Hard week at work...

[cromagnon]

Early mornings, soo tired falling asleep by 9pm every night on the sofa, hardly time to eat anything for lunch, rushing about on my feet all day, didn't touch the bike all week.... and just annihilated my best time for richmond park 3 lap challenge by 34 secs. What gives? Not that I'm complaining.

 

[DirtyWorks]

Early mornings, soo tired falling asleep by 9pm every night on the sofa, hardly time to eat anything for lunch, rushing about on my feet all day, didn't touch the bike all week.... and just annihilated my best time for richmond park 3 lap challenge by 34 secs. What gives? Not that I'm complaining.

My wild guess is your legs were well rested. You probably aren't recovering enough when you dedicate your normal amount of time/energy to cycling.

Training is a balancing act. Tear your muscles down *just* enough and the recovery results in adaptation (e.g. stronger/faster) I see too many riders not allowing enough recovery time. They get some recovery/adaptation, but pretty much miss most of the adaptation benefits unless they lay off the intensity like you did.

What's enough vs. too much? Every body is totally different and there's too many variables to generalize. Not enough riders experiment with limiting intensity and rely on 'more is better' to try to increase fitness.