I’m starting to hit some bumps in the road.
Last week was a load reduction week, but I’m coming out of it not well rested. We hosted the Thanksgiving event, it wasn’t huge but we still had 6 people over and putting this on is a lot of work and can be stressful. I followed Dr Ferrari’s guidance of only reducing Medio 50% on recovery week and I think that was a mistake.
I’m learning some things about myself: 1) I’m brittle, at least when compared to many of the cyclists here. Normal life stress + cycling stress is enough to wear me down. 2) I’m better at puncheur type of efforts and am not a natural diesel. 3) Big picture I’m more interested in my general health than cycling improvement.
I’m going to back the FTP back off to where it was and make any future recovery weeks real recovery weeks with only zone 2 riding.
Overall my performance in 2025 actually improved over 2024 by a noticeable amount. I credit routine 3 hour rides for making me more durable at those types of rides.
I’m not planning any immediate changes, I’ll keep this plan going. However, I think over the long-term I’m probably better off with a Coach Jack plan, maybe Polarized plan with a 2 weeks work/1 week recovery model. It plays into my strengths while recognizing recovery challenges.
Dave
