burnthesheep

By definition CTL is the 42 day moving average of TSS. ATL is the 7 day moving average of TSS. Nothing more than a little mathematical algorithm for visualizing training stress over time.

The topic title "lies, damned lies, then CTL" comes from "lies, damned lies, then statistics". Or is it so wrong? Is CTL fitness or is it now? Hmmm.

I feel like I am constantly torn between a couple of ideas that compete against each other in my own head as it relates to CTL:

1. CTL is, or is not "fitness"
2. To get faster, CTL must sometimes take a back seat to discipline specific work.
3. How you spend your CTL "budget".....80/20, 90/10, 3 hard workouts a week, etc.........
4. When do you start your specialization work?

I started trying to ride a bike in groups and with an aim to be faster or competitive probably around 2017. I started off primarily "just riding" then moved into just constantly repeating training plans that had you do 3 interval workouts per week that were pretty intense. And I made some newbie gains. I could do a good 20min test value and keep up with A groups, have fun in a cross race, etc....

In the time sense then, the TT hobby became a favorite and drove me to basically chase CTL while chewing off a lot of sweetspot all the time. I didn't feel like that work should tailor well to road bike group fitness. With the surges.

IMHO, I think the whole "CTL is a fitness lie" can be a bit of a boogeyman after this past year. If you don't have enough base or ftp, you won't be in the break or contesting the town line sprint finish. Period. That's the "cake". The icing is the VO2 and anerobic or sprint efforts to close the deal. Without getting there first, the other is useless.

I went from last year "barely hanging on" in the main weeknight worlds bunch, to being a primary contender to finish on the front.

I might toss in some random VO2 efforts each week on Zwift or for a local KOM. Maybe decide one week to do a structured TT bike 4x5min VO2 workout. Certainly zero sprint and zero "1min" style power focused work. Let's be clear, there is no road race or crit style training focus AT ALL.

What gives? Is there actually something to the whole "more is more" ethos of ftp and the "sweetspot" trend?

So, contribute with:
-do you think: CTL is a lie for fitness, CTL drives fitness, or "it depends".....I think it depends
-there is something to "sweetspot" style methods of training?
-is "more is more" true to an extent? why or why not?

I ask this headed into cross season as teammates, competitors, and the whole cross world starts dialing up 30/30 anaerobic workouts. Despite the fact that the data from a cross race for an amateur would reveal a pitiful amount of anaerobic power usage in a race. So............perhaps "more is more" again, but with hotlaps and barrier drills?