Strava fitness & freshness graph, bizarre results?

ben@31

I know this feature might only be a guide rather than an accurate result, but I seem to getting some bizarre results... Long distance rides outside at an easier power seem to have a higher score than short turbo trainer workouts at a eye watering near death intensity.
Im sure I've been working much harder on my turbo trainer, maintaining a much higher power. So why is Strava saying I was fitter when plodding along outside?
... And... when I go for a short run, the fitness curve shoots up even more?
When I spend a bad weather week on the turbo trainer, the fitness curve seems to plateaux.
Strava is saying I have a much higher training load when I do the easier long distance rides than when on the turbo trainer, but I don't feel that way ! The intensity is often a higher % on the turbo trainer.
Is Strava putting more emphasis on distance & moving time than power output ?

sloppyschleckonds

Aah, the benefits of accurate data..........

Alex_Simmons/RST

ben@31 wrote:

Is Strava putting more emphasis on distance & moving time than power output ?

Training stress is a function of relative intensity and duration.

bobmcstuff

The formulas are really simple, it's just how much time you've spent in each training zone. Plenty of stuff online.

bristolpete

I noted that whenever I do Bristol to South Devon ( 100 miles) my fitness rockets on that chart.

In effect I said to myself it is a reminder that the old skool method of winter miles summer smiles (though talking from Feb to now) ethos can still apply and whilst it seems you can fast track fitness with a turbo and attain imprved FTP with interval work etc, is a reminder that at the end of the day miles in the tank is still the biggest benefit ?

sebbyp

Im finding the same thing, as soon as I started the High volume sweet spot base two weeks ago, my fitness has dipped on the graph, Think its because my fitness was 104 which would imply the need for 700 + TSS a week just to maintain, but no Trainerroad Plan has a TSS that high. thank god for still doing Saturdays and Sundays outside to bring it back up! Its easy to rack up 200 - 250 'training impulse' outside on a long outdoor ride, thats just impossible on the turbo

bobmcstuff

sebbyp wrote:

Im finding the same thing, as soon as I started the High volume sweet spot base two weeks ago, my fitness has dipped on the graph, Think its because my fitness was 104 which would imply the need for 700 + TSS a week just to maintain, but no Trainerroad Plan has a TSS that high. thank god for still doing Saturdays and Sundays outside to bring it back up!

You know there's not a perfect correlation between CTL/"fitness" and FTP right?

You might still be increasing power depending on how the workouts are structured and what you were doing before.

sebbyp

Yeah I could understand that I could pootle round in Z2 for hours on end (like when i did LEJOG in June and 'fitness' went to 133) and the CTL would rocket but not improve FTP. Or visa-versa just do few threshold session and only focus on FTP and fitness probably woudnt increase.

Won't expect FTP to rise during this sweet spot base anyway, have to wait for build phase for that!

All 'time in HR' stuff has gone off my Trainerroad, why!

burnthesheep

sebbyp wrote:

Im finding the same thing, as soon as I started the High volume sweet spot base two weeks ago, my fitness has dipped on the graph, Think its because my fitness was 104 which would imply the need for 700 + TSS a week just to maintain, but no Trainerroad Plan has a TSS that high. thank god for still doing Saturdays and Sundays outside to bring it back up! Its easy to rack up 200 - 250 'training impulse' outside on a long outdoor ride, thats just impossible on the turbo

Re-read what you wrote, which I bolded above.

There's a reason for that. Anytime people have a TSS that seems astronomical to them, you need to re-test your FTP or what base number you're using to generate plans.

TSS is relative to YOUR level of intensity and time. If that intensity factory is measured against a phony ftp or training number, your TSS will be phony also.

If your ftp is actually 275w but you are doing plans and accumulating TSS against a number more like 225w, then yeah......your TSS each workout or week will look silly high.

There are people working at 300 to 400 TSS a week that are likely working much harder than people putting out 500 to 600 TSS a week. That's because the IF is much closer to a 1:1 ratio for their workouts and is based on a more accurate ftp number.

The clue is your IF number for a workout. Always really high? Maybe your ftp is set too low.

My TSS dropped quite a bit per week when I re-tested after an 11 week plan and my new ftp was 30w higher. No fewer hours of work.