Training Stress Balalnce- can someone enlighten me
I've been tracking my workouts thus far on Training Peaks and it gives a Training Stress Balance (TSB). I understand the TSB to be a indicator of fatigue taking into account the acute and chronic training loads. I also understand that the more negative the TSB is, the more indicative of fatigue. A couple of questions for those who follow this metric:
1. How negative is too negative? I read somewhere -20 is a cutoff.
2. Are we talking more about weeks of having a negative TSB or simply a few days resulting in higher incidence of overtraining?
3. If I find myself too negative (whatever that number may be) for too long of a period of time (whatever this may be), do I shorten my workouts, decrease intensity, trudge through it till my next rest day?
Thanks in advance.
Comments
ATL = "Acute Training Load". Although the formula is more complicated (because it's exponentially weighted, etc etc etc), think of it as "average TSS points per day for the last week or so"
CTL = "Chronic Training Load". Again, the caveat applies about this being an over simplification, but think of it as "average TSS points per day for the last 4-6 weeks".
TSB is just one of those numbers minus the other.
If your TSB is negative, it means you're ramping up your training. It doesn't mean anything more than that. If you've been training 250 TSS points per day every day for the last 3 months, your TSB would be zero. The same is true if you've been a couch potato!
So the question of "how negative should my TSB be" really is asking "How fast should I ramp up my training?" Unfortunately, this is a "your mileage may vary" thing, but 20 isn't a bad number to start with and see you you feel when you're there, higher, or lower.
You can get overtrained by having a zero TSB if the CTL is higher than you can handle. Of course, it's easier to overtrain when you're ramping up than when you're staying steady. Keep that in mind when you're thinking about question #2. But it's true that a big training day can drop your TSB pretty low for a few days.
#3: We have a workout triage article in the Wiki for different periods of the year. For the middle of the IM buildup, the key workouts are the long ride and run. and you could back off elsewhere in the week. You will probably get tired during the OutSeason too, but the TSS points aren't huge there, simply because the workouts are shorter. There, you do things like break up the intervals...then shorten them...then lower the intensity...as needed to rest up. And ALWAYS the rule is that if you need a rest day, take it! :-)
I have found the best use of these numbers is via the rear view mirror. As I got a couple of racing seasons under my belt I could look back and see the ebb and flow of