and watching the trends. Mostly because I despise the idea that I might be standing still. I love riding, but I don't ride 10+ hours a week to be the same standard as I was last year. May as well use everything in my power in order try and further myself!
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True, my mates call me the stat man! :D I can see my power going up still which is good, hitting just over my power from the end of last year at my absolute peak, so once I start getting some TTs under my legs I know my pace will be going up. I just don't want the gains to reduce though, as up to now I've been picking up my power fairly noticably, will be demoralising when that upward trends begins to even out.
 
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