Hi all,
TL;Dr: after a patchy period of riding is there a way to determine whether you need to rebuild what was a solid base?
Long version:
I’ve been injured since June (primary injury is a knee). It’s not been so bad to stop me cycling, although I’ve had some big gaps and generally my load has been way lower than pre June (weekly TSS between 50 and 300 compared to 400-800 previously). My aerobic base was very good before that (as far as I can tell) - I could generally ride at 75% FTP for what felt like indefinitely with no real drop off.
As I never really stopped, I’ve not lost all my fitness by a long stretch, but I’m also not what I was! Haven’t been doing any structured training in this time, just riding outdoors for fun 
I think I’m on the path to recovery (lots of physio exercises, new cleat position, etc), so I’m thinking about when I can start training. I’d quite like to do cross races in December.
So that’s the context; I’m wondering if there’s a way to determine if I need to do a base block (can I measure this somehow or determine from a ramp of 4dp test?), and if so, how substantial should it be? If there was no cross I’d probably just settle in to a long winter of base, but I do like a snappy CX race !