Originally Posted by
trainsktg
Very interesting, making me wonder all the more exactly what fitness/freshness is actually indicating. I'm at best a high-end Cat 5. As of last month my FTP was approx. 245 as measured separately by both Kickr and on-bike power meter, putting my P/W somewhere around 2.9 to 3.0.
Below is a (lousy) snip of F/F over the last six months. F/F increased steadily from March through July, peaking in the area of 110 through July. I do think you are correct though, I probably overreached. I was feeling pretty burned out which was why I was glad for the easier workload through August.
Keith
What your ideal fitness/freshness/acute training load/chronic training load is depends on a number of factors. If you're preparing for long events, you may benefit from a high fitness/chronic training load. For shorter events, a lower fitness/chronic training load may be sufficient and be of benefit because it may allow you to train more intensely which can result in faster training improvements.
Generally speaking a fitness/CTL of 100 is considered pretty high. Maybe ideal for someone who is doing stage races or long events. Also, generally speaking, younger people and men recover better and can carry higher training loads. Older people & women generally need more rest and lower fitness/CTLs. But there is tremendous variation. Some people thrive on volume, some people thrive on intensity. Some people can be successful with either, depending on the nature of their events. This is stuff you discover about yourself with training. Higher training loads carry higher risk of overtraining. Training loads that are too low run the risk of low performance.
As an example, I am a 50 yr old woman who trains with power & has an excellent coach. Ie everything is about as optimized as possible. Last year, I raced a series of long climbing Fondo-like events- all from 100-125 miles with 10-13k ft of climbing. My fitness/CTL for the 9 months I spent prepping for those events was 90-100- pretty high for someone my age & gender but it went well & I was watched pretty closely. Now I am racing 20-40k TTs and my fitness/CTL is usually around 70. Same person, good results in my races with both high & medium CTLs, each appropriate to the duration of my events.
Most people are going to race best at a freshness/acute training low that is around zero, let's say from -5 to 15 or so. With some variation from person to person. For me, I probably race best with a freshness from 0-5. You always need to balance how fresh you get for a race with the need to not get beyond-fresh to stale. And you don't want to back off on your training so much for a race that you don't continue to prepare optimally for the next one in the pipeline.
Bottom line is that many people think more volume is best. Sometimes volume just makes you tired and takes away from your ability to train intensely enough to make real progress. 114 is probably high for a cat 5 guy, especially if you're racing crits more than road races. Not inevitably high though, just probably too high.