TSS rise

amaferanga

I'm just beginning to get my head around using power meter data and TSS/CTL to structure my training and I'm unsure of how to balance how I feel with the numbers, in particular TSS.

So, what sort of weekly TSS would be appropriate for someone racing and doing sportives and what sort of weekly jumps in TSS are acceptable? I know that a week-on-week rise of about 50 TSS/week is often used as an upper limit, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees some much bigger jumps than this from time to time.

For the next 4 week block I have the following planned:

647 (easier week prior to my 2nd race)
765 (race week)
877 (Tour of the Peak sportive week)
662 (easier week due to very high TSS previous week)

I'm doing a mix of L3/L4/L5 sessions during the week with L2/L3 rides at the weekend on non-race/sportive weeks. My power meter data only goes back about a month, but I'd guess I've been doing about 500-700 TSS/week through the winter.

Does this look sensible and sustainable provided over a longer period I keep my TSS/week gains to 50 /week? I know everyone is different, but assuming I could devote as much time as I wanted to training and racing (which I can't) then what sort of TSS score would be sustainable through the spring/summer months?

obizzle

I'm interested in this also, as I'm worried about taking on too much too soon.

I guess it depends on your CTL and ATL as to whether you're over extending yourself. I'll watch this thread for any informed responses that might come along

Bronzie

amaferanga wrote:

647 (easier week prior to my 2nd race)
765 (race week)
877 (Tour of the Peak sportive week)
662 (easier week due to very high TSS previous week)

Based on a 600TSS average for past X weeks, those weekly TSS loads will only lead to a max CTL increase of +6 (because it's averaged out over a rolling 3 month timeframe). The guide is for a long-term ramp rate of +4-8TSS/d/wk so I think you'll be fine with that.

I use an Excel file to plan weekly training loads and flag up CTL when I'm going over 8 TSS/d/wk.

chrisw12

Are you using wko? I pay particular attention to the blue ctl line. When that starts moving steeply over a few days, you'll know you've done too much. I think with this sort of thing, you've got to suck it and see a little bit. You might be able to tolerate a higher or lower ramp rate, it's something to experiment with over time.

Can you plan your tss that accurately though?

Are these A races? If so then why are you looking to increase tss/ctl during them?

I thought ( and I could be massively wrong on this) that you build up tss until about a week before the big race then let it drop during the week of the race. You seem to be doing it the other way round?

obizzle

chrisw12 wrote:

Are you using wko? I pay particular attention to the blue ctl line. When that starts moving steeply over a few days, you'll know you've done too much. I think with this sort of thing, you've got to suck it and see a little bit. You might be able to tolerate a higher or lower ramp rate, it's something to experiment with over time.

I'm not sure, as I haven't been using it for long enough, but it looks like the higher your CTL is, the less impact a workout of a particular TSS will have on your CTL. ie, if you maintain a constant TSS week in, week out, your CTL will plateau. To know whether the OP was having too steep a rise in CTL, you'd need to know what his current CTL was.

amaferanga

chrisw12 wrote:

Are you using wko? I pay particular attention to the blue ctl line. When that starts moving steeply over a few days, you'll know you've done too much. I think with this sort of thing, you've got to suck it and see a little bit. You might be able to tolerate a higher or lower ramp rate, it's something to experiment with over time.

Can you plan your tss that accurately though?

Are these A races? If so then why are you looking to increase tss/ctl during them?

I thought ( and I could be massively wrong on this) that you build up tss until about a week before the big race then let it drop during the week of the race. You seem to be doing it the other way round?

I'm using Golden Cheetah and the Training Load plugin for Sportracks at the moment so I've got the CTL graph. The TSS values are just estimates. Probably +/- 50 or so for the week assuming I do what's planned.

As for the weekly TSS values I posted - its a bit misleading. My weeks run Sunday to Saturday. The race is on the Sunday so at the start of the ~765 week, not the end of it. I'm also planning a longer ride on the Saturday of that week (after the race) as I've not done many long rides this year and want to get one in before the Tour of the Peak. The week of the TotP is actually quite an easy week - its the sportive that'll give the high weekly TSS.

I'm not too worried about how I do in the race or the sportive actually - I'm looking to peak much later in the year.

Thanks for the comments so far.

chrisw12

amaferanga wrote:

chrisw12 wrote:

Are you using wko? I pay particular attention to the blue ctl line. When that starts moving steeply over a few days, you'll know you've done too much. I think with this sort of thing, you've got to suck it and see a little bit. You might be able to tolerate a higher or lower ramp rate, it's something to experiment with over time.

Can you plan your tss that accurately though?

Are these A races? If so then why are you looking to increase tss/ctl during them?

I thought ( and I could be massively wrong on this) that you build up tss until about a week before the big race then let it drop during the week of the race. You seem to be doing it the other way round?

I'm using Golden Cheetah and the Training Load plugin for Sportracks at the moment so I've got the CTL graph. The TSS values are just estimates. Probably +/- 50 or so for the week assuming I do what's planned.

As for the weekly TSS values I posted - its a bit misleading. My weeks run Sunday to Saturday. The race is on the Sunday so at the start of the ~765 week, not the end of it. I'm also planning a longer ride on the Saturday of that week (after the race) as I've not done many long rides this year and want to get one in before the Tour of the Peak. The week of the TotP is actually quite an easy week - its the sportive that'll give the high weekly TSS.

I'm not too worried about how I do in the race or the sportive actually - I'm looking to peak much later in the year.

Thanks for the comments so far.

Yep I had a feeling that was going to be the case, just wanted to make sure you weren't planning a hard week before an important event. That would be a really stupid thing to do, I wonder what idiot would do that.... :oops: (um ...me!)

<In agreement with obizzle above> It's difficult to sort of make comments on these threads (about tss) by just looking at raw numbers and not knowing history/current ctl, that's why knowing your own graph and trying to understand it is important.

amaferanga

Well since I don't have much power meter data then there's a bit of guess work, but using a starting CTL of 50 on the 20th Feb my current ctl is about 57. Work and illness messed up most of February for me and to be honest March wasn't that great either, but as of this week I've got a proper plan and plan to make some serious progress

Just got hold of a nice CTL planner from the Wattage forum which has really helped.

Seem to recall someone saying a CTL of 100 is a good base for racing so I've got a bit to go.

chrisw12

Have a proper read of this thread:- http://www.timetriallingforum.co.uk/ind ... =32508&hl=

From the tt forum.

You get contributions from some real big names and is well worth a proper read | think.