Harder to rack up TSS with high FTP?

At least for base training, that is....

I've found that after my FTP went up this past season, its taking longer and longer rides to rack up TSS scores to compare to last season! In order to get a base miles ride in of 4-5 hours and 250 TSS, I now need a NP of over 280 watts to get this. It gets hard, in the course of a ride like that I burn over 4500 KJ, and bonking is a real issue unless I eat a lot of gycogen every hour.

I'm just wondering--I've put in up to 24 hour weeks already with IF rides of .65-.76. My TSS has yet to break 1000 this season.

So in general--is it harder to rack up TSS with a higer-than-normal FTP while training?

 

It depends, I think.

I think glycogen depletion is a real issue, but not an unsolvable one. I checked some files and I can fairly easily do 2500-3000 kilojoule rides without bonking. 4500 is out of my range given my FTP, but I think with extra attention to fueling, it would not be a problem.

Do you ride with a group? In the past, I was pushed by the group I trained with and struggled to hang on. Now, I'm stronger than everyone I ride with on a regular basis so I have to make sure to stay at the front 90% of the time to rack up the TSS points on our longer rides.

 

Two thoughts/comments:

1) Have you considered the possiblity that you were underestimating your functional threshold power before, and/or overestimating it now? Even if both estimates are in the right ballpark, if you were 'lowballing' it before and/or 'highballing it' now, it will be harder to generate a high TSS (especially since IF, which is the ratio of normalized power to functional threshold power, is squared in the calculation).

2) Certainly, the greater the training load the higher one's carbohydrate intake must be. Given that you're training up to 24 h/wk (albeit at a moderate intensity), you should be consuming at least 8 g of CHO/kg body mass/day, and possibly even more.

 

Did you reset it or retest since last season? What I mean is, did you leave it set at last season's high?

Reality check: If you did a 24h week and didn't break 1000 TSS, then avg IF for that week was <.646.

 

Yes for that week your are correct, IF was a bit lower. I guess I just need more intensity even in base training to rack up more TSS.

Thanks for the replys.