The reason it’s been so quiet around here is because I’ve taken a break off the bike. I was feeling fatigued through the month of May and even though I reduced my training volume, my recovery remained limited. I was able to go hard from time to time, but when I did, it would knock me down for a few days. So after the Eagle Criterium, I took the whole week off the bike and started easing back into things this past weekend.

Today I did my first “hard” workout since my break. I just did a two hour ride with a set of 2×20’s. They went well and I was able to knock them both out at 300 watts, but they did feel a bit harder than expected for that wattage. Hopefully that’s just due to a slight de-training effect and being a little blocked. After the ride I didn’t feel thrashed but will still take it easy the next couple days. I don’t want to fall back into over-training, which is probably what my problem was in May.

I’ve been training fairly hard since October, with only a short break after Valley of the Sun. So in hindsight, it makes sense that I needed a break. From now on I’m going to plan more recovery time into my schedule, at the expense of a lower chronic training load (CTL). I have a feeling I’ve found my CTL ceiling of 100TSS/day, which seems to be a common limit as shown by the non-scientific poll I posted on CyclingForums.com.