CTL. How low should one go during tapering??

Originally Posted by BlueJersey

My current CTL is 63. I am tapering right now until the 13th. Got a up hill TT on this Sat. Will be short (25 minutes??) and the effort would not tire me out. Roughly 10 days before the targeted event. It seems that once my CTL reaches to 50 I feel like I have lost some fitness. I seem to feel better at 50 to 55. I guess I should try to maintain my CTL above 50? If so, what kind of workout I should be doing??? I have already nailed total of 6 sessions of vo2max workout over the past 2 weeks. In order to prevent my CTL from dipping too low and yet not tiring myself, should I do threshold work twice in the week? After the up hill TT on Sat, on Monday an hour of threshold work? And another one on Friday? If I ride too easy and too little from Sat to the 13th, my CTL would reach to 45 with a TSB of 30+. Or I can just commute to work for couple of days. A single commuting day I can rack up 100TSS though.

Originally Posted by BlueJersey

My current CTL is 63. I am tapering right now until the 13th. Got a up hill TT on this Sat. Will be short (25 minutes??) and the effort would not tire me out. Roughly 10 days before the targeted event. It seems that once my CTL reaches to 50 I feel like I have lost some fitness. I seem to feel better at 50 to 55. I guess I should try to maintain my CTL above 50? If so, what kind of workout I should be doing??? I have already nailed total of 6 sessions of vo2max workout over the past 2 weeks. In order to prevent my CTL from dipping too low and yet not tiring myself, should I do threshold work twice in the week? After the up hill TT on Sat, on Monday an hour of threshold work? And another one on Friday? If I ride too easy and too little from Sat to the 13th, my CTL would reach to 45 with a TSB of 30+. Or I can just commute to work for couple of days. A single commuting day I can rack up 100TSS though.

Originally Posted by Spunout

I think the whole idea is to get to your race with a low CTL but high fitness: Know how to taper.

Reduce hours, no junk miles. High intensity with full recovery.

Originally Posted by BlueJersey

....I am thinking about skipping the Jiminy Peak race and in favor for more workout on higher intensity effort such as doing the Hill Climb TT.....
Day before and after that I would throw in some 2x20 minutes effort.....

Originally Posted by rmur17

To be honest the bolded comment above sounds completely wrong.

Low CTL is not indicative of high fitness but exactly the opposite.

Originally Posted by Spunout

...is the OPs goal to race at his peak fitness or to maintain some sort of statistic which might be indicative of potential performance?

Originally Posted by daveryanwyoming

Why would you pay the entry fee for a TT and then handicap yourself by sandwiching it between two days of L4 training? If you want a three day L4 block you don't need to drive 2.5 hours and pay an entry fee to get it. I'd personally opt for the 60 mile road race as you're still a week away from your target event of the same distance which is going to require a TSS of 250 or so on a CTL of 60 or less. I'd get the miles, intensity and pack riding of the longer RR.

I agree with the other posters who say you really don't need a formal taper from a CTL of 60, especially for a three plus hour event (I don't know your category or how fast they'll race but expect 250 to 300 TSS for the day by the time you include warmup and cooldown after a 60 mile race). I'd treat this one as a mini taper and stay with your normal weekly routine but back off duration about 20%. I'd also rearrange the week as necessary to make sure you have a complete day off two days before your event and a loosen up ride with some one and five minute hard efforts the day before your target event. But I'd limit that loosen up day to an hour or so.

IOW if your normal training week is 8 hours or so (guessing based on CTL = 60) then I'd back off to 5 to 6 hours. Early in the week is same intensity as usual but fewer or shorter efforts. Late in the week gets some additional rest and day before the event is shorter and easier than usual with a few efforts to wake the body up.

Good luck,
Dave

Originally Posted by daveryanwyoming

Why would you pay the entry fee for a TT and then handicap yourself by sandwiching it between two days of L4 training? If you want a three day L4 block you don't need to drive 2.5 hours and pay an entry fee to get it. I'd personally opt for the 60 mile road race as you're still a week away from your target event of the same distance which is going to require a TSS of 250 or so on a CTL of 60 or less. I'd get the miles, intensity and pack riding of the longer RR.

I agree with the other posters who say you really don't need a formal taper from a CTL of 60, especially for a three plus hour event (I don't know your category or how fast they'll race but expect 250 to 300 TSS for the day by the time you include warmup and cooldown after a 60 mile race). I'd treat this one as a mini taper and stay with your normal weekly routine but back off duration about 20%. I'd also rearrange the week as necessary to make sure you have a complete day off two days before your event and a loosen up ride with some one and five minute hard efforts the day before your target event. But I'd limit that loosen up day to an hour or so.

IOW if your normal training week is 8 hours or so (guessing based on CTL = 60) then I'd back off to 5 to 6 hours. Early in the week is same intensity as usual but fewer or shorter efforts. Late in the week gets some additional rest and day before the event is shorter and easier than usual with a few efforts to wake the body up.

Good luck,
Dave