As described earlier, the Prep period is a time when the athlete is just getting back into training following a break at the end of the previous season. In this case, it was December through early January. He had a family vacation planned for the last three weeks of this period and would not have a bike available. Here you can see the steady drop in both fatigue and fitness since he wasn’t riding. Accompanying that drop is a rise in form. He was really rested—at least as far as the bike goes—but, of course, his bike fitness was becoming increasingly poor. In the Base period he returned to steady and consistent training with increasing time spent on the indoor trainer working on aerobic endurance, muscular force and pedaling speed skills. The steady rise in fatigue and fitness with a drop in form all indicate that training was going as expected.
During the “1st Build” period I began to increase the intensity of his training by including muscular endurance rides made up primarily of intervals and tempo while maintaining his three fitness abilities—endurance, force and speed skills—established in the Base period. Both fatigue and fitness rose at a greater rate and form dropped to a low point of the early season due to this increase in the training load. I made slight adjustments to stress and rest along the way as the chart revealed how he was responding to training.