I survived the tour! I managed 1008TSS over 9 stages. What's more is that as we all know, TSS isn't created equal. Every rides had Zone 4-5 efforts plus some anaerobic sprints efforts too. Very, very different from my normal training and I would typically have done a Z2 recovery ride between each of those rides. I did keep up some running and swimming which added to the challenge. Overall, I learned the following:
1) I recover better than I thought.
2) You body "remembers" it's previous fitness levels very well even when current training loads are 60-75% of 6 months earlier.
3) Running, not surprisingly, has a huge impact on recovery from hard rides.
4) Its easier to hold on to fitness, than build it again.
5) My ITB is not aggravated by cycling at all anymore... if it was, I would certainly have found out this week.
One more week of my last base phase of training. I'm pretty excited as I'm confident I've seen some major gain in bike fitness. My running isn't doing OK and hampered more by weight, and just lack of miles. I think it will come back just fine, but if I've learned anything, it's that I need to be patient. Like baking a cake. You can't just crank up the temperature to speed things up and expect it to come out right.
Then it's onto the Build phases. Which will be very unique, as I've chosen a sprint race for an early season "A" race. I think it plays well. It's a change of pace from almost year round long course training, and since my primary race is in October, it plays well into moving from less to more specific. It's a good test, as I've done this event 4 years in a row, so I can compare my improvements on the same course each year. Plus, same bike, same helmet, but some changes to position and bike set-up.
This was my biggest week since the week of July 28th and tied for 4th largest in the last 12 months. What's impressive, is that taking away my PT stretches, strengthening exercises and snow shoveling (yes I count that), it was <17 hour week.
By the numbers:
Swim: 4h08m, 17,900y
Bike: 9h57m, 192mi
Run: 2h54m, 22,7mi
Strength (includes PT): 3h00m
TOTAL: 19h59m
TSS: 1370
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