Rest week, when and how?

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robbosmans
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by robbosmans

So I am new to structured training. I am using this application by a Dutch training centre called “Join”.

I hav so far done 3 weeks of their 3 month FTP builder plan.

Week 1: 424 TSS
Week 2: 262 TSS
Week 3: 479 TSS

I read everywhere that rest weeks are super important, and the plan doesn’t seem to give me a rest week atm.

Should I take a rest week? Should I just continue? What do I do in a rest week?

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onemanpeloton
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by onemanpeloton

Does their plan not schedule a rest week at all?
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by onemanpeloton

On a very basic level, a typical progression would normally be 3 weeks gradually increasing TSS, followed by 1 week recovery which is approx 50% TSS of those first 3 weeks
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robbosmans
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by robbosmans

I can only see the coming week, so I don’t know what is coming in 3 weeks.

This is a very cheap subscription service.

Its just me first taste of structured training. I wasn’t ready to the commitment of more expensive training plans.

So it might be a good idea to take this week easy, with a tss of around 200?

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by onemanpeloton

Yes I think that sounds sensible. Aim to do a similar number of riding hours as the previous 3 weeks, but with only low intensity.

You can get "free trials" of Trainer Road which is what I use. Even if you don't pay after the trial, you could use the trial to see how a training plan is structured. This may help you plan your own training without paying for anything.

There are also lots of blogs from Trainer Road, Training Peaks, Dylan Johnson and others about how to approach training.

If you want a referral code for Trainer Road, just let me know
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robbosmans
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by robbosmans

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it a lot!
I will definitely check the recommendations.

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by TheRich

robbosmans wrote:
Mon Feb 15, 2021 4:05 pm
So I am new to structured training. I am using this application by a Dutch training centre called “Join”.

I hav so far done 3 weeks of their 3 month FTP builder plan.

Week 1: 424 TSS
Week 2: 262 TSS
Week 3: 479 TSS

I read everywhere that rest weeks are super important, and the plan doesn’t seem to give me a rest week atm.

Should I take a rest week? Should I just continue? What do I do in a rest week?
Depending on the volume, your CTL and the intended ramp rate, the 262 TSS week could be the equivalent of a rest week.

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by robbosmans

That was a very busy week and I skipped a day.

Is the strava premium fitness and freshness feature the same as the TrainingPeaks CTL?
Or are there free ways to check CTL?

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robbosmans
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Ow yeah forgot about that, thanks

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by TobinHatesYou

intervals.icu also free/donationware

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by c60rider

onemanpeloton wrote:
Mon Feb 15, 2021 5:27 pm
On a very basic level, a typical progression would normally be 3 weeks gradually increasing TSS, followed by 1 week recovery which is approx 50% TSS of those first 3 weeks
Historically that's what would have been done but then as you're building fatigue during the 3 weeks up to the rest week you're putting yourself in a position where you might start to struggle on that 3rd week. Another approach is to make the biggest week the one immediately following the rest week ie when you're freshest, with slightly reducing TSS in the subsequent weeks but maintaining the intensity of any interval work. So rather than for example TSS weeks of 400, 425 and 450 just do the reverse. It may result in the third week more likely to be achievable. This is especially true when there's job and lifestyle outside of cycling to juggle. If you're full time cycling then you can easily plan for extra rest as fatigue builds. The key is to be flexible and know when you're genuinely tired and back off from that session. Or plan rest weeks when you know other things in life are going to significantly intrude whether that means 2 weeks increasing with 1 rest week then back to a 3 week/ 1 week schedule.

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by onemanpeloton

c60rider wrote:
Sat Feb 20, 2021 4:48 pm
onemanpeloton wrote:
Mon Feb 15, 2021 5:27 pm
On a very basic level, a typical progression would normally be 3 weeks gradually increasing TSS, followed by 1 week recovery which is approx 50% TSS of those first 3 weeks
Historically that's what would have been done but then as you're building fatigue during the 3 weeks up to the rest week you're putting yourself in a position where you might start to struggle on that 3rd week. Another approach is to make the biggest week the one immediately following the rest week ie when you're freshest, with slightly reducing TSS in the subsequent weeks but maintaining the intensity of any interval work. So rather than for example TSS weeks of 400, 425 and 450 just do the reverse. It may result in the third week more likely to be achievable. This is especially true when there's job and lifestyle outside of cycling to juggle. If you're full time cycling then you can easily plan for extra rest as fatigue builds. The key is to be flexible and know when you're genuinely tired and back off from that session. Or plan rest weeks when you know other things in life are going to significantly intrude whether that means 2 weeks increasing with 1 rest week then back to a 3 week/ 1 week schedule.
That's interesting, I haven't come across that approach before.

My understanding that a gradual increase is training stress/stimulus is needed in order to drive adaptation. If that stimulus is lower and lower every week then I wonder how the adaptation might differ....

Agree with being flexible and listening to your body
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by Lozaen

Well in the longrun that's true, but inside the micro cycles, your body will adapt to 400/425/450 in a similar way, as he will to 450/425/400. Since the time in between is too short to adapt fully, the adaptation will mainly take place during the rest week with a tss of maybe 200-250.
It is accepted that "form" will somehow correlate with your CTL, and the CTL will increase anyway...you could also try 425 / 425 / 425 with probably a similar result.
Depends on what works best for you and as C60 already highlighted, for most of us, life is about more than just cycling.

The more important aspect is, that you increase your load (Not necessarily stress!) over the meso and makro cycles and find your "optimum"

Now, what's the difference between laod and stress you might ask. Load is an objective measure....power x time i.e.
Stress is a subjective measure such as TSS or IF.
In other words, if your body adapts and grows stronger, you have to increase the load in order to maintain the stress(and therefore force it to adapt). There will probably be some kind of "stress limit" that you can maintain for a certain period without burning out. One reason why many athletes suffer from infections after a training camp....their body doesn't cope with the abrupt increase of TSS.

So therefore I would suggest to "recalibrate" your Stress/Load ratio (i.e. FTP) if possible once a month, after a rest week, when you are fresh.
Does not necessarily need to be a 20 min. FTP Test, but some kind of standardized routine you can do every month and that somehow corresponds to your fitness. Once you recalibrate, you can focus on maintaining your TSS, once you found your "sweet spot".

What many people seem to forget sometimes is, that training is not about absolute values (FTP, TSS, CTL,...), but increasing your personal and subjective fitness. Except for Zwift, races are not won by power figures.
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c60rider
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by c60rider

I couldn't make reference earlier on to any specific articles about loading up your first training week harder and then the next two of the block with reducing TSS but maintaining intensity but here is a 2014 article https://pezcyclingnews.com/latestnews/t ... ning-load/

There have been a few occasions I've read about it since and certainly I tend to apply it myself, more than a 3 week cycle of increasing TSS prior to a recovery week, but probably use more of a case of training hard/easy/resting on a day depending how I actually feel on that day rather than just sticking to a plan regardless. If I've got a week with more time planned ahead I'll hit that pretty hard in terms of intervals or endurance volume regardless of what I might have done leading up to that week. This article seems to suggest that you'll get a bigger boost over that block than a traditional plan of slowly increasing intensity.

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