Training Peaks Newbie

Exumanewbie

I need help badly.. Im having difficulty understanding exactly ctl, fatigure and form mean in connection to my training. Ive scoured the internet and I’m drawing blanks. I really want to have a good year in racing and I upgraded tp premium but its like im just looking at random numbers. My current numbers are 48 CTL 59 Fatigue and -19 form on my ‘home’ screen but the calendar for this week is showing 41ctl 23 fatigue and 15 form . This is after a 3 week block of work. Does my form number mean that I am out of shape? Which one do I go by? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

maryka

Training Peaks has lots of stuff on their site, e.g., https://help.trainingpeaks.com/hc/en-us ... ment-Chart

cgfw201

The TP blog has a load of good stuff on it ^^^.

In short
- CTL – this is your current fitness level. It is a weighted average of the TSS per day over the last 42 (?) days
o 100 TSS = 60 minutes at FTP.
o If you have ridden exactly 100TSS for last 42 days, your CTL will be 100
o Your CTL will go up if you ride more than 100TSS, and down if you do less

- ATL – this is your level of fatigue
o Every day you do more TSS than your CTL, you accumulate fatigue
o If you keep doing this, your fatigue will grow.
o Fatigue is an indication of gaining fitness

- TSB – this is the balance between fitness and fatigue
o It is normal for it to be a negative number when trying to gain fitness as you are both increasing CTL and ATL (fatigue)
o Keep an eye on this number and how you feel physically.
o Whenever mine gets to -30, I tend to get ill, so I’ll take an easy day or two
o Everyone performs best at a certain TSB, so if there’s a big event you’re targeting you can try to get the balance right in the lead up to that, but on the whole don’t pay too much attention.

- Ramp Rate
o This shows your CTL progression over 7/28/90/365 days.
o If you want to get fitter this needs to keep rising, in your case you could probably add 3-4 CTL a week over a month without changing your life too much, and this would lead to a new CTL of around 60.
o Some Cat 1 racers have a CTL less than this. Some have one of 120+, think everyone has a different optimum level.

supermurph09

The calendar shows where you will be at the end of the week. So if your CTL was 50 on Monday, it will then add in your planned sessions to show what your CTL will be on the Sunday. If you have nothing planned it will drop down.

p929

I'd take a look to these 2 blog entries: http://blog.trainerroad.com/why-tss-atl ... sb-matter/ http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2015/12/ma ... g-tsb.html

The last one was written by Joel Friel, who is a renamed coach. Basically, you should have a negative TBS in order to produce stress on the body, and therefore, some values are suggested. Friel suggests -30<TSB<-20, which is the zone I train the most. However, when I'm doing some other sports on a single day (tennis, soccer) my TSB can lower more than -40, but you know what, those days I feel great. However, the day after I feel pretty tired but far from feeling ill. OTHO some ppl experience that those low values of TSB make them sick, like cgfw201 commented. Obviously, everyone of us is different and probably you have to start experimenting with yourself to find your limits

p929

BTW, you can use Golden Cheetah, which does the same as TP/WOK4 but for free

Exumanewbie

thanks guys. im out with a calf injury but im looking to get back into the swing of things shortly.