SwissRX Synthesis - week #2 update

Another week down. This was solid week of riding/training; weekly Duration and TSS (Training Stress Score) were basically the same (<5% difference) as the previous week. I did a few hard efforts on Strava segments mixed in with moderate intensity in zones 1 and 2. Non-training stress was pretty stable and sleep quality was high and consistent.

The few objective measures of performance suggest my fitness is on the high-side of my range over the past 10 years or so. The hard question is: How much, if any, is attributable to SwissRX Synthesis?

Here are some hypotheticals that can be useful in attempting to perceive any effects from using SwissRX Synthesis.

Scenario A:

This training load is long-term sustainable for me (i.e., it would not lead to incrementally higher fatigue week-to-week over a period of months). If true, then the influence of Synthesis should mean I feel better from an accumulated, week-to-week fatigue perspective.

Scenario B:

This training load is not long-term sustainable, but the incremental fatigue would take a few to several weeks to accumulate to the point some substantial rest & recovery is necessary. In this case, Synthesis should make this training load even "more" sustainable than without it, possibly even "long-term sustainable".

The Challenge

Dialing in the "right" weekly training load is challenging enough, but it is made even more difficult because other important variables are constantly changing. Life stress and other non-training demands are rarely stable for extended periods of time. Fitness and durability is potentially changing for the better, improving your ability to tolerate training load. And, in this experiment, the effects of Synthesis are claimed to be compounding/increasing.

Further, we need to understand how Synthesis works in the body and what kind of effects we should expect. Endurance training is not exactly the same as Strength Training in terms of systemic and peripheral stress. It seems logical that this group of peptides has a more beneficial effect on peripheral stress (muscle damage/fatigue and recovery) than on system-wide fatigue and stress. This may or may not be true and may or may not influence my ability to perceive its purported benefits.

The best course of action from a "performance improvement" perspective would be to up the weekly training load until I reach a slightly unsustainable level of incremental fatigue. This should be done in a conservative way with the goal of getting to the point where a "rest/recovery week" would be required every 4-6 weeks (I'm not a fan of the 3/1 approach).

The best course of action from an "experiment" perspective would probably be to hold training load steady for the full 4 weeks and compare fatigue levels from week-to-week. In theory, I should detect decreasing accumulated fatigue during the experimental period. In practice, though, this may not actually work. It could be that I can't effectively distinguish between small differences in accumulated fatigue. Said another way, it could be that there are is a small range of weekly training load that would result in basically the same week-to-week fatigue sensations.

Stay tuned for more thoughts and sensations...

On to week #3...