tomUK said:
what sort of training do you do to get to a CTL of 50? Endurance-based? what length is each session and how many times per week do you ride?....
I won't speak for Frenchye, but a CTL of 50 isn't too ambitious and you can get there with a lot of different training philosophies and weekly routines. And of course just getting your CTL to 50 or any other arbitrary number doesn't mean you'll be targeting the right physiological adaptations, increasing FTP or doing the best things in terms of reaching your cycling goals. But along with a well constructed plan that targets appropriate systems, CTL is a good measure of overall load or 'depth' of your training.
But basically a CTL of 50 implies a daily average of 50 TSS for the past 3 to 4 months or roughly 350 TSS per week. You could get that with an hour each day where your average intensity was ~70% of your FTP or four hour and forty five minute rides each week with approximately the same overall intensity. It's basically not a lot of training load for an active cyclist but it does take commitment sustained for months.
FWIW, I'd strongly recommend spreading your training out so that you ride at least four and preferably five or six days per week rather than a few big days and a lot of time off the bike. I'd also suggest making a couple of days more focused with intentional work as in a solo two hour Tempo ride or a set of 2x20 Threshold intervals instead of just riding around or only group rides where you don't control the pace.
If you pay attention to: training frequency, ride intensity, and ride duration you shouldn't have any trouble getting your CTL up well above 50. FWIW I'm riding 8 to 10 hours per week this season and my CTL is currently in the mid '80s which is about as low as I like to race. In previous seasons I was putting in a few more hours, doing more solo training and less racing and my CTL was ten to fifteen points higher for much of the race season. That definitely had some benefits in terms of recovery and the ability to do bigger rides or bounce back more quickly after longer harder events but OTOH, my sustainable power is up this year so the current schedule has benefits as well.
There's no 'one size fits all' solution for planning training or training load but it does come down to appropriate: frequency, intensity and duration chosen in ways that match your strengths, weaknesses, available time to train, and riding goals.
Good luck,
-Dave