Desperately Seeking CTL

Training with Power Explanations

"The chronic training (CTL) load simply represents your long term tolerance to a given relative training stress. " AC

"Training Stress Score represents a number combining the volume and intensity of a given ride to give a summary of how “hard” the ride was in an overall sense." AC

The image above is a reflection of my training effort this season. 2009 has been a really tough year for me with life events and work load levels being higher than normal. The best part of my season was in January into February. During these months I was able to stay consistent with my training. The chart reflects that my CTL (chronic training load in blue) was down, but that is only because the chart is not reflecting the previous months (the chart reflects this season only). My CTL in those two months was actually high and were going up even more. How that played out on the road was amazing because in March when our group rides were starting to pick up I could hang with just about any fast pace the group dished out.

In April you can see by the gaps in the light blue bars that my training had gaps due to working overtime and then I went into a slump in my road rides both in trying to hang with the group or in goal events like 3 State 3 Mountain. Skip ahead to October and work overtime and general stress picked up again. As a result training went down to being inconsistent. Once again I am struggling to hang with the group pace in reality and as reflected in the Performance Management chart with some recent gaps in training load and the dark blue line taking a dip.

This past week I have made a extra effort in my work schedule trying to at least get into the gym at 5 am to train and to get in a minimum of 30 minutes of high intensity intervals before going into work early. In just a week or two of making this effort I can feel a slight improvement in my fitness on the road. I was able to hang with the front (faster) group just a little bit longer, but still dropped off in the last miles.

I am desperately seeking ways to improve my training load thus add some daily TSS and improving my CTL. In my short time of training with a power meter I have observed that the WKO+ chart is a real life view of my performance on the road noted by how much training effort is applied. What I see on the chart is actually taking place. Train consistently with focused effort in the the sweet spot and I think I have a chance of having a good 2010 season as a club cyclist in the "B" group. My work project deadlines look tough for the remainder of the year and with this economy I feel blessed to have a job so that has to take priority, but I hope to squeeze in a daily dose of quality time on the saddle and hope to see some incremental improvements. Because my time is limited there is only one choice of training for me and that is short duration high intensity intervals.