Performance Management Chart Experiment
Introduction
In this
excellent presentation on Targetted TSS (Training Stress Score) for Ironman
Training, Gordo Byrn and Alan Couzens of EnduranceCorner.com presented this
interesting graph:
My initial reaction was “that shouldn’t
work”. A 100 TSS bike workout for you is not the same as for me, unless we have
the same FTP (Functional Threshold Power). For why see here.
If our TSS’ are not equivalent then our Critical Training Load (CTL) can’t mean the same thing either. Consequently if you and
I both reach a CTL peak of 120 in our IM builds, it is unlikely that our
performances will be the same. That isn’t even taking into account variations
due to weather, course difficulty and other performance affecting factors.
However, I was intrigued by the idea of
planning my training to target a particular peak CTL. This peak CTL was combined swim, bike and run
as I understood the presentation to use that approach.
For interest I also went back to my 2013/14
training cycle and estimated my peak CTL prior to my Almere iron distance race
last year.
Method
Byrn and Couzens use the Training Peaks
(TP) software to manage their athletes. TP seems to be more targeted at coach/athlete
combination and provides a lot of functionality that I don’t really need and is consequently seems quite expensive as a single self coached middle of the packer. Unfortunately
Strava doesn’t allow estimation of TSS. I don’t have a power meter on my
race bike and I wanted to combine swim/bike/run TSS. So Strava’s Performance
Management Chart (PMC) was a non-starter.
I created an excel sheet to keep track
of Fitness (CTL), Fatigue (ATL) and Form (TSB). If anyone is interested I can
provide more information on how that sheet works.
For each workout I manually entered the TSS
into my spreadsheet. Training Peaks free edition provides Swim, Bike and Run workout
TSS. When I
didn’t have my power meter, I estimated using the approach from my previous post.
I plan my seasons using the usual periodized approach described
by Joe Friel amongst others. Detailed weekly planning I do about 2-3 weeks
ahead. This season I added a new step of estimating the likely training load of each workout for the next week so that I could see the ramp rate for my Fitness (CTL)
score. I aimed for a CTL ramp rate (increase in Fitness per week) of less than 3-5
per week. Taken together with a recovery every 4th week, monthly
ramp rate was around 10. These metrics were based on recommendations from Byrn
and Couzen’s presentation.
For interest I looked back at Challenge
Almere from 2014. My estimated peak Fitness score was 97 two weeks out from the
race.
Conclusion
My peak CTL was 123 on 19 August. My A
race was Challenge Weymouth iron distance on 13 September. That seemed about
right with a 3 week peak and taper period. Due to my taper, the day before my
race CTL had dropped to about 100. In hindsight, I think it would have been
better to hold that drop to less than 10-15%.
On the day I finished in 13:26. It was a
tough day with some strong winds and rain. I also had a mechanical problem and
some illness. Even with that, there is absolutely no chance I could have gone
sub 12 never mind sub 11 hours as suggested by the chart. So, as suspected (in
my case) I couldn’t see a direct linkage between peak CTL and race time.
However I could see a linkage between
increase in peak CTL and performance.
At Almere I finished in 12:46. However that
was a much faster course with much less elevation, a lake rather than a sea
swim and no rain. There were also no mechanical or illness problems. Taking out
10 minutes for these last two exceptions and looking at my time as a % of the age
group winner there was an improvement:
Almere 126%
Weymouth 122%
So a 23 point increase in peak CTL got
me a 4% improvement in comparison with the age group winner. I am however left
with a number of questions regarding the validity and usefulness of all of
this:
- · A sensible training plan would be based on something like a 1:1:2 swim:run:bike training time ratio and 3 sessions in each discipline per week split Tempo, Interval and Long. With that as a basis, weekly training time may be just as useful as CTL at my level.
- · Tracking CTL within a season doesn’t take account of the effect of multi year training. This was my 3rd season of endurance training. Perhaps the gains could have been the same with less volume?
Last Word
Statistically, this experiment lacks validity. The sample size - one - is far too small.For 2015/16, I will not be repeating the same CTL planning approach. I accept that for elite athletes it might be useful and it was certainly an interesting experiment for me. However, hours per week are probably good enough at my level for now.