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Old 09-05-18, 01:26 AM
  #146  
spectastic
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so i recently started using golden cheetah, and got to learn about CTL, ATL, TSB, and how they relate to each other. I've been trying to peak for an important race in a couple of weeks, and have been focused on building the CTL, which currently sits at it's highest it's ever been, although it's not impressive, relative to most CTL's seen in my category. My TSB currently has been pretty negative lately, hovering on the brink of -20 over the last couple of weeks, because I've pushed myself hard during my workouts. and my legs have not really felt fresh in maybe a month. so I'm on the verge of overtaining, despite having put in only around 8 hours/week. my plan is to put in another good block of steady training in the next few days, and start tapering off maybe 7 days prior to the race, to bring my TSB back to neutral or slightly positive. Is this a good plan?

Another question I have.. is CTL and FTP mostly useful for personal comparisons? Like if it's trending up, good for you? OR is CTL and FTP some kind of an arbitrary parameter that tells you how fit you are relative to your competition? One thing I notice is that my power meter tends to read 15W lower than those used by people who I would beat on a hard ride. In addition, the FTP and CTL indicated by my training puts me in a cat 3 or cat 4 range, based on charts I find on the internet... and yet, I'm riding with fast riders on the weekends, and kicking their ass, and I have had good results from this season. granted, I know how to play my cards right in a race. but still, I don't know how I should feel about my relatively low CTL and FTP. thoughts?
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