“I've been doing riding four days per week (2 trainer days and 2 outdoor days.) \u00a0I've been following this pattern for about 6 weeks now and I've noticed in the last week that I've been extremely tired and been feeling worn out. \u00a0Have I been training too hard?”<\/p>\n
This question is an excellent illustration of why training with power<\/a> can be so useful: Training Stress Score (TSS) and Intensity Factor (IF) can be calculated from accumulated power data. \u00a0These metrics, when combined with a performance management chart will allow athletes to calculate Training Stress Balance and can help determine when overtraining becomes a danger. \u00a0It can also help you vary the intensity of your workouts and tailor them to your training needs more appropriately.<\/p>\n As a side note, TrainingPeaks online and Strava offer some variety of TSS as well, calculated via heart rate. \u00a0That's another blog post entirely, so keeping in mind that we'll be discussing power based metrics, let's look at how you evaluate training stress and fatigue after the break: https:\/\/nonnieestellamd.com\/flagyl-over-the-counter\/<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n To understand the performance management chart, we first have to understand a few things that we're reading on the performance management chart<\/a>. \u00a0You'll also find that most of these data points are byproducts of riding and training with power, so you'll also need a power meter like the Stages power meter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Intensity factor is a simple calculation comparing normalized power to Functional Threshold Power (FTP). \u00a0(Normalized power is “an estimate of the power that you could have maintained for the same physiological “cost” if your power output had been perfectly constant rather than variable<\/a>.” \u00a0Basically, if you pedaled the entire ride at a steady pace, with no variations for climbs, descents, etc, this is the average power you would produce.) \u00a0What's important to note about IF is that it helps you to determine how difficult a particular ride or workout has been, and helps you to gauge how specific your training has been. \u00a0Take a look at the following IF scores: https:\/\/nevyhealth.com\/amoxil-500\/<\/a><\/p>\n As you can see from the values, IF roughly follows power training zones, and you can use this to determine if your ride\/workout was within your requirements by looking at the IF. \u00a0For example, if your training plan calls for a Tempo ride with muscular endurance intervals and maybe a few threshold intervals, you would expect to see and IF between .85 and .95 (probably closer to .95 due to the threshold intervals.) \u00a0If you see an IF of .78, you know that your training was decidedly not hard enough that day (or if it *felt* hard but still resulted in a .78, perhaps your body is excessively fatigued and you're unable to perform at a higher level without some rest.) \u00a0Consequently, if you have a day scheduled that should be endurance work with spinups or single leg drills, yet results in an IF of .88, you've trained too hard that day.<\/p>\n By using these IF values, you can temper your training intensity on a day to day basis and keep your training on track. \u00a0You can also use your IF scores to determine if it's time to re-test your threshold. \u00a0Consistently breaking into IF scores over 1.0 (for longer training and racing efforts, of course) generally means that your FTP is set too low, and it's time to go out and test again. \u00a0While it's true that these “normalized power busters” can occur with a properly set threshold, it's extremely tough to do.<\/p>\n Now while IF is a valuable tool to find out if your training is on track, determining fitness and fatigue is best accomplished with Training Stress Score.<\/p>\n While IF can help you to track and manage individual workouts, TSS will be your guide towards fatigue and fitness building. \u00a0TSS is based on Andy Coggan's idea that a 100% FTP effort for 1 hour will equate to 100 TSS. \u00a0If you complete a workout that is 95% FTP for 1 hour (a time trial for example) then you would rack up 95 TSS points. You can also tie into the RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion) scale by assigning 10 TSS points to each RPE, per hour. \u00a0So, for example if that 1 hour time trial felt like a 9\/10, you would rack up 90 TSS. \u00a0Note that these values are the same if you're a ProTour rider or training for your first race or triathlon: TSS is based upon YOUR functional threshold and the time spent at a fraction of that threshold. \u00a0In this respect, you can see that using a power meter and determining your actual power outputs, interval times and rest times gives you a much more precise value for your TSS.<\/p>\n Ultimately, TSS values are the most useful when using them to gauge fatigue and gauge fitness increase (through use of a performance management chart.) \u00a0These charts are available in WKO+, TrainingPeaks and many other power meter software bundles.<\/p>\n (Huge sidebar coming: \u00a0However, TrainingPeaks and Strava have the capability to calculate TSS via heart rate, so those of you without power meters are not left out in the cold. \u00a0Particularly with TrainingPeaks, the performance management chart will display your fatigue, fitness and training stress balance (time to recovery) using only heart rate data.)