I just upgraded my Trainingpeaks account to premium for 7 days. Obviously, the first thing I do is go into my PMC and check out all the data points and graphs. I understand what TSB, ATL, CTL, etc. are theoretically, but I don’t know how to interpret them in practice.
Earlier in the season, I was doing Barry P’s running plan along with TR’s Half Iron Distance plan – low volume. I had some great races up until June and then the wheels fell off. I was depressed, didn’t want to train, and stressed out. I took some time off and started to hit it again. Right now I’m still on Barry P’s Plan (my last 5k was 18:58). My three easy runs are ~3.5 miles @ 8:30; my 2 tempos are ~8mi (1mi warm up, 5mi @ 6:30, 2mi cool down); and my long run is normally 90min/~12-13 mi.
I’m also doing TR’s 40k TT plan, low volume. It’s much more intensity than duration. I haven’t gone on a ride longer than 90 mins in quite a while. In April/May, I was doing 2 hour+ rides and subsequently racking up easy TSS points. lol
I swim 3-5x a week, going off the Tarpon plan.
I’m 24 years old and race sprint/oly distance. No interest in half iron/iron distance yet. This is my 2nd season racing.
My concern is that I’m not maximizing my training time. DO you guys see any glaring issues with my data? Should I just keep plodding along or should I switch some stuff up? I have my final race in the first week of December. I know what’s done is done and I can’t fix anything now, but I want to correct any errors for next season. Thoughts?
Without knowing a whole bunch more it looks like your build up to June where “the wheels fell off” was probably a little aggressive and you can see your build post break is a little gentler. There is a span from 4/14 to 5/13 where your CTL went from about 80ish to about 110ish (hard to tell with just a graphic) which if right is a lot. An increase in CTL of 3-5 per week is more sustainable. Look at your latest month and it is a more reasonable climb from approximately 100 to 115.
You will see bigger spikes over a week now and then as you transfer from intensity to volume but an increase of 3-5 per week is manageable long term without the wheels falling off This is a pretty broad generalization but typical for newer athletes and based on your experiences this year and looking at the little bit of data provided a pretty decent assessment.
I know for myself and my athlete(s) I like to follow a build/recovery cycle. So the PMC will be a inclined “saw tooth blade” when you build for typically 3 weeks, then rest a week and repeat.
IT’s pretty common to see a period of 8+ week without any real rest period then “the wheels come off”. It’s all too predictable. You rest days are just single off days it appears…little pockets of rest. The result as you can see, is that 3 months of gains were nearly wiped off the board. Whereas you might have been able to trade 20% of those gains for some rest every few weeks. On simple rule is to drop training load to 50-60% of you peak. So if your at 1500TSS, a rest week might be 800-900 and might emphasis swimming more.
Also, cycling can be built a lot more aggressive. Swimming perhaps the most aggressive. Running the most carefully.
In May/June he has accumulated average 250 TSS per day ? that’s 1750 per week ?
How many people are doing 1750 per week ?
Not a lot.
Without knowing his training history, it might make me question the accuracy of his threshold paces… in which the PMC relies on. Otherwise it’s Garbage in = Garbage out
I’m pretty sure my threshold paces were a little conservative in the first half of the season, which could explain the difference. I feel like I’m doing much more work than I was before. For example, I was doing the TR plan on an outdated FTP… My virtual FTP is 296 (from 268 earlier in the season). Also, my threshold pace was set at 7:30… According to mcmillan, my threshold pace per my latest 5k is 6:32…
. Right now I’m still on Barry P’s Plan (my last 5k was 18:58). My three easy runs are ~3.5 miles @ 8:30; my 2 tempos are ~8mi (1mi warm up, 5mi @ 6:30, 2mi cool down); and my long run is normally 90min/~12-13 mi.
This is a pretty broad generalization but typical for newer athletes and based on your experiences this year and looking at the little bit of data provided a pretty decent assessment.