I started my Sweet Spot Base with around +17 form on Strava and thought that would be enough to keep me fresh for a bit, but it’s looking like I’ll soon be permanently into the negatives and just digging deeper until the recovery week. Guessing I’ll be around -30 by then.
Should I have started with higher + form to stave off the fatigue for longer or is it normal/expected that your form goes really low?
This is all relative to the individual but… I think a decent rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t be dipping to -30 TSB/Form or lower regularly (say more than once a week) without proper recovery or you may risk injury/carrying over significant fatigue/etc…
Any benefit from starting the plan fresh will be gone by the end of the first week. At the end of the block your TSB will be dipping even lower than it would have because of the lower long term stress!
I would aim to be around 0 at the beginning then you should be at the same level for each ramp test.
I think, much like all training metrics, form (TSB) is highly individual. For myself, I’ve learned that I race best around 0 to -5, I train best when I’m staying around -15 to -25, and if I go past -30 I need a longer recovery. Doesn’t mean someone else couldn’t sustain lower for longer. It’s just one of those things you have to experiment with and find out for yourself.
Where do you see a form number on Strava? I am renewed the Summit membership recently after 10 years away from it. I use TP so just curious to see a comparison…