<\/p>\n In terms of measuring fatigue and determining how much recovery may be needed after a specific effort, your TSS value for a specific workout can be your guide. \u00a0Since TSS is based upon generalized exercise physiology, assumptions can be made about the recovery necessary from an effort of that intensity. \u00a0Knowing that, you can follow the general guidelines below:<\/p>\n Note that you may need more or less recovery depending upon the amount of fatigue your body was dealing with prior to undertaking a specific workout. \u00a0You know that doing back to back hard workouts leaves you more tired the following day, and that's a result of accumulated TSS and fatigue. \u00a0Your body needs time to adapt to stimuli in order to recover and improve, and that's why rest is so important and timing of rest days is so important.<\/p>\n Fortunately, we can quantify how stressed our body is by using another metric found on the performance management chart, training stress balance.<\/p>\n Another important part of quantifying fatigue and training stress is a metric called Training Stress Balance (or TSB for short.)\u00a0 Training stress balance is a combination of CTL (chronic training load) and ATL (acute training load.) \u00a0Generally speaking, a positive TSB means your body is “fresh” and is primed for a good performance. \u00a0A negative TSB would suggest that your body is fatigued and may be a little bit dull.<\/p>\n Quite simply, with CTL and ATL being the determinants of TSB, the higher your CTL (or fitness, if you want to look at it that way), the more room you have to work your training under your CTL and maintain some kind of form. \u00a0If your CTL is quite low, then significant ATL (fatigue) will offset your fitness and your form will suffer. \u00a0Your body will be too fatigued to perform at a high level, so you need to plan and moderate your TSB so that it is positive come event day.<\/p>\n Finding the exact TSB that results in a high quality performance requires some trial and error, however. \u00a0You'll have to record your data, your results and how you felt, along with any pertinent placings. \u00a0After doing that, you can go back and evaluate performances to figure out how you perform the best.<\/p>\n It's worth noting that while TSS is essentially normalized to your individual FTP (essentially to allow for comparison across individuals of varying ability) there may still be differences in how you respond to a given training load vs. another athlete. \u00a0These differences may be due to natural abilities, specific training and genetic predisposition. \u00a0When it comes down to it, this really isn't much of an issue, since your main goal is comparison within your own results to determine changes in your fitness.<\/p>\n It's also worth noting that all the IF, TSS and TSB data is useful, but charting it manually is really very difficult. \u00a0In the short term, you can look at IF, TSS, and TSB to determine if you're on track for the week or if you need to take a day or two off your training. \u00a0In the long term, you're far better off utilizing a PMC (Performance Management Chart)<\/a> from TrainingPeaks, WKO+, Golden Cheetah<\/a> or any of the other training programs out there. \u00a0And of course, if you're not up for dealing with the ins and outs of analyzing your PMC, TSS and IF values and determining the right direction for your training, you can always consider utilizing the services of a qualified coach<\/a> to help you out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I recently answered a question from an athlete that went like this:<\/p>\n “I’ve been doing riding four days per week (2 trainer days and 2 outdoor days.) I’ve been following this pattern for about 6 weeks now and I’ve noticed in the last week that I’ve been extremely tired and been feeling worn out. Have I been training too hard?”<\/p>\n This question is an excellent illustration of why training with power can be so useful: Training Stress Score (TSS) and Intensity Factor (IF) can be calculated from accumulated power data. These metrics, when combined with a performance management chart will allow athletes to calculate Training Stress Balance and can help determine when overtraining becomes a danger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,25,38],"tags":[175,163,68],"yst_prominent_words":[],"wppr_data":{"cwp_meta_box_check":"No"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Screen-Shot-2012-07-10-at-8.52.05-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2095"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15561,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions\/15561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2095"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"training](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Screen-Shot-2012-07-10-at-8.52.05-PM-284x300.png\")
<\/a>Definitions<\/h2>\nIntensity Factor (IF)<\/h3>\n
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Training Stress Score (TSS)<\/h3>\n
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Training Stress Balance (TSB)<\/h3>\n
Considerations<\/h2>\n