Update...

So i'm coming to the end of the second week of the sustained power build. The first week was a lot harder than expected... The TSS for the week was 702... actually less than the 8-900 i was doing in October... but the intensity was is lot higher now. I was certainly gratefull for the odd rest days TrainerRoad gives you. 

I have already started to notice a few weaknesses:

Sustained Power - I'm ok on the high intensity short intervals of 3-4 mins @ 105-110% FTP but as soon as I have a session that is hitting that hitting that sweet spot of 85% for 20 mins at a time... repeating 4 or so times... that's a real killer! But then that's what this is for... improving and pushing your sustained power zones. Or maybe its just mind power... how long can you sustain the pain until you give in!

Holding the TT Position - Something I was pretty rubbish at last year too. Last year i never really spent enough time on the TT bike so accept that might be a big part of the cause. I definitely lack core strength. Something I haven't really been working on these last few weeks. But I also think there is some fundamental positioning issue with the bike set-up. After speaking to others about it, i'm going to make some small adjustments to the seat position... moving it forward to open up the hip angle and to reduce some of the reach with my upper body. Just going to be a bit of trial and error for now... if its not sorted by February, I will bite the bullet and get a proper bike fit.

I've started to do a little bit of reading into monitoring performance, fitness, form and fatigue... very interesting stuff but certainly don't know anywhere near enough to blab about it on here... what i do know is though, Strava calculate it free on the premium account... here is mine for the last 6 months. 

The darker line is my fitness levels and the grey line is my form/freshness. The aim is to train to improve fitness then rest to peak up form/freshness. Every time you train hard the fitness rises and form drops. As you recover... the form rises and fitness will drop. This 'tapering' before an event gives you the optimum level of fitness & form. 

Fatigue is the opposite to form. I have not added this to the graph as it gets a bit messy... currently my fatigue levels are very high - as my form is very low.

The large increase in fitness earlier in the year was during the hill climb season and hard weekend rides i did following the competition season. The drop following that was when i went away on holiday for 2 weeks. Just goes to show how much fitness you loose when you stop like that!

Interestingly, this is the fastest rate I have ever increased in fitness. And similarly, this is the highest my fatigue has every been. I'm definitely due a rest. Next week is the last hard week before a complete rest week. This will provide enough time for my fatigue level to reduce before the next 3 week onslaught! 

Going to be really interesting to watch this develop further over this coming season!