I need help interpreting fitness/form graphs

I started following training plan in the beginning of October (assembled by me, and I’m no coach) after a couple of months of riding consistently, but not under any training plan. I’m following a traditional 3 weeks on, 1 week off and my ultimate goal is an ultra endurance event starting in early June.

After reading a lot of stuff I’m doing 4/5 rides a week with 1 or 2 running sessions + gym.
The cycling sessions consist in:
1 Vo2Max session + 2 SS sessions + 1 long Z2 or
1 Vo2Max + 1SS session + 2 Long Z2 session

In the first 3 week block I couldn’t go outside so I just did around 5h per week with no long sessions (by long I mean bigger than 1h30).

TSS per week in this first block were around 350, and the TSS for the second 3 week block will be around 450 ramping up from the first to the third week.

Now, I have a few questions:

After the first block, this is my form graph, but I have no clue on how to interpret it. Is it supposed to be flat as a pancake?
As this plan was assembled by me, I’m not quite sure if it is creating enough stimulus in my body, how can I know it?
The hard sessions have been hard but doable, and I don’t feel super fatigued at the end of the week. How much fatigue should transition from week to week up until the rest week?
Is this kind of plan a good starting point or you would change anything?

The gray line in your graph (October) would indicate you’re below Optimal Performance and Optimal Training, so your training has been below what it could/should be.

The ramp rate (weekly increase in fitness) is below 0 and just above; see the summary on the left. This should be closer to 3-5 and as high as 8 if you’re well trained.

The easiest way to increase load over each week is to make each corresponding weekly session longer (extra interval or duration if Z2) or slightly harder (intensity). It’s called progressive overload, with emphasis on progressive.

It seems you understand the concept, but just need a “push” forward to the next level.

Thank you for your input, it was really helpful!
I guess I’m being too gentle on myself :laughing:

But I still have a question, how do I maintain that progressive overload with a static amount of hours per week, let’s say 5h/6h, while still maintaining the ratios between Z1/Z2 and Z3 (80%, 12% and 7% respectively in a pyramidal scheme).

And the ramp rate should always be between 3 and 5 in the “on” weeks?

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Did you read about the concept of periodization before?
If you define your most important target race, you need to go back from there to define base, build and peak phases. Within these phases you can keep your 3 weeks on / 1 week off rhythm.

But the overall idea is to increase training time overall until end of peak phase.

So you might think about your maximum of training time and gradually build it up to reach it until end of peak.

depends on a block of training you are doing at the time You manipulate between volume and intensity. So for example in early build where you ride mostly Z2, volume is high, but in late build where you incorporated Z3/SST intervals and intensity is higher, you lower volume of Z2 rides to get your desired weekly load.

For now i see you think in weeks kind of. But imagine whole year with your race at the end. And imagine your fatigue is a big bucket which is filling with every training with water and all rides above threshold like vo2max fill it 5x faster then z2 rides. You want to fill the bucket without spilling. So wise woud be to ride the fastest fillers just before a race day to see if you still have some room left… Spilling water would be overtraining. (for ultra you don’t need vo2 engine anywas and with z2 rides you rise ftp making your vo2 higher too)
If you plan ultra I would strongly suggest trying to spend every hour you can on your bike just z2 rides… You can maintain one vo2 session every two weeks or so to maintain intensity. After good base I would just add two months of tempo int sst intervals with interval periodisation rising time at power
If your event is a ride I would give up running andd extra bike hours. I mean you need every extra hour you can get. Ofc you can ride an ultra with low volume but its more of a struggle and fight than ride.

ps i use standard zones z2 means endurabtw looking at the picture. You should almost never do same intervals twice. They just build fatugue. Proper way of doing it is:
you did your base-
you start incorporating some tempo intervals like 30m@tempo
next time it is 45m@tempo and next 3x30m@tempo into 60m@tempo (just an example but ideea is to build time @ power)
-it took you a month but you are done with tempo and you can irde 1,5h without stops for example, great so ynext month you rise a bar and move to sweet spots
-and again statr low like 4x10m@sst into 2x20, 1x30, 3x15, 3x20 just play with them as you want but keep rising time spend @sst power
-next month is odne and you did 1h@sst you can now move to treshold or vo2 depend how much time left to you race

/your ftp will rise with such training so probably your ssts will be around your present ftp or so
.
Im simplifing things but trying to explain why doing same interval like 3x10@sweet spot whole year long is pointles :slight_smile:

ps10. ofc if you are really time restricted you can try to limit z2 rides but still i would try to start with one month of base building with high volume and then stick to tempo and ss and put long ride here or there if i could.

I would keep one running session, but make it count… do some hill repeats to work your VO2 system (more bang for your buck), and then concentrate on your base fitness on the bike; riding at the point where your breathing changes from just above comfortable to out of control. Note what your heart rate is at the comfortable stage and the slightly out of control. It’s about 70-75% of maxHR - not I say about.

Total workout time is 30-35 minutes on an uphill (5-6% gradient), doing 5-10 sprints in Z5 (HR). I’ve been told this is as good as VO2 session on the bike, which can be a lot longer to get the same results.

This might help you.

I didn’t have to log in, so I assume this is freely available to anyone, not just members.

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