CTL Dropoff

doyler78
doyler78 Posts: 1,951
After a disrupted years training I want to carry as much of my fitness through to next year as possible however I have no desire or intention of doing classic LSD as I just don't think it makes any sense whatsoever. That doesn't mean to say there are no longer rides as there it's just they are far from the mainstay.

Is there info out there about how much of a drop off on CTL you can afford to drop before you seriously start to affect fitness (assuming the CTL is larger composed of hard sessions)?

Comments

  • doyler78 wrote:
    Is there info out there about how much of a drop off on CTL you can afford to drop before you seriously start to affect fitness (assuming the CTL is larger composed of hard sessions)?
    Well of course some drop in CTL might improve fitness.

    I find dropping below 70 and you're starting to lose it. With quality and an average IF of 0.8 - 0.85, that's 7-8 hrs/week. Problem with going much lower CTL wise is you start being unable to handle the intensity quite as well.

    I had a long training interruption middle of this year of ~4 months. Ugh. 6 weeks later and CTL is back to 50s but 50-60W down on good fitness levels.
  • jibberjim
    jibberjim Posts: 2,810
    My CTL dropped from 130 on the first week of june (this was higher than normal, I normally stick at 100, down to 80 in september when my power started dropping quite a bit, maybe 5-10% at the 5 minute duration and around 5% at the hour. Lifting it back to close to 100 my power numbers for 1 hour have returned to the pre-reduced training, although my 5 minute still appears low - but I've not done a proper test and it may be my repeatability of a high %age of it which is missing.

    I particularly noticed the last hour of a 3.5-4 hour 0.8 IF ride would be tough with the 80 CTL even though the power numbers for the first 2.5-3 hours would be very similar to the when fit, but I would just fade in the last hour (I'm sure had I adjusted my effort in the first half it would've been fine) now with the CTL back up to 100 (actually pretty much just from adding a 60 minute group ride with an IF of close to 1 every week) and I no longer fade.

    So for me, it's noticeable below 100, but not massive at even 80 and returns quickly. No experience below that.
    Jibbering Sports Stuff: http://jibbering.com/sports/
  • SBezza
    SBezza Posts: 2,173
    I have put out just as much power on a CTL of 80, and raced just as well, as I did when it was way above 100. I think CTL is one parameter, but it may not indicate when you are at your best.

    If you are doing shorter, albeit harder sessions, then expect CTL to drop, but depending on what you are planning to get fit for, it might be a better situation anyhow.
  • amaferanga
    amaferanga Posts: 6,789
    Pretty easy to maintain a CTL >100 without doing long rides. I only get a long ride in every couple of weeks, yet with a combination of 1-2 hour road rides and some L4 turbo sessions I'm doing between 11-14 hours per week at the moment with a current CTL of about 105. Very different to last year with all the snow and ice when my CTL dropped to well below 70 - my power wasn't that much down on this year, but I just wasn't able to knock out as much L4 work as I can this year. With a lingering cold over christmas last year as well it took me until April to build up my CTL to >100 again.

    I'd be quite wary of letting your CTL drop off too much just now assuming you are healthy and you have the time to ride. If you have forced time off your bike over christmas and/or a cold or flu through the winter or we get a spell of really cold weather then you could end up having a lousy start to the season come March.
    More problems but still living....
  • Sorry for ignorance.... but what is CTL ? has mine dropped off as well?????
  • Lookyhere wrote:
    Sorry for ignorance.... but what is CTL ? has mine dropped off as well?????
    Here, I wrote this basic explanation 5 years ago:
    http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2006/10/ ... chart.html
  • Cheers Alex, much appreciated.
  • a_n_t
    a_n_t Posts: 2,011
    Currently at 22.6 :D

    My CP20 is at the same level as March this year so 3 months up on last season!
    Manchester wheelers

    PB's
    10m 20:21 2014
    25m 53:18 20:13
    50m 1:57:12 2013
    100m Yeah right.
  • jibberjim wrote:
    My CTL dropped from 130 on the first week of june (this was higher than normal, I normally stick at 100, down to 80 in september when my power started dropping quite a bit, maybe 5-10% at the 5 minute duration and around 5% at the hour. Lifting it back to close to 100 my power numbers for 1 hour have returned to the pre-reduced training, although my 5 minute still appears low - but I've not done a proper test and it may be my repeatability of a high %age of it which is missing.

    I particularly noticed the last hour of a 3.5-4 hour 0.8 IF ride would be tough with the 80 CTL even though the power numbers for the first 2.5-3 hours would be very similar to the when fit, but I would just fade in the last hour (I'm sure had I adjusted my effort in the first half it would've been fine) now with the CTL back up to 100 (actually pretty much just from adding a 60 minute group ride with an IF of close to 1 every week) and I no longer fade.

    So for me, it's noticeable below 100, but not massive at even 80 and returns quickly. No experience below that.
    I call these things "depth of fitness". You have the FTP but the duration you can hold high levels and repeatability are not as good.
  • RChung
    RChung Posts: 163
    I call these things "depth of fitness". You have the FTP but the duration you can hold high levels and repeatability are not as good.
    I think it's possible to put together a metric that's more refined that a power profile to model this.
  • doyler78
    doyler78 Posts: 1,951
    Thanks all and sorry for the long delay in replying. Internet problems. Makes a change from bike related problems :D

    Brilliant stuff. I only managed to get my CTL up to mid 90s and I knocked it back to around 80's about 2 months ago. Powers off by about ~5% and that's fine. So looks like I've found the right ballpark to be in. I'll continue with that until after Christmas and then I build again from there.

    Only doing the longer rides every 2-3 weeks for the last 2+ months to remind the legs of what that sort effort is like and don't have so much work to do next year on the endurance side. IF on these 3-4 hour rides of ~0.85 so it seems it's working fine. I guess I'll know in a couple of months but thing for sure I will not be back at 22.7 CTL and lost 70% of my power gains like last year (hopefully :lol: )

    -15 TSB = feel great. -52 TSB = 2 weeks of mediocre rides. Lesson learned.