procrit

I'm rethinking my training plan. Any major intensity gives me a lot of fatigue, and with a CTL in the 40's I just don't think I'm ready. I'm going to take the next 12 weeks and just focus on building endurance and increasing CTL. There's a nearby road race in September (well, 50/50 chance it happens), so that would give me 5 weeks for a build and taper. Un/Fortunately USAC lost my race info (how do they do that?), so instead of being a cat 2, I guess I can just get a one-day license and race with the 4's?

procrit

I'm a small business owner with two mortgages, family, IE lots of overhead, and this whole covid 19 thing has quadrupled my overall stress levels. Not from a "I'm afraid of the virus" standpoint that the news is constantly pushing, but a "how am I going to pay all of my employees and my own bills" perspective. I've been working hard on getting sleep, and I've gone from 5 hours a night to 8 hours a night by forcing myself to turn out lights, turn off the phone, relax, and get to bed at a decent hour. After a month of working on it, I'm finally back into a routine and I'm feeling much better. The whole stress / lack of sleep cycle is self perpetuating...

TMonk

Man, reading that makes me realize that I have such a different perspective on this - I'm engaged (live with fiancee), no kids yet, still very gainfully employed as a chemist/scientist. In fact - my specific division/department has seen an increase in business lately, due in no small part to the virus. There is a lot of antimicrobial/antiviral and diagnostic application that overlaps with us, a medium-sized nanotechnology company. So really, things are kind of comfortable and I'm fortunate enough to be mildly inconvenienced by the business closures, and of course worried about my health at worst. I'm very lucky to have my health and income intact (knocks on wood).

Doctors, scientists and associated policymakers (for the most part) have the same perspective - focused on the virus. Which is their job, but we're not feeling it the same way that small business owners and people in "non-essential" industries are. So it's easy to say we should stay shut down.

NOTE: I'm NOT trying to start a political discussion here, and let's please refrain from that - the 33 is generally a pretty mature place. Note that I didn't share an opinion on the matter either - just that I can see after reading procrit 's post that it's easy to take a side without considering the opinions of people who are living in very different worlds.

Also - this thread is supposed to be about training, which just meandered off from talk about poor training performance due to stress. Personally, my training has suffered not due to stress, but mainly lack of motivation for no racing! Even our weekly track series is enough to get me pumped to train - the men's "A's" around here has some pretty serious hitters, and when I'm going really good it's fun to attack scratch races with them and piss everyone off

kensuf

That was me Tuesday.

topflightpro

My training schedule has been way off lately, due in large part to work/working from home. I've been much less regimented about getting out of bed and getting my workout in. And I've struggled some with motivation.

Like TMonk, my job is busier than ever - due in large part to COVID-19. My wife, on the other hand, has a lot more free time since her college is essentially closed. She's been riding more than she ever has.

procrit

Well dealing with life and stress can be part of the training process, so maybe it's not so off topic? Either way, glad you are doing well work wise, it's always great to hear positive stories. And yea, not having a race to train for makes it tough!

big john

Not a racer but stress during training is definitely not off topic. Stress can cause many physical problems to go along with the obvious mental/emotional ones.

Hermes

Yesterday was a 2 hour endurance ride along the coast from Del Mar to Carlsbad and back.

procrit

I put a plan together for the potential road race. CTL ramp rate of ~4 per week, peak TSB to -25 to -30 at the end of a training block, blocks are 3 weeks on / 1 week off. 12 weeks of base with some group rides, and 3 weeks with intervals and a week taper. TSB ends up around +15 or so for the race. Training Peaks has come a long way in the last decade haha. I'm sure I'll be making adjustments, but at least I have something to shoot for.

aaronmcd

Did the same 30 minute climb that shouldn't be 30 minutes. 120 TSS. Wondering if ramping up too fast is causing bloating. Google says "beginners bloat" is a thing. I sure hope it is cuz something's up and it isn't extra scale weight. Definitely gonna go easy next week. But first: Saturday.

UmneyDurak

Totally is. I am adjusting my routine not to get in to it, seems to be working.

furiousferret

I'll have 14-15 hours this week (all indoors) depending on how my legs feel tomorrow.

That is on top of a ton of walking. I told my wife that the way the societal trends are going (no masking, social distancing) with our county essentially opening up amidst a daily rise in cases we are going to get it. Ready your body to survive it. She's taking it serious, eating right, walking, etc. but that means I too walk. I'm not trying to judge or be political about it; I see both sides. My neighbors are business owners and are getting zero support from the government.

aaronmcd

Did Mt Tam today finally. Just up and back, 4 hours total, 300 TSS. Down to -70 TSB and ready for a rest week with a couple strength sessions.

Yep

14 hours (including a really mellow 2 hour cruiser with one of the kids) and 612 TSS. I think I'll keep going until what would have been my A race in June and instead go after some KOMs. Plan is to then take a mini break and start building back for Sep/Oct when maybe there will be IRL races. I don't think I'll hit 100 CTL by June, but I'd like to get there before the end of the year.

I don't think I'll ever understand exactly what makes me fitter/faster, but the closest I've come is the correlation between CTL and FTP. I want to see at what point -and if- that breaks. I'm no spring chicken, so maybe I've waited too long to push 100/110.

big john

Road ride? Can you ride mountain bikes there in the birthplace of mountain biking?

aaronmcd

I can't but its a good place for it. I just bought a gravel bike to ride some trails but have only taken it out in the city so far, Mt Sutro, Golden Gate Park, Laguna Honda trails. Plan to go up north with it when I've got the fitness, maybe next block. Those longer dirty rides really wiped me out even when I was in (cycling) shape.

Also I slept 11 hours last night and 10 the previous nights.

big john

I had heard there were trail access issues up there. I think that Repack Road where they used to race on their clunkers would be good for a gravel bike if it's legal.

Hermes

9 hours this week all outdoors.

procrit

Legs felt good today and I did the local hammer ride. 75 miles, 240 TSS. Ready for a rest week!

TheKillerPenguin

It's a thing! I find that happens during base especially - I will drop like 1-2kg during the first half of a rest week. More stress -> more cortisol -> water retention.

Doge

Big thigh gap furry face dude in the middle is mine. 20 + hour week.

aaronmcd

Went out to chill on bikes with friends, tried to keep it at 100ish watts (rpe). Went on a bunch of trails and hit much more that 100 sometimes but overall a pretty chill 28 miles.

TMonk

Did some dispersed camping and MTB riding at Mount Laguna last weekend, capping off a rest week. I hit up 1.75 hrs this morning on the TT bike, spending about 45 min or so of that in aero at SST. Shootin' for ~12-13 hrs this week. I'm thinking I'll go for like 4 hrs on Sat, then next week I will likely go big on Memorial Day! (day off).

burnthesheep

150 TSS in a day, run plus bike. Did AdZ last night on the 53/39 at 100% difficulty. LOL. I definitely see a bunch of folks on there utilize both their gearing and having their trainer difficulty set really low.

To have like 70rpm I was at 300w a couple times for a few seconds. No way Fred at 1.8w/kg is able to spin seated up that thing without erg mode or no trainer difficulty. That mountain is a beast yo.

I kept it at SS for most of the climb then let the drift take over at the end to hammer home. I couldn't imagine hammering the entire time. This time was like 54min. No group to draft off of either.

I think I can go sub 50min at some point on it. Would need to feel really peppy that day and jack the a/c in the house a bit colder.

But, I'll take 3400ft in under an hour! Lol.

hubcyclist

did 3x20 @ 90, 94, 92% this morning. As it has been lately, this is all done after my first cup of coffee so I can be done before 9am. It's going to get tougher in a couple of weeks because my weekday workouts will go to 90-120min vs the current 60-90min duration, so I need to push myself to start earlier