Originally Posted by
rubiksoval
How sure are you about your metrics? I ask because 110 CTL is an f'ton of training stress, especially to hold for longer durations. To compare, I've hit 100 CTL about 5 times (for no more than a week at a time) in the last five years, typically in prep for national championship events or other really big races, and that took a concerted effort of 12-15 hours a week with a very needed taper afterwards. I don't think I've hit 110 CTL in the last decade.
In any case, my CTL is typically between 70-85 in the winter off of 7-10 hours a week and pushes up into the 90s by the start of April/May/race season. I do this through a heavy diet of tempo, sweetspot, and threshold work, with a couple of group rides and bigger (short) efforts peppered in two or three times a month throughout the winter.
I've found that it's possible to maintain a fairly tight range of CTL between 60-90 for the entire year, with little 3-5 day breaks sprinkled in. Due to that, I don't have super high peaks or very low lows, and am always just a couple of weeks away from peak fitness depending on how much intensity I want to push in to sharpen up.
Lots of threshold work helps keep me aerobically strong, and lower hour ~9-10 weeks keeps me from burning out. With higher hours I'd have a lot more z2/tempo work and less sweetspot/threshold to keep training stress in a decent range.
Reasonably sure, but not positive. The most likely source of error would be the FTP estimate, but I think it’s unlikely to be low, based on my unimpressive real world performance. Looking over the numbers, yes, I did put in a pretty solid average of 12 hrs a week on the bike this season, even if you exclude commutes and other junk. I also should have written that 112 last week is my high for the season. I felt good this summer in the 80-100 range and then took two weeks off in Sep. I ramped back up to this level from about 70 and, this being my first year with a PM on the bike, I really don’t know how sustainable it is. Hence my question, which was really about working hard through the winter and stands even if the absolute numbers are wrong.
Anyway, thanks. It’s good to hear what better athletes are doing and it sounds like I should back off a bit. For reference, and if you’ll excuse my asking, how old are you?
Incidentally, I read somewhere, maybe in Joe Friel’s “Fast after Fifty,” that there is wide individual variation in the ability to tolerate training load and that tolerance is inversely related to the positive fitness response to stress. I have always been sluggish and maybe I’m on the high-tolerance end of that spectrum.