 I have only been posting about races and some life experiences so I figured I should jump into a little bit more of the training metrics. When I started training again after Annual Training my Chronic Training Load was at 50.8 and my Training Stress Balance was at 29.0. Let’s take a quick snap back to last year after Annual Training. My CTL score was at an all-time low of 39.5 which was due to not training at all during AT and deciding to stop triathlon. It took me until 18 August 2016 (7 weeks) to get up to a CTL of 88. That is currently the highest I have ever had my bike CTL up to today. Where am I today? Well I currently have a CTL of 71.5 and TSB of -21.6. My CTL ramp rate is 7.3 points per week which falls along the upper guideline for CTL ramp rate. TrainingPeaks recommends 5 to 8 points per week. Sticking within this range can help prevent overtraining, but remember it doesn’t guarantee you to not overtrain. Yes, these numbers are important to understand but how is that correlating to power numbers and actual fitness? Power numbers are definitely not top notch right now. I have been struggling to reach that 5 min and 10 minute maximum power records. Back in March, just prior to Joe Martin, I set a 10 minute max of 410w as well as being 3 pounds lighter. Currently, my best 10 minute effort is at 395w but I do plan on doing the same climb this coming weekend in which I set the 410w maximum. I am not too concerned about the weight for Cascade because the opening Time Trial is not a climber specific TT. Aerodynamics will play more of a roll than weight. Aside from the TT, my aerobic endurance feels strong. This past weekend I did a 4.5 hour ride and even with the oppressive heat I still felt strong the entire ride. I could still produce 90% of FTP towards the end of the ride without too much issue. Finally, my “sprinting” power is higher than ever but is still a joke compared to classical sprinters or even bike riders. This is something I am working on but never really too concerned with sprinting. My strategy is to never really duke it out in a sprint. As we know, there is more to racing then physical strength and endurance. Racing takes a tactical and confident mindset. One week ago I was riding back to work after a quick lunch when I slid out in a non-technical corner. I don’t know how it happened but it definitely shook my confidence. I came out of it with a bruised hip and a couple of minor scrapes but most importantly a shaken confidence. Over the next week I noticed doubts of handling ability started to creep into my head and I would brake more than previous. I needed to put a stop to the thoughts and fix my mentality. What I began to do is first journaling positive affirmations about my handling skills. I am a strong descender and can handle a bike fairly well for a roadie. Descending and handling is all about confidence and pushing the bike and tires all the way up to the limit. After a week of positive affirmations I headed out to Asheville to ride the mountains. I hit some descents and saw some great improvement on mentality. I felt more confident than the prior week. I had my mojo back.  With just over a week left before the opening stage 24km Individual TT my plan is still to continue to build fitness. Due to the volume of off the bike time my fatigue levels are remaining controlled which allows for a quick taper. My taper is essentially going to be starting on Monday before the race and is accounting for the travel days. What are my goals for Cascade Classic?
Additional Training Metrics  I recently picked up a Garmin Vivosmart HR and have began to track sleep and heart rate metrics. It is interesting to see the breakdown of deep sleep to light sleep and seeing the actual sleep cycles. On top of sleep metrics I am also tracking all day heart rate, thanks to the optical sensor on the watch.
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