Boom #2

Today's workout was a repeat of the last several weeks, a 5x5'x'5 set @ 115%-118% FTP.  This means that if my FTP is set correctly, I should be doing them at around 305-312 watts.  My latest thing is to definitely value quality over quantity, and this was another instance of following that philosophy.

The first interval was lower than I'd hoped but still on target @ 310 watts.  Last week I started with one at 310 as well, so things looks ok.

Just to compare, this was last week's workout:

310/315/315/308/312 Watts

Well, this week, 2 minutes into my second interval, the lights just went out.  It could have been mental at that moment, but my legs were just screaming and I could not get the wattage above 300 for any period of time.  After 2 mins, I lost my willpower and bailed.  After looking at the power for the first 2 min it wasn't terrible at 303 watts, but I knew I was going to blow up.  I rode home and actually struggled to maintain 160-180 watts and rode at more like 125 for the remainder of the ride, 30 minutes or so.

Last week I went into this workout with much less fatigue in the legs, and most likely that made the difference.  While I had 3 days off the bike completely last week, I have been on the bike since Friday, making that 7 days in a row.  Time to recover again according to my new technique and avoidance of junk miles.  No scheduled rest weeks, just reacting to my ability to complete my exercises.  Last season and every season before that, I would have stayed out for another hour or so and probably ridden harder even though my legs were sore.  This way I hope tomorrow's opener goes well and I am fresher for Fulton RR up in "Peach Bottom" PA.  Love that name.

So, boom #2 in my new training philosophy happened today, hopefully I can slowly learn how to adjust my workouts and intensity to manage this well.  I assume that as I continue to train and recover sufficiently, I will be able to take on more and more TSS per week. Right now I'm averaging what looks like 650 TSS per week, my CTL has gone up from 32 to 81 in 6 weeks and it's still climbing.  Last season when I got to 100 CTL I blew up, so I'm wondering if I can hold that this season.  Either way, I'm not going to force TSS down my throat for the sake of TSS.  This week will likely be light since I missed most of today's workout, tomorrow is just an opener, and I'm not riding Sunday.