Spreadsheet CTL and ATL calcs

Wrath Rob

I'm trying to pull together my own tracker to monitor CTL and ATL over the season. Unfortunately as I don't always ride with a power meter (e.g. the commute) I'm having to estimate it for some rides but GC and WKO don't seem to be behaving properly (plus WKO is on trial anyway as its a lot to stump up). So, I'm trying to create my own one to chart CTL and ATL over the season. Reading the Allen/Coogan book they're calculated using a 42 and 7 (respectively) day exponentially weighted moving average of your TSS.

I've had a google for it but can't find something with an example of how to calculate these. Can any of you experts point me in the right direction for an example that I can build on? I'm happy to share the resulting s'sheet once completed.

johncp

This might help http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=3471937; or here http://ianbarrington.com/2007/03/02/atl ... explained/ or you could try SportTracks which is free and has a training load plug in that will do it for you

jgsi

Have you given Golden Cheetah a try?
For my purposes it covers .

Herbsman

Wrath Rob wrote:

I'm trying to pull together my own tracker to monitor CTL and ATL over the season. Unfortunately as I don't always ride with a power meter (e.g. the commute) I'm having to estimate it for some rides but GC and WKO don't seem to be behaving properly (plus WKO is on trial anyway as its a lot to stump up). So, I'm trying to create my own one to chart CTL and ATL over the season. Reading the Allen/Coogan book they're calculated using a 42 and 7 (respectively) day exponentially weighted moving average of your TSS.

I've had a google for it but can't find something with an example of how to calculate these. Can any of you experts point me in the right direction for an example that I can build on? I'm happy to share the resulting s'sheet once completed.

Yes

danowat

If you have a HRM, you can use TRIMP on the rides that don't have power data, TRIMP IME is slightly higher than TSS for a given ride though.
Failing that, you could guestimate it using the TSS forumla and guessing how much NP you did on a ride, if you've got ride data of similar rides, you could compare HR data and guess that way aswell.

okgo

Pm'd you about WKO.

Wrath Rob

@Johncp: Thanks, will take a look.

@okgo:, got it, thanks Rob.

@danowat Re. TRIMP, I'm using that at the moment but as I've got power for my proper training rides I'd prefer to use TSS as its a better standard. Also, none of the literature I've got (Hunter/Coogan and Joe Friel) really cover using the TRIMP model to monitor training properly so I've got no frame of reference as to whether a LTS of 104 is good/bad, all I can say is that its more than it was 6 weeks ago. I've got a better handle on TSS, IF, CTL and ATL, so want to stick with that.

danowat

You can use both TRIMP and TSS, I know sport tracks and the plugin training load I use will select TRIMP if there is no power data

richa

Wrath Rob wrote:

So, I'm trying to create my own one to chart CTL and ATL over the season. Reading the Allen/Coogan book they're calculated using a 42 and 7 (respectively) day exponentially weighted moving average of your TSS.

I've had a google for it but can't find something with an example of how to calculate these. Can any of you experts point me in the right direction for an example that I can build on? I'm happy to share the resulting s'sheet once completed.

Read this blog page & accompanying .xls
http://www.trainstravels.co.uk/2012/03/30/how-to-plan-a-season-using-the-performance-management-chart/

Alex_Simmons/RST

Today's CTL = Yesterday's CTL + (Today's TSS - Yesterday's CTL)/Time Constant

where Time Constant is in days. Default values of 42 days for CTL and 3-10 days for ATL

ATL is same formula as CTL, simply use ATL instead and the relevant TC.

Today's TSB = Yesterday's CTL - Yesterday's ATL

Wrath Rob

Thanks Rich, will read and digest.

Thanks Alex. I've recently been working my way through your blog, all the way from 2007. I actually was reading the power articles but got slightly (well, very) distracted by your accident and recuperation. It was your post-accident CTL tracker that got me thinking of this. I'll give it a go and see what I can come up with.

Wrath Rob

I've had a go with Alex's formulae and its pretty easy to get up and running in Excel. All I've got to do now is know my TSS per ride and add it to the sheet. As of today my ATL is 101 and a rising CTL of 47 is good to know, but better is that I took it a little too easy from 18th to 25th, i.e. the week of the snow (strange that). With the chart in place I'm happy that I can monitor where I am and then also plan for things like the club road race. Result!

If anyone wants a copy of the sheet I'm happy to put it up as a Google doc but its very easy to sort out for yourself.