Real fitness loss vs CTL loss

[Saag]

Im out due to a small surgery 3 weeks ago and still another 2 weeks before I am able to ride again. My CTL is taking a real nose dive as to be expected. I went from 55 to low 30's already so will probably be on 0 in 2 weeks.

 

My question is, how much actual fitness will I be losing? Surely you dont lose everything? And how long to get it back? I know in terms of CTL I can add about 6-7 a week....but how does it translate in real world terms?

[Veebee]

Don't know much about these numbers, but I was off the road for 8weeks [trained on the IDT for 5 of the 8 weeks] and it took me about 5 weeks of training to get back to where I was before my accident.

[Saag]

  On 2/11/2016 at 3:06 PM, Vivek B said:

Don't know much about these numbers, but I was off the road for 8weeks [trained on the IDT for 5 of the 8 weeks] and it took me about 5 weeks of training to get back to where I was before my accident.

Thanx Vivek, that does not bode well!

[TALUS]

  On 2/11/2016 at 2:51 PM, Saag said:

Im out due to a small surgery 3 weeks ago and still another 2 weeks before I am able to ride again. My CTL is taking a real nose dive as to be expected. I went from 55 to low 30's already so will probably be on 0 in 2 weeks.

 

My question is, how much actual fitness will I be losing? Surely you dont lose everything? And how long to get it back? I know in terms of CTL I can add about 6-7 a week....but how does it translate in real world terms?

If you can do any form of crosstraining you can protect cardiovascular (non-specific) fitness. Muscle memory for sport specific fitness is a vague concept but largely depends on how long you have been doing the sport. Sadly you will start a long way back after 5 weeks if you can do zero training.

[Saag]

Thanx Talus. From Monday I can do cross training so will hope for the best

[Robrider]

  On 2/11/2016 at 2:51 PM, Saag said:

Im out due to a small surgery 3 weeks ago and still another 2 weeks before I am able to ride again. My CTL is taking a real nose dive as to be expected. I went from 55 to low 30's already so will probably be on 0 in 2 weeks.

 

My question is, how much actual fitness will I be losing? Surely you dont lose everything? And how long to get it back? I know in terms of CTL I can add about 6-7 a week....but how does it translate in real world terms?

 

Here's an article about the effects. 

 

http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2011/04/never-miss-a-workout.html

 

Hope you can get cross training soon so that you don't lose too much. Regarding the graph its a decaying exponential function with a half life of about 40 days if I remember correctly, so it wont go all the way to zero that quickly. (In other words if you dropped 25 points in 3 weeks, you will probably drop 12.5 after another 3 weeks.)

[Patchelicious]

I hate that damn CTL graph. HATE it.

 

I missed 4 days of training this week due to travels and I effectively lost 2.5 weeks with an average of 750TSS each. So basically, 30hours of training was undone by not riding for 4 days..... doesnt make much sense.

[TALUS]

  On 2/12/2016 at 6:37 AM, Patchelicious said:

I hate that damn CTL graph. HATE it.

 

I missed 4 days of training this week due to travels and I effectively lost 2.5 weeks with an average of 750TSS each. So basically, 30hours of training was undone by not riding for 4 days..... doesnt make much sense.

Same here. Will miss 5 days due to real life and stuff. Already I feel stuffed.

[Pure Savage]

  On 2/12/2016 at 6:37 AM, Patchelicious said:

I hate that damn CTL graph. HATE it.

 

I missed 4 days of training this week due to travels and I effectively lost 2.5 weeks with an average of 750TSS each. So basically, 30hours of training was undone by not riding for 4 days..... doesnt make much sense.

 

Perfect 

[Saag]

  On 2/12/2016 at 6:07 AM, Robrider said:

Here's an article about the effects.

 

http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2011/04/never-miss-a-workout.html

 

Hope you can get cross training soon so that you don't lose too much. Regarding the graph its a decaying exponential function with a half life of about 40 days if I remember correctly, so it wont go all the way to zero that quickly. (In other words if you dropped 25 points in 3 weeks, you will probably drop 12.5 after another 3 weeks.)

This is great info, thanx. F8nally I get to dust off varsity math skills (which seems to have had a much shorter half life[emoji26] )

[NordicElf]

  On 2/12/2016 at 6:37 AM, Patchelicious said:

I hate that damn CTL graph. HATE it.

 

I missed 4 days of training this week due to travels and I effectively lost 2.5 weeks with an average of 750TSS each. So basically, 30hours of training was undone by not riding for 4 days..... doesnt make much sense.

 

 

Hehehe maybe it was better when we didn't realise how much fitness we were losing.... 

[NordicElf]

  On 2/12/2016 at 6:37 AM, Patchelicious said:

I hate that damn CTL graph. HATE it.

 

I missed 4 days of training this week due to travels and I effectively lost 2.5 weeks with an average of 750TSS each. So basically, 30hours of training was undone by not riding for 4 days..... doesnt make much sense.

 

 

Or are you saying that it doesn't accurately reflect your loss of fitness from 4 days off?

['Dale]

Saag

 

Hard to quantify the actual drop in fitness

 

Obviously freshness goes way up

 

What I do when I have a niggle or injury is train other areas of the body that supports my primary muscular system used in cycling

It's a fine opportunity to actually boost your performance on the bike

 

Cardiovascular fitness is also reasonably quickly restored depending on your level of fitness prior to the surgery

[Patchelicious]

I think the question is, does CTL directly correlate to "fitness"

[Saag]

  On 2/12/2016 at 12:59 PM, Patchelicious said:

I think the question is, does CTL directly correlate to "fitness"

Exactly this