Going into unchartered CTL waters

LT Intolerant said:

[font=Calibri]I’m planning on doing a ride (not a race) that averages 75 miles per day and 7,500 ft. of climbing per day for 7 straight days. I’m trying to model this in CP’s PMC, and plan my training leading up to the trip.[/font]

[font=Calibri]My concern is I’m in unchartered territory. My largest week to date is somewhere around 20 hours, 300 miles, 1200 TSS, and 25k ft of climbing. Based on my projections I’m looking at 40+ hours, 525 miles, 1800 TSS for the week, and 50k+ ft of climbing. The challenge is I'm expecting to see my CTL hit a high of 149 during the week of the event, and my midweek TSB at almost -68! :eek: [/font]

[font=Calibri]My plan is in the 8 weeks prior to get my CTL up to roughly 135 and taper for 1 week which will see my TSB at + 21. In 4 of those weeks my CTL ramp rate will be >10. Ouch! [/font]

[font=Calibri]Has anybody trained for something like this before, and if so, how did you approach the buildup and the taper? Did you go with a longer taper, maybe 2 weeks? Any thoughts on handling the kind of ramp rate I'm looking at? Any thoughts would be appreciated. [/font]

Yeah, I went somewhere warm(er) in early April and added about 35 points to my CTL before I left, 11 days later.

I took two easy weeks before I went and cut my TSS down to about half of what I had been doing before that. I was tired of the trainer and that weighed into my tapering strategy. Also, I figured going into this thing that I'd be gaining 25-30 CTL points (oops, I overshot) and with that kind of ramp rate, you really need a big break before and after, to cushion the blow. I'm not a coach so I don't have access to many other's profiles and make-ups, but I have found that I can tolerate a CTL ramp rate like that for a short period of time (1-2 weeks) but beyond that, I don't know and I didn't want to find out.

You do need to build up some CTL just to be able to get through this thing, though I wonder whether you really need to peak out at 135. That's ProTour territory. I'm sure that some (many) the others doing this thing will not be nearly so built up. I would suggest going in with a very high + TSB though. Be over-rested. Days off beforehand (and after) are good.

^ Thanks Steve. Those are the options I should be weighing as I consider my approach. Go in over-rested with a much higher TSB, or go in w a higher CTL. I guess you can make an argument for both approaches, but given that its a tour and not a stage race going in over-rested may be the better option.

My current plan has an average CTL ramp of roughly 7 points per week for 7 weeks. I've never done that before but I have averaged 5 per week for 7 weeks in the past.

Agreed that after this thing is over I'll be looking for a very comfortable sofa in the week/s that follows. 😄

LT Intolerant said:

[font=Calibri]The challenge is I'm expecting to see my CTL hit a high of 149 during the week of the event, and my midweek TSB at almost -68! :eek: [/font]

...assuming you do that huge build that the you wanted to do, topping you off at 135. If instead you peak with a somewhat easier 100, you might find that you'll be less tired going in, happier overall and still not suffer during the tour.

No matter what you do, you will be at a - TSB for the latter half of the week. I wouldn't be too frightened about -68. I've noticed that

• I can rack up some serious ATL and thus negative TSB and be OK with it if the IF is lower. If it's anything like the road tours I have done, plan on an average IF of around 0.7 or so. I usually train at something higher than that so it's more manageable.
  
• The feeling of severely negative TSB depends upon the composition that lead to it, the IF. So if your tour is a moderate IF (0.7), it might not feel nearly as hard as doing 0.85-0.95 and accumulating the equivalent TSS for seven days straight.
  

Steve_B said:

I can rack up some serious ATL and thus negative TSB and be OK with it if the IF is lower.

Solid observation so thanks again. I agree that on average an IF around .7 is more tolerable day-in, day-out. Riding in a more "chilled out" tour-like approach would make handling the ATL ramp that I'd experience during the week a helluva lot easier.

I'm curious why you feel the need for such a high CTL going into this and wonder what your goal is with the event?

IMHO, I think you might encounter some real problems with a ramp rate of 10TSS/ wk and/or CTL of 149. I'd come in super-rested, let the tour drive CTL up, recover well and then see what I could do with that fitness! 😉 If you're racing at all, it could be a very nice re-up of your base for the last 1/3 of the season. I have driven my CTL that high due to base/build periods but it's taken months and CTL is always dropping down before any thing I'm interested in doing well at.

peterpen said:

I'm curious why you feel the need for such a high CTL going into this and wonder what your goal is with the event?

IMHO, I think you might encounter some real problems with a ramp rate of 10TSS/ wk and/or CTL of 149. I'd come in super-rested, let the tour drive CTL up, recover well and then see what I could do with that fitness! 😉 If you're racing at all, it could be a very nice re-up of your base for the last 1/3 of the season. I have driven my CTL that high due to base/build periods but it's taken months and CTL is always dropping down before any thing I'm interested in doing well at.

When I modeled this out in a PMC spreadsheet it seemed the only way to avoid crazy (> -75) mid-week negative TSB values given the significant TSS (250/day) I would rack up was to drive CTL sky high and then do a dramatic taper for an extended period (2 weeks).

Using 1100 TSS/week for 6 weeks then a 2 week taper at 575 TSS/wk yielded moderately negative TSB values (-25 to roughly -50) by mid-week (assuming each day would be roughly 250 TSS). The downside is the ramp rate in building that CTL.

But given that this is not a race, and my goal is to finish each day in a "reasonable" timeframe, going in fresh, with a more reasonable CTL ramp rate, and using the event to build CTL seems like a much better approach.

In terms of using that new-found fitness sadly my "official" race season will be over by then, but I still have all those great group rides (ie, unofficial races) that will be fun once my TSB turns positive after I recover from the tour. 😄