Tuesday

Fatigued



Here is a file analysis of my workout this morning. Based on how I am feeling and also my performance and heart rate data I believe that I am a bit overly fatigued right now.
Based on this workout and the results gained I feel a few changes need to be made in my training. First off, I have been doing weights on the same day as my two hard bike rides. At the beginning of the year I feel this was extremely beneficial. This maybe because my aerobic capacity could not keep up with my muscular endurance and as a result I was not fatiguing my muscles as much as I am today. I was able to then proceed to the gym and put in a good effort. However, As I changed my training to go from 2 x 20 minutes and 5-7 x 5 minute efforts for the week to 2 x 20 min and 1.5 hours of mountain bike climbing (2,300 feet elevation gain), I am quickly beginning to realize that I can no longer maintain the weights on the same day. In addition to this I am beginning to feel that my weight training needs to change from continuous heavy and challenging sessions to more strength maintenance in nature. The primary change that precipitated everything has been the addition of the challenging mountain bike day along with the 2 x 20 min effort and the long 3-4 hour ride on the weekend. At some point I want to bring in the 5-7 minute efforts and keep all other rides. I also want to maintain 2 weight training workouts per week. Again, these weight workouts will most likely become more and more focused on maintaining my strength but also begin to include more plyometric training as I have read and noticed in my own experience that plyometric training seems to enhance and improve overall Functional Threshold Power (FTP).

Again, all this analysis would not be possible without a power meter. I would most likely have continued on with my intervals not knowing that my output (Power) was declining. I most likely would have rationalized away my lower heart rate input (162 bpm rather than my usual 170+ bpm) during a typical 2 x 20 minute effort. And, I would have begun to enter an over trained state. Based on my performance management chart, I am able to corroborate all this data along with how I am feeling and avoid the pitfalls of over training.

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