TSS, power and heart rate

ozzy1000_0

hi guys,

I don't have a power meter.... i have a garmin edge500 with Hr monitor and i've been using sporttracks with a training load plug in to log things.

before i got the above i used to do interval on a turbo with a crappy computer using speed as a proxy for power. since using the HR and training load thing, it feels like the benfits of intervals aren't represented by Training Stress Scores. I feel like intervals help but the TSS they genrate is tiny compared to just going out on the road and trashing myself...

my theory is that if i was using power instead of HR the difference wouldn't be so significant?? i,e having decnt recovery between intervals would allow me to produce more power and thus spend more time in higher zones per period of riding.... whereas on the road my heart can be hammering away but the power has dropped right off because I''ve been pushing so hard for so long...

i guess what i'm asking is, should i ditch the intervals as the the TSS's are so meagre compared to to just hanging on the back of a fast group... or should i not get to hung on data and do the intervals anyway???

danowat

ozzy1000_0 wrote:

or should i not get to hung on data and do the intervals anyway???

This ^

Intervals are for getting quicker.

Bronzie

How are you calculating TSS without a powermeter? It sounds like you are guestimating and then treating the results as gospel.

FWIW at typical 2x20 session will be around 80TSS. A typical 5x5 session at L5 will be around the same.

Use intervals to go faster, build volume (accumulated TSS) with as much tempo work as you can fit it.

jibberjim

If you use an HR based TSS calculation, or a power one, you'll still see much, much lower numbers from interval sessions, in fact you'll likely see bigger differences with small scores for intervals with power ones.

You need to forget about the absolute number of TSS - it's trivial to get a high TSS - just go and ride at any intensity for 6 hours. But what really matters is the combination of volume and intensity. If you're just looking at TSS and trying to maximise it then it's really easy to ramp up the volume and ignore the intensity. TSS - especially power TSS (it's easier with HR TSS as you can have a zone 0 which does nothing which can offset this a bit) is hugely influenced by the total time of the workout.

Carry on training. It doesn't matter how you make your intervals hard - HR, Power, PE, chasing cats, just make them hard.

ozzy1000_0

Bronzie wrote:

How are you calculating TSS without a powermeter? It sounds like you are guestimating and then treating the results as gospel.

FWIW at typical 2x20 session will be around 80TSS. A typical 5x5 session at L5 will be around the same.

Use intervals to go faster, build volume (accumulated TSS) with as much tempo work as you can fit it.

sorry i'm being a complete div'!!! they're not TSS they TRIMP scores.... for some reason TSS was in my head when i was typing... apprarntly its based on time spent in each heart zone

ozzy1000_0

jibberjim wrote:

If you use an HR based TSS calculation, or a power one, you'll still see much, much lower numbers from interval sessions, in fact you'll likely see bigger differences with small scores for intervals with power ones.

You need to forget about the absolute number of TSS - it's trivial to get a high TSS - just go and ride at any intensity for 6 hours. But what really matters is the combination of volume and intensity. If you're just looking at TSS and trying to maximise it then it's really easy to ramp up the volume and ignore the intensity. TSS - especially power TSS (it's easier with HR TSS as you can have a zone 0 which does nothing which can offset this a bit) is hugely influenced by the total time of the workout.

Carry on training. It doesn't matter how you make your intervals hard - HR, Power, PE, chasing cats, just make them hard.

thanks, that pretty much what i hoped to hear.... my only reservation is that the inner geek in me likes to see my hard work represented in numbers