2.5 hours with 1 hour 45 minutes at the lower end of SST. Temps in the mid 60's F. It felt great.

Today I realized my ability to put out power varies tremendously between weekday commute and weekend group ride. Even commutes can vary quite a bit. Is this much variation normal or what?

5 minutes of my commute today (after some warm up + spinning drills) at ~80% hurt and sucked.
4 hours at > 0.8 IF two days ago hurt, but didn't suck (yesterday was easy recovery ~40%).

A) not warmed up
B) not motivated because solo or backpack or clothes or...
C) still beat from the weekend even after really easy recovery day
D) something else...

I go through periods like that. If it's not rest/nutrition related I find that it's typically mental. Some days I will hop on the bike and feel like putting out power is easy. Other days my legs hate me and it seems like a struggle. Either way I can almost always hit my numbers

This was me this morning. I swear I must have looked 5 times to see if my tire was flat or the brakes were rubbing. No such luck. Just suck.

Short commute may have a bit of an effect due to lack of warm up.
Or today could have been especially worse due to a fire in a nearby metal management yard.

i dont think it's the metal management yard fire.

i think it's fatigue from "4 hrs. at >0.8 IF" + whatever the A ride is + 225 mile weeks + swimming + haphazard training that is more riding than training and lacks big picture focus or clear structure (this is my opinion from reading a few of your posts).

+1 MDcatV

Yeah, swimming faster than you planned is not going to allow "active recovery" to recover jack squat. (Re-)read Friel, esp. the part about how training makes you weaker, and only recovery makes you stronger. Recover as hard as you train, or harder.

Could be. Not sure 3 hours of swimming has a noticeable impact. The swimming is kind of a compulsive thing - I've been slow to pick it up, therefore I must do it to prove I can.

On the hard weekend: Does it usually take more than one easy day to recover? I managed to average as low as 130 watts for yesterday's recovery.

The A ride was the 4 hour intense ride, more steady/smaller group. It was the day after saturday fast paced group ride more spikes/large group, hence the Monday recovery. I try to get "big" (for me) weekends in because M-F is mostly commuting only 100 miles total. I don't want to do 5 easy days in a row though, so I try to keep the power up mid-week (Friday and Monday recovery before and after weekend). I hate Tuesday to be kinda-sorta-hardish-but-not-really. Maybe start going easy on Tuesday as well and really utilize my longer commuting on Wednesday?

I guess I've been assuming that swimming has almost zero impact on cycling - not using the same muscles. Guess it could impact whatever is going on in the body to repair those muscles though. Thinking about it - I guess it's similar to weight lifting. You can alternate muscle groups all you wan't but still don't want to lift 7 days a week.

30 minute lunch ride. Felt blah but went out there and crushed it. PR'ed my climb by a long shot, still a lot of work to do though. I have a poor habit of comparing where I am at to the local legends, which is really doesn't do anything but bring in negativity about my progress (which is actually really good). My W/Kg has gone from 2.4 to 3.2 which isn't too bad for a 3 month span.

Some of my cycling jerseys look like football jerseys now :)

Dangerous game comparing yourself to others...
More difficult on the head than the body...

Why would people who race ever want to compare themselves with others? :rolleyes:

No it's not that, it's comparing yourself against 'local legends' :)
Can be disheartening.

Yep. If something feels like a lot of work, that's your body telling you that it was a lot of work. Swimming is going to be working endurance, threshold, and VO2Max systems, and not all of that stress is in the limb muscles. Heart, lung/diaphragm, mitochondrial, RBCs, fat stores, metabolism, hormones, etc. lots of stuff going on with both sports. Significant core work is present in both.

I really try to take it easier on my recovery days. Housework, but probably not re-landscaping or framing kind of stuff.

until you beat them, then you feel good. :)

aaron, for me, it's mental. my commutes are easy. My brain and legs expect a certain level of effort, when I try to go near threshold or something silly on my commute, it's a shock to the system. When I'm out on some weekend ride, it's NBD.

This is what I keep telling myself after finding out that I race against a few people with an FTP in the 380w range..

(and they weigh just as much as I do!)

Nice! I love those rides when you surprise yourself!
Luckily there's not too many local legends in my area!

You're making me sad bro

Wait is that not normal... :)

It probably is, for cat 1's. You'll fit in fine!

First i need to race again, then i need to win, then i need to upgrade, then eventually i'll profit (barely, but at least it will be something)

Bingo.

Maybe you are the local legend :rolleyes:

If I am...it's not for cycling :p

I don't know about you, but even my hard races that are that long are rarely >.8 IF. That's a lot of tss. I also don't know how helpful a ride like that is.

he's new, working on endurance, and in the middle of the off-season. hard rides will stimulate mitochondria growth. just need to balance hard rides with good rest and diet.