1 Massive Reason Why Obsessing Over Your CTL Can Ruin Your Cycling Season
Once Strava started to incorporate their version of a Performance Manager Chart, calling it Fitness and Freshness, athletes started to dig into their data more and look at graphs of how fit they were. While I like that Strava made the idea of Chronic Training Load (CTL), Acute Training Load (ATL), and Training Stress Balance (TSB) very easy to understand, there is one massive reason why you shouldn’t obsess over this curve and base your overall fitness solely on this one number.
CTL is what Strava calls Fitness.
ATL is what Strava calls Fatigue.
TSB is what Strava calls Form.
Ideally, you have a Fitness that is at or above 70 and a Form that is close to, or above 0. When athletes start to rest, I hear people saying “My fitness is plummeting!” Well, sort of. You need rest, as this is when the body adapts to the stress you put on it (the riding) and you come back stronger.