The Jock Doctrine

Dow Jones Industrial Average, past month, from cnn.com

My TSB (yellow line), past month, from trainingpeaks.com

Coincidence or conspiracy?  My training stress balance looks suspiciously like the Dow, after I returned to a training plan from two consecutive injuries. 

The Dow part is way over my head, but I can explain the training part: an injured athlete's acute training load (my July ATL consisted of working, napping, and baking delicious pastries) is going to be much lower than their chronic load.  The athlete will start to gain "freshness" and eventually lose fitness.  I managed to do some of each, judging by my initial personal-record-setting short-term power, but my eventual huffing and puffing like Darth Vader after riding an epic...um..ten feet or so.  Joe Friel's Training Bible says that two or more weeks off the bike would require a return to Base period.  High-volume, low-intensity endurance work?  That's where I'm a viking, but a return to Base in August would allow for a peak in 'cross season, or maybe next year...so I guess it's time to cram the volume and intensity into a couple weeks before recovering and racing.  Hello pain cave.  It's been a while. 

Here's hoping for some creative destruction in the next few weeks of training, or I'm screwed...but more importantly, let's hope the Dow and my TSB stop looking alike, or we're all screwed.

*Disclaimer: I have a belief that every time someone talks publicly about their power data, a kitten is killed somewhere.  My apologies for the kitten casualty associated with this post.