TSS and Races

Watoni

Well, apparently you no sense of adventure

I did the same thing last time I was this out of shape (tough job and two young kids will do that), and despite limping through the first DC, I finished two more that season and rode the GF Marco Pantani (Gavia + Mortirolo), so I figure a kick in the A$$ in April can't be all bad.

You never know where your limits are unless you test them ...

Plus, I went from an ATL (due largely to the flu) of 20 and a CTL of 32 to an ATL of over 100 and a CTL of over 45 in one day ...

daveryanwyoming

That was my first thought as well, attempting to ride an event that will require roughly 20 times your current CTL (no doubt more if you'd finished) is a pretty big challenge.

All joking aside the body is really good at adapting to training stress a little above your current abilities, but jump into the deep end and try something much harder than you're prepared to handle and you can do more harm than good from a training standpoint. Really sore muscles, total glycogen depletion, residual fatigue and all the other great feelings you have after totally trashing yourself aren't really smart in terms of training, adaptation, and progress. If you thrive on beating yourself up, then more power to you, but if you want to see improvement try a steady ramped approach to training load that will continually challenge your body to adapt in small steps but won't totally wipe you out after any given ride or training session.

Ya can't cram for fitness...

Good luck,
-Dave