TimothyH

I would appreciate feedback from anyone with functional knowledge of the Performance Managment chart in Training Peaks.

Fitness (CTL) is improving nicely and ramp rate looks good. After three hard weeks however, I am carrying a lot of fatigue (ACL) and form (TSB) is low. An easy/recovery week is approaching.

My specific question is how to use the metrics on the Performance Management chart to best determine the appropriate intensity, duration and volume of exercise during the recovery week.

Is there a TSB number I should be shooting for? My understanding is that TSB should be zero or positive going into a competitive event but what is a good number during and at the end of a recovery week to ensure that I'm not exercising too hard or taking it too easy during recovery?

Not sure if it matters but I don't use power to train but heart rate. A lactic threshold test will be performed at the end of the recovery week to recalculate heart rate zones as needed.


-Tim-

grdnable

Did you calculate your initial CTL or just use 0 at the start? If you started with 0 CTL, then CTL and TSB are not accurate until 6 weeks after you start logging your workouts, because CTL is a weighted average of your daily TSS for the past 42 days.

Along the same lines, TSB is not useful for determining the proper TSS for a recovery week. ATL is a weighted average of TSS for the past 7 days, and since your TSS for a recovery week will be lower than average, TSB is almost always going to be positive at the end of a recovery week. (Unless you are in your first six weeks and didn't calculate your initial CTL.)

The most important thing for recovery is to listen to your body. If you still feel tired after your recovery week, then you didn't rest enough. It's not useful to put a specific number on it because everyone responds differently to training. As a guideline, most structured training plans seem to reduce the TSS in recovery weeks to 60% of the normal weeks (e.g. 500 TSS to 300). It's also important to reduce the intensity during your recovery weeks and spend most of your time in zone 1 and zone 2.

Carbonfiberboy 

The issue with recovery weeks and TrainingPeaks is that one can schedule the week's workouts, or even the month's workouts, ahead of time. If one has some experience in TP, one can assign a TSS to each workout, ahead of time. I have a large library of workouts with TSS etc. which I can plug into Calendar. Then one will see TSB etc. in the PMC. Thus one wants to know about what these values should optimally be.

My schedule is a little weird because it's based around a weekly hard group ride, so I need a positive TSB going into that or I'll to have trouble finishing with the group. So I run negative, then 1-2 days off or easy to get my TSB a little positive on Sunday, then I'll be way negative and I gradually let it climb back up until next Sunday. I try to keep increasing my CTL a little each week so it'll be optimal X weeks ahead of my big summer rides. My weeks have a sawtooth pattern, gradually rising.

So yeah, for my recovery weeks I'll cut the hours back, but not the intensity so that my TSB is 10 or so points positive when Sunday rolls around. If my real life is coinciding properly with my athletic life, I should finish that recovery week with a CTL higher than it was at the end of my last recovery week.

I don't decrease the proportion of intensity during my recovery week because then I'd have to ride more hours to get my TSS and that's not what I want to do. Plus I need to maintain some intensity or I lose conditioning at the high end.

To make sure the PMC is reflecting my real stress levels, I also take my morning resting and standing HRs every day. So I try to get those stress levels up by the end of week 3 and then watch to be sure they go back down by the end of the recovery week. Ideally, my planning in Calendar will make that happen without too much adjustment.

TimothyH

I had forgotten about an orthostatic test.

Thank you.


-Tim-