Just curious to hear what kind of TSB you guys run coming into an Ironman?
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=3118745#3118745
As my experience of training by pace/power has grown, I’ve begun to feel that ATL/CTL/TSB are interesting metrics, they are just that - metrics and don’t dictate performance. They are interesting for post analysis.
FWIW - my two fastest ironmans ever (and bike splits) have come off of the lowest CTL values I’ve raced on for any race Half or longer, and subsequently the lowest TSB values.
IOW - forget about ATL/CTL/TSB except for after the fact analysis, and think about these questions: Are you able to nail your key workouts? Are you able to hit your benchmark/sim workouts @ the desired wattage/pace? Are you sure you have estimated your FTP accurately? Are you sure? Really?
All excellent points but part of why I was asking was related to using the new PMC planning feature to try to nail down my taper.
Hmmm - I thought I answered that question.
The referenced thread offered great insight for sure but I was merely clarifying my original post. To boot there seems to be a fair amount of hand waving. Sometimes people race well with a low but slightly positive TSB of 0-10. Sometimes they race well with higher TSB in the 30-40 range. It looks like the best combo is a high CTL with only a TSB around 10-15. Peak CTL for run should be 3-4 week out and peak bike CTL should be about 2-3 weeks out. There isn’t any mention about swim. This is all with the caveat that FTP is accurately measured etc.
I haven’t seen very much discussion regarding this feature in Trainingpeaks or how/if people are using it.