If the charts composed of the data we’re capturing here were 100% accurate, there would be no need to race. Competitors could just compare charts on any given day and the one with the best #s wins. Fortunately, real life isn’t like that.
I’m a bit of a geek about these charts and am honestly smitten. Even still, I do take all the charts with a grain of salt. That said, I have definitely altered my training plan based on what I was seeing in the fitness chart AND how I was feeling (or anticipate feeling) in real life. Being 54, this generally involves inserting more recovery periods or reducing load during planned recovery weeks. In this regard, I’ve found the fitness charts to be very helpful.
Curiously, after doing just that — adjusting my TR SSB 1&2 blocks to be 7 weeks each with an extra recovery week after week 3 — my forecasted fitness for my A event in late June holds steady. I suppose I’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out, but there’s no sense in not being realistic about my recovery needs just because I want to hitch my CTL or CIL or any other # to my ego.
Jim_Ahearne - My gut filing about whether I am over-trained or under-trained does not work well. My first symptoms for over-training are morning heart rate racing or injury . It’s my first winter season with fitness, fatigue, form algorithm. I hope for it to tell me to rest. I don’t need it to tell me to train more.
As I said here before, you have to learn to listen to your body. A graph dont get tell you when to rest. When you are not a pro, there is more than training on a day. Work, family life, illness etc. Your loadability is not every day or every week the same.
Make everyday morning and every training a RPE, thats the way you can learn to listen to you body. Ask yourself every morning how do you feel. And after every ride give yourself a number about how you feel during the ride and how hard you found the ride. Ask yourself questions give you more information than only CTL/CIL.
If it is properly confirmed CTL / CIL only what you already know.
How are your intensity graph constructed (which values) - are you just adding up the intensity for each session and the rpe - or are you using an average?
And is CIL and the intensity still how you analyze your training?