I’m wondering something about the red and green Zone in the fitness page. I searched on the forum and on this topic “Form as a percentage of fitness - #19 by James_Jordan” but I’m not sure about the right answer.
i’m training now for months to stay in the green zone in absolute number, yesterday i discovered the % scale. According to the % scale i’m in the red zone since 3 months instead of green zone in absolute number.
My fitness is low compared to the link under, I have 42.
Do I use % scale or absolute with this fitness level ? One tells me i’m in the optimal training zone and the other tells me i’m overtraining.
I am not sure about this one. I use the % option (my fitness is usually between 60 and 70) because it works out better for me. But if the absolute version was working for you then maybe stick with it.
It’s difficult to say if one works better than the other for me. I’m a beginner in cycling and i’m not used to train with TSS.
I have no idea if I’m doing the right thing or if I’m training to hard. In description of scale % and in the link on my fisrt post, I read % scale is better for people with less than 100 fitness. Maybe the rule or the calcul is not good for fitness < 50 and better for fitness between 50 and 100, I don’t know.
There are so many confounding variables that I think you just need to learn what works for you (or hire a coach). If you are new to cycling your FTP is probably going up fast and if you don’t keep updating that you will get exaggerated load numbers. If you are older you need more time to recover and thats not built into the form calc in any way etc etc.
Take two athletes:
A. a Cat 5 or masters rider on relatively restricted hours with a CTL of around 60. Their % form of fitness variable green therefore ranges -6 to -18 (i.e. negative 10-30%)
B. a Cat 1 racer working at 10+ hours with a CTL at nearer double that of athlete A. Somewhere upward of 100 and heading to 120? Their % form fitness variable green therefore ranges nearer -20 to -60 (i.e. negative 10-30%)
The absolute value green ranges for both athletes are negative 10-30. Its easy to see how those green ranges (absolute or %) will look different depending on where the CTL is at.
A good number of athletes will be somewhere between the two.
These variations can peak and trough markedly too. It can be a good thing to step back to differentiate functional overload during a training camp or multi-day /stage ride, from overtraining.
It’s helpful to understand what each individual’s target CTL is, what their journey there looks like, and why the distance from target is as it is at any given time. The numbers are helpful and all well and good, but a coach would be able to help.
Just my opinion and understanding. Hopefully I’m not so far wide of it that I’ve a dollop of egg on my face.
I update my FTP every 3 weeks with a FTP test. I train 5 at 8hours per week. I think it’s enough for me now. I will test some rest to compare the graph with my feelings.
I have negative -60% and even -129% in my first month, it’s a lot
The most basic idea and very important thing to remember is to periodise your rides. Something like 2wks/3wks on - 1wk off or easy can prevent overtraining. During the on weeks you increase training load, and even if at the end you get into red zone, it’s just before your rest week, and your body have enough time to rest and adapt. After the rest week you start with the load from the last week before rest and then slightly increase again. After couple months it will be hard to rise your load enought to get into red
