Originally Posted by
adamrice
I live in a place where it's feasible to ride through the winter. I'm also new to randonneuring.
My mindset is to ride through the winter, although I do reduce my distance. I wound up taking off most of November (due to conflicts and minor mishaps) and I'm still paying for it in terms of lost fitness—I use Training Peaks, and putting a number to your fitness can be motivating or dispiriting, depending on the direction that number is moving.
Training Peaks, GoldenCheetah and other programs provide interesting and useful readiness data for a randonneur, but it takes some knowledge to interpret. I would guess most randos don't use such programs or ride with a PM. I have used a powermeter and one training program or another for 8 years.
In 2019, my chronic training load (CTL) was 67 going into my 2 week PBP taper and I started PBP with a CTL load of 61. I completed PBP with an acute training load (ATL) of 158. Outch. It took almost a full week to recover. I tend to think of CTL as base level endurance or fitness. A CTL of 67 is low for me. Paradoxically, my FTP (functional threshold power) was higher than ever. I just was not what I would consider rando fit.......like you can just ride and ride at a moderate pace like the Everready bunny.
In 2015, my CTL was around 100-105 from memory and brevets were not as hard. I flew home thursday and was riding the next day and did an easy week and the following week was "normal"
In 2016 my CTL was very high due to miles and intensity..... higher than 158. Too high. Makes brevets too easy.
My guess is something between 80-100 is a good CTL. Interested if anyone has similar guesses?
The only two things I focus on are CTL and my best 4-5 minute climbing time on a couple hills that I have used over the decades. If my climbing times are really good and I have a good CTL for me, no brevet will kill me. It is also simple and easier to measure than FTP. I just go out and ride, download the files (TP is automatic now, I think) and it monitors my CTL. Every 7-14 days, I ride my hill as hard as I can. If my CTL and climbing increase, my FTP always increases with it. FTP tests are not the most fun, so, why bother. The only other thing for me is knowing if I am too tired. Something called TSB (training stress balance) is very useful as is HRV (heart rate variability). I only use them during brevet season and as I have gotten older, it takes a little longer to recover and HRV has been more useful than TSB (unless one changes the exponents). It goes without saying one only gets stronger when resting and breaking yourself down when already tired is a fool's errand.
Back to the OP. If I assume I would like a CTL of 90 and if I increase my load 10% per week with an easy week per month, one can see starting from zero in March makes if very, very difficult to have the fitness in July for a 1200K after taking the winter off. I would argue that the most important miles for a successful summer 1200K would be those in November-March leading up to the grand randonnee.