So I have this problem reasonably regularly-I wake up in the morning, check my TP plan and fitness score, do a hard session only for my training score to DROP!! What in the actual heck? Ive tried refreshing, closing everything before doing the exercise but it still happens.
Perfect example-this morning my fitness score was 107, did a 2.5 ride with .5 run off and once uploaded my fitness reduced to 105? I should have stayed in bed…
https://www.trainingpeaks.com/learn/articles/applying-the-numbers-part-1-chronic-training-load/
First off, it’s considered chronic training load (CTL). Secondly, a higher CTL number doesn’t necessarily mean you are more fit. I’m not a fan of how TP calls CTL, fitness. They are not one in the same.
Are your thresholds set correctly in TP? They have a direct impact on TSS which feeds directly into the CTL calculation. Do yourworkouts have a planned TSS for the day? If so, look to see what your planned TSS was vs actual. The CTL calculation will take into account that days planned TSS scores even before doing any workout. So if you do the workout and your actual TSS score is lower than planned, you could see CTL drop depending on the delta of planned vs actual.
Thanks, I know its called CTL and in the app its marked as fitness, there are three measures fatigue, fitness and form. And I wasn’t questioning its relationship to anything ‘fitness’ but rather the fitness score as they describe it.
Common sense would suggest the more training you do (or higher intensity) then the higher the CTL/Fitness score. What I could not understand is how doing training, any type of training could reduce this score.
Its pretty silly how the CTL calculation takes into account the planned TSS scores before you have even done anything, I want to know what it is NOW, not what it will be hypothetically at the end of the day. I’ll have to check what the planned versus actual TSS score was, thanks for the heads up.
If your ctl is up at 100- something and you only did that work you described for your day……yeah ctl will drop that day. To hold 100 ctl you have to do 100 TSS everyday on average for at least 42 days.
So that workout was like maybe 30 TSS. So yeah, it will drop. You didn’t do 100 TSS for that day so CTL will drop by roughly 100 minus 30 then divided by 42.
Also if in the last 42 days you had several big weeks and an off week, the off week will still hold your ctl down a bit if you get back into it until the off week drops off the calculation. The way I understand it.
Either you went from a huge build back to lower normal volume and are seeing the ctl fall off OR you told TP a spurious starting fitness score when you created your account and the calculation is now catching up with reality.
Huh, you are saying a 2.5hr ride with a 30min run off is only 30 TSS? TP is showing 198 TSS for the ride and 30 TSS for the run…?
And I also understand what you are saying re the rolling averages, but training shouldn’t drop this number. If 43 days ago I had a huge day and it drops out of the calc then that makes sense, but doing a training session in itself should only serve to increase the current number, not reduce it.
I think Stevej might be onto something in that it calculates what your rating will be at the end of the day of you complete all the planned sessions, and then adjusts the score accordingly as you actually complete them.
I do see what you’re saying: today I did workouts that have a total TSS higher than my fitness score, which should bring the score up. However, the TSS is a rolling weighted average of the past __ days (can’t remember the number). So while today you did a bigger workout, you may have a huge training day from earlier in the TSS calculation period that is removed from the calculation because, again, it’s a rolling average.
This is my very uneducated guess.
I’d be curious if you can figure out how far back the TSS calculation goes, and if you had a large training day back then (relative to now).
You are right re the rolling average with the exception of one point (which I think is a anomaly in the way TP calculates the average)
My take is let’s say its based on a rolling 42 day average. When I wake up tomorrow morning it should give me that average number as it currently stands, which includes zero for the current day. Thus as I do my sessions for the day the average can only increase.
The anomaly IMHO is when I wake up the calculation is assuming I have already completed the planned sessions for the day and has included the TSS scores in the calc.
Thus as I actually do the sessions if my actual TSS is less than planned then all of a sudden my fitness score reduces
I misread ‘2.5 hours’ for ‘2.5 mi’ somehow for the ride. Haha. More coffee needed.
Huh, you are saying a 2.5hr ride with a 30min run off is only 30 TSS? TP is showing 198 TSS for the ride and 30 TSS for the run…?
And I also understand what you are saying re the rolling averages, but training shouldn’t drop this number. If 43 days ago I had a huge day and it drops out of the calc then that makes sense, but doing a training session in itself should only serve to increase the current number, not reduce it.
I think Stevej might be onto something in that it calculates what your rating will be at the end of the day of you complete all the planned sessions, and then adjusts the score accordingly as you actually complete them.
This is the reason, your actual TSS for the day wasn’t as high as the panned TSS. TP uses planned TSS until an actual TSS replaces it. The reason for using planned TSS is that by forecasting what your TSS is that it allows you to see the effect of your planned workouts to plan your training loads and peak for events.