What's the best use of 3 weeks of training?

I'd go with 'do gobs of' Tempo/SST style base miles and take control of what you eat while on the road to drop about a pound to pound and a half at most per week. Something like that is likely to be your best bang for the buck for three weeks of jump starting your training and allows you to start dropping weight without having to sacrifice training quality. If you go out and do the group rides, especially without any miles in your legs you're more likely to get right into 'race and recover' mode instead of building the missing base. It's also hard to manage diet and weight loss if you're trying to stay sharp for competitive events, even local hammerfest rides here you don't want to get dropped. Much easier to sustain a solid build cycle of steady and challenging but not top end rides while you also keep track of calories in vs. calories out and maintain a slight deficit.

Good luck,
-Dave

I'd echo what Dave said. Lots of hard tempo/SST. Err on going slightly easy the first couple of rides while getting back into the swing of things and slowly ramp up the intensity of each ride and see how it goes. Resist the urge to smash yourself silly the first few rides and try and keep the temp fairly even - note I said even, not slow.

Sure, it doesn't give the instant gratification that L4 and higher does but without that base it's a short term gain at best. You can never go wrong with oodles of hard tempo, especially if you want to lose a pound or two.

Appreciate the advice, guys.
Isn't about a 5 point rise on the CTL the most you want in a week IIRC?

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by upstateSC-rider [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

...Isn't about a 5 point rise on the CTL the most you want in a week IIRC?

Yeah, it's a good idea to keep 'sustained' CTL ramp rates below 5 to perhaps 8 points per week. But the key there is 'sustained' a week or ten days at that ramp rate or that ramp rate at the low end of the curve where your background fitness might be more than a CTL of say 30 implies isn't generally as big a problem as weeks on end ramping above 8 points per week or a steep ramp rate with your CTL up in the 80 or 90+ range.

I wouldn't suggest targeting a 30+ point rise in CTL in your 3 weeks but I wouldn't expect troubles with mostly Tempo/SST work if the first week or more is a bit above the normal 5 to 8 points per week suggested limit. Include some easier or rest days and you should be able to manage CTL ramp rate and still get a very good training block out of three weeks away from home and with a fair amount of time to train. But sure, listen to your body, don't go crazy and get a solid three weeks rather than a few huge days at the start followed by burnout.

-Dave

Thanks Dave, appreciate the advice.
Now I have to remember how I DL'ed my ride files before...
Think I emailed my CSV files from my laptop (That I DL'ed via PowerAgent) to my wife and she was able to import them into WKO (on the home pc) and just give me updates every couple of days.
Hope that's how I did it. [IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif[/IMG]

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by daveryanwyoming [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

Yeah, it's a good idea to keep 'sustained' CTL ramp rates below 5 to perhaps 8 points per week. But the key there is 'sustained' a week or ten days at that ramp rate or that ramp rate at the low end of the curve where your background fitness might be more than a CTL of say 30 implies isn't generally as big a problem as weeks on end ramping above 8 points per week or a steep ramp rate with your CTL up in the 80 or 90+ range.

I wouldn't suggest targeting a 30+ point rise in CTL in your 3 weeks but I wouldn't expect troubles with mostly Tempo/SST work if the first week or more is a bit above the normal 5 to 8 points per week suggested limit. Include some easier or rest days and you should be able to manage CTL ramp rate and still get a very good training block out of three weeks away from home and with a fair amount of time to train. But sure, listen to your body, don't go crazy and get a solid three weeks rather than a few huge days at the start followed by burnout.

-Dave

Right on course, Dave.
CTL and TSB as of 3/20 was 16.8 and 8, respectively.
As of 3/27 it's 27.9 and -44.1. Off the bike today due to weather but I don't feel as bad as I thought -44 would feel.
Today, 3/21, is the first day I haven't ridden but yesterday's ride was with a strong group, I can tell I don't have many matches but strength-wise I feel great.

It's when you keep TSB at around -50 for a while that you'll feel it... at least I do. For a short period it's not too bad and can be desired.

The last time I was that deep in the hole for about a month was back in 2009, getting some desperate last minute rides for the Alta Alpina slogathon. I was below -50 for a couple of weeks and flying but it took one very hard, freezing cold 200 mile ride in the mountains that tumbled the house of cards that my form had become. A three week recovery period ensued - steroids for breathing issues and a night a ER...

... then it was two days training before a 125mile ride over the same mountain roads, this time in the warm sun... and straight into the beer tent at the end. Fantastic!

Maybe there's a mystical secret for calculating how long you can send TSB into the bowels of the earth based upon the length of the current cumulative CTL 'ramp'.

-50 is quite the hole.
I haven't gone that deep yet but I can definitely the effects of being below -40 for most of the 14 days so far, thankfully I haven't been sick yet. (Fingers crossed)

As of 4/3 my TSB is -42 with a CTL of 35.4.
I'm feeling great on the bike but once I'm over 35 miles I start to feel flat, I guess the fatigue is kicking in.
This is my last week, and if weather cooperates, I'm hoping for no more than 2 hard rides.

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by swampy1970 [IMG]/img/forum/go_quote.gif[/IMG]

It's when you keep TSB at around -50 for a while that you'll feel it... at least I do. For a short period it's not too bad and can be desired.

The last time I was that deep in the hole for about a month was back in 2009, getting some desperate last minute rides for the Alta Alpina slogathon. I was below -50 for a couple of weeks and flying but it took one very hard, freezing cold 200 mile ride in the mountains that tumbled the house of cards that my form had become. A three week recovery period ensued - steroids for breathing issues and a night a ER...

... then it was two days training before a 125mile ride over the same mountain roads, this time in the warm sun... and straight into the beer tent at the end. Fantastic!

Maybe there's a mystical secret for calculating how long you can send TSB into the bowels of the earth based upon the length of the current cumulative CTL 'ramp'.