Is there much I can learn from this or use this for given that it does not take my running and swimming into account? Is it just pretty lines or is there something I can glean from it?
Pretty difficult to make great use of it, since running and swimming are not taken into account. But, you can at least track your bike training load over time, which can be a bit useful.
You could even, if you wanted, enter manually workouts for runs and swims, by estimating their ‘tss’
Also you should set a start LTS, so that your green line will be more meaningful.
the green line, or your long term stress (called chronic stress in WKO+) is a good indicator of how fit you are. Yours will currently be artificially low, unless you were totally untrained on Nov 24
Is there much I can learn from this or use this for given that it does not take my running and swimming into account? Is it just pretty lines or is there something I can glean from it?
That low an LTS shows you’re not training very much. Time to HTFU.
Hugh
How would I relate my perceived level of fitness on Nov. 24th to a LTS #? It was about a month out from my last race of 2012 so I had been taking it really easy, but I did run a PR 5k right around there… Can I roughly correlate a race time or placement with an LTS # or is it really only relative to my where I am relative to my personal potential?
A good rule of thumb is to look at the average number of hours you train per day and multiple that by 50 to 75 (for more intense ‘trainers’)
good reading here:
http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/cycling/what-is-the-performance-management-chart.aspx
where ATL = STS, CTL = LTS, and stress balance is the same I think
almost the exact same metrics, just different terms
using this system in context of tri training is a bit of a science project and I don’t know how useful it will be aside from a way to track your total bike training load so you don’t bullshit yourself about how hard you are working on the bike =)
How would I relate my perceived level of fitness on Nov. 24th to a LTS #? It was about a month out from my last race of 2012 so I had been taking it really easy, but I did run a PR 5k right around there… Can I roughly correlate a race time or placement with an LTS # or is it really only relative to my where I am relative to my personal potential?
Yeah- if you’ve only built up 35 LTS points in 5-6 months, you could cycle more 
but- that’s kind of a trueism. we all need to cycle more.
Is there something you can glean from it? sure. it gives you metrics for how much stress load you’ve really put into each ride, and each week, and over the long term. So, while this is only a portion of your total training, it at least tracks your cycle training.
I’ve been having a great time looking at my PM data- but I have a question. I see that you often let your stress balance return to zero or overshoot into the positive. If that’s for race day- that makes sense. But for base training, (race day still more than 6 weeks away)-** should I just be trying to bury that stress balance line as low as I can get it?** Keep on riding hard and building up fatigue? or will I get further by allowing it to recover to a low number and then burying it again?
Cool, thanks. If I go by that rule of thumb, and include ALL training, then the change in LTS from that baseline on will be using only cycling… so for it to really be useful I would have to go back and manually add in like 150 run and swim workouts and guesstimate bike score for each? I guess I could do a manual adjustment today (It would put LTS at about 130 I think, which is obviously an enormous leap from what it says now) and then input manually from there…
Most of the big breaks between bike workouts are because of travel, not a conscious effort to allow my stress balance to go to zero. Though I find that after a hard block of training, I do like to schedule in an easier week to let myself recover and “lock in” some gains before starting the next hard block.
Cycling has not been a training focus for me since it comes pretty easily for me. I weigh 158 pounds, and on this training my HIM race power is around 230 watts which gives me a split that is much more competitive than my swim or run so I spend a lot of my effort on running because it is much harder for me, and I do what feels like a hard amount of swimming for me, but I know for many people it is not much.