I am 57, mostly average. I’m a mid B on Zwift and have been trying to train for a fondo next week. I paid for intervals.icu hoping to get some better insight into my training load and fitness. After trying for a few months I have realized I have absolutely no idea how to interpret any of the data I have been doing between 200 to 250 miles per week between outdoor and indoor and carrying 500 - 600+ weekly load. The problem is that intervals.icu keeps showing my fitness pop up into the fresh zone like I should be training a lot more than I am in order to keep it in the “optimal” zone. But that is not at all how I feel, and the strava fitness/freshness graph seems to reflect a little better how I actually feel.
I guess I’m just looking for some starting advice if I’m going to keep trying to use this, or if I should just stop trying?
I think that means your load last week is the same as last 6 weeks. You need to improve your average power for each ride rather than the distance.
However, as @app4g said, it is not necessary to always keep in the optimal zone. That will lead to overtraining. If you do want the number correct, try to rest for one weeks or two and then train again, that will lead to a good number
If you want to finish your gran-fondo next week, it is time to dramatically reduce the load now and recover well. Only do short rides with a couple of all-out sprints (8-10sec). That will preserve the high-end power.
The reduced load will allow your body to recover and with the miles you’re talking about, you should do very well once recovered.
Thank you, I am starting a taper with one week to go. I am a very sore and stiff person in general and I have learned that longer tapers or days completely off don’t seem to work for me – I will just feel stiff and tired anyway I will do short rides as you described, take Saturday off for travel, and then we’ll see what happens on Sunday…
Short and very easy rides with some brief triggers will do wonders. You keep the blood flowing while giving your body the occasion of recovering from all your hard work.
Remember that the body adapts during recovery and deteriorates during effort!
I had the same issue with the graph. It was telling me I was too fresh and didn’t match how I felt. However, it was an easy fix (for me). I changed the form setting to use a percentage of my current fitness instead of an absolute value and now it looks and feels right for me. Give it a try,
Here’s what my graph with that setting looks like. I am a blow-your-brains-out-every-weekend kinda rider (usually 5 - 8 hours gravel expeditions). I do feel tired when its telling me I’m in the red.
I have been doing between 200 to 250 miles per week between outdoor and indoor and carrying 500 - 600+ weekly load. The problem is that intervals.icu keeps showing my fitness pop up into the fresh zone like I should be training a lot more than I am in order to keep it in the “optimal” zone. But that is not at all how I feel, and the strava fitness/freshness graph seems to reflect a little better how I actually feel.
I will do short rides as you described, take Saturday off for travel, and then we’ll see what happens on Sunday…
