globecanvas

Picked up my kid's sore throat last night, terrible night, feel terrible today, super busy at work, major version release first alpha build scheduled for today, wife's out of town for the week so I'm solo parenting, another kid left his backpack at home (despite me reminding him as he was walking to the door) and I had to burn 45 minutes taking it to his school, blah blah blah. Wanted to get a good ride in but I just have too much work and it probably wouldn't be a good idea to do a big effort while sick. In the afternoon I managed to get away for 1/2 hour and walked down to the railroad trestle and did 15 repeats on the 100-stair connector trail that runs from the trestle down to the river. It actually felt really, really good.

MDcatV

it's dangerous to compare TSS/CTL/ATL/TSB #s with others. i had my best season in recent memory last year, hit all kinds of wattage bests in August, and never had a ctl above 80 (ok, maybe it hit 83 at one point).

misterwaterfall

I think it's dangerous to think too hard about any of those numbers. When I do that my head and legs hurt, I'll stick to just sore legs. My dick jokes suffer when my head hurts

gsteinb

yeah, indeed. My ctl is usually around 80, and my tss for most of the year os around 500. It's important to train for where you are and what you do, and not worry about others.

mattm

Indeed.

In the end, the only numbers that really matter are the lowest ones: results.

Gramercy

I don't really know what any of these things mean - I sort of know about TSS thanks to you guys. I guess that's because I don't have a powermeter and training in the winter has been less than ideal. On a 5 hour a month average the past two months, very CDR-like. Also on baby-watch so weekend rides will be close to home.

Riding without fitness isn't really that much fun, especially riding solo. It's a chore to put in an effort to ride at 22mph on flat ground these days and it's not sustainable for more than two minutes. Spring series participation may not happen.

hack

You could pick up a trainer and maximize the time you have. It would pretty miserable, but do-able.

mollusk

Old fart here chiming in.

Lots of long rides at Zone 2 pace in the off season are wonderful for building base for the tougher rides required to become strong. It is mind numbing, though. In fact I can see that using prohibited substances "cough" mary jane "cough" to get through those long rides might actually make pot a PED if you go solo. Better find some like minded team mates that are serious about base training and help each other push through the monotony.

Yeah, you can do the time crunched training regime, but you will only be good for a week or two. There is no royal road to be good for a whole season.

gsteinb

waves hand. my program is 'time crunched,' and geared towards being fit in the beginning, fit in the middle, and fit in the end or the season.

mollusk

You have years of base.

bmcphx

I compete against those who I think are lower than me so I can win.

I still lose.

Wesley36

Another reason for training camps in Colorado?

mollusk

What is your first language?

mollusk

John Denver (RIP) asks "Rocky Mountain High"?

bmcphx

Not anything which can be written on a phone, I suppose.

gsteinb

I don't buy it. I don't buy the idea that to prepare for one thing you need to do another. Yeah, if you're doing 3-5 hour RRs a lot of saddle hours come in handy. Train for what you do. If you're doing 60 minute crits you don't really need a whole hell of a lot of miles.

bmcphx

Where's fudgy to say crits don't require fitness?

grolby

This is basically the idea. Endurance has been my weakness for every season I've raced. Even in relatively short events, I have trouble having anything left at the end to fight for a good finishing position. So I'm trying something different to see if it works for me to help me retain some snap at the end of a race or at the end of a season.

It might not fully pay off this season, though I think I'm bound to do better than I did last year. This is a long game. It's development.

And yeah, I have some teammates who might be interested in joining me. Should help me retain some sanity.

Doge

Where? Great picture!

tetonrider

IMO, there's a balance. preparing for the long-term is great, but often one needs to taste some measure of success in the nearer-term in order to have the motivation to keep going.

the types of base rides sometimes discussed have their place, but that place does not exist for all riders. one needs to know what they're doing and why, no matter the training plan.

recently cameron cogburn posted a pic of his garmin where he did a 6-hour zone 2 trainer ride--at 280 watts.
i thought the exchange between adam myerson and cogburn was interesting.

TMonk

The next two mornings are forecasted to rain lots, bummer. My training will be totally contingent upon weather:

If the weather is good, I will do my planned intervals on Fiesta Island
If the weather is bad, I will just do a 90min tempo ride instead, which I don't mind too much in the rain.

Hmm.

Ygduf

Myserson did 94!!!! races in 2014 and still finds time to give unsolicited advice.

furiousferret

I enjoy riding long hours of base, personality wise, I'm built for it. That's one reason I do this sport. Right now z1 / z2 is filler between the real workouts, which I do think has value. It may not be efficient, but it helps.

Right now my biggest focus is 1 minute power. I really need to improve it by about 50 watts if I want to do better in crits. That's four weeks away, which is getting close.

TMonk

Ice Breaker in Ontario ftw.

I'll be there.

revchuck 

Which Ontario?