Knowing when you have had enough - advice needed

As a segue from the previous post, one area I don't know where I have enough is in the area of training. As a newbie to serious cycling I don't have the experience of knowing how hard to push myself when training. I know the theory (in a nutshell pushing your body hard for a while, then resting a bit so it reacts to this pushing by getting stronger/fitter then repeat)

But how hard/long to push is tricky to judge and to a large extent comes via trial and error. As an e.g. my ride through the Dolomites last year should have left me knackered. I averaged a "Training Stress Score" of 335 and an intensity factor of 0.75 over the 10 days. According to the WKO guide (http://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/power411/defined.asp) a TSS of 300-450 means the day was a high stress day with some residual fatigue present after 2 days. But I felt fine most days and finished the event feeling fine and ready for more. Conversely the day after my last MAP test I felt quite flat.


I don't think I can wait years using trial and error to find out how much training is "enough". So I have contacted Ric Stern (http://www.cyclecoach.com/) with a view to getting some professional training advice. Having filled out a long and exhaustive questionaire I am now awaiting some feedback. Will be interesting to see what this turns out to be..