Soldato
- Joined
- 5 Jul 2007
- Posts
- 5,511
- Location
- London
Yeah this is a fair point, when its not going the right way can be fairly demoralising.
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
<pretty graph>
Two years for full ratification, three-four years for them to be mainstream = new bike shopping time.
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!
I know that, 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.
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...?
Yep, plenty of them out over this way. It's either getting overtaking challenges from keen male riders or stuck behind slowcoaches. Don't mind the slowcoaches, it's the constant challenges from riders who can't hold the pace they've just challenged you with and you end up going back past them and... rinse and repeat at every set of lights. Yesterday I had an old dear dithering in her car and basically endangering all of us because she was driving super slow and unpredictably right next to all of us; I dropped back to keep clear but the car behind was then a massive risk because he was being aggressively impatient. Then one cyclist had obviously had enough and pulled into a parking space to force the old dear to overtake, except instead of overtaking she decided to just stop dead in the middle of the road... I then did something stupid which was to see the opportunity and sprint through the gap and get myself way clear... which was the 'wrong' thing to do but it worked for me...Fair weather commuters get right on my ****, and I feel much better for saying it.
Im thinking about getting a 12-30 ratio rear cassette, has anyone used on of these before? im looking for something to help on the 8+% hills and the 30 might be worth a look.
Currently running a 11-28 and the jump from a 12-25 was awesome. If i did go up to a 30 tooth sprocket, would i need to change the length of mech arm? and chain?
New SRAM 1x road groupset - want
Middle Ring : 38-54 options
Rear Cassette : 10-42 11 speed
If you have to choose one. Powermeter, then Di2 imo.
Daveski (or any other Nottinghamshire'ers), do you have any routes you could link to on mapmyride/google maps/etc that are local? Not fussed about length.
Looking at getting out a few times in the evening through the week, but short of ideas where to go!
I got out and did 30 miles with Damien this evening. First time I've ever been able to outpace him! I'm sure he won't let it happen again![]()
https://www.strava.com/activities/285809910
https://www.strava.com/activities/285777935
https://www.strava.com/activities/141704449
https://www.strava.com/activities/173174978
https://www.strava.com/activities/10529021
https://www.strava.com/activities/8315301
There's loads of potential routes near us Dunks.
BCC Chaingang tonight if you fancy it? - http://www.beeston.cc/events/event/?id=2092
Seem a bit silly going for Ultegra, and then replacing the majority of it at a later date with Ultegra Di2.
Im thinking about getting a 12-30 ratio rear cassette, has anyone used on of these before? im looking for something to help on the 8+% hills and the 30 might be worth a look.
Currently running a 11-28 and the jump from a 12-25 was awesome. If i did go up to a 30 tooth sprocket, would i need to change the length of mech arm? and chain?
50/39 Front is a bit weird. I thought 50/34 was standard on a compact. I run 52/36 now with a 11-25 or 11-28 depending. Way prefer the 11-25 though, as the shifts are so much more incremental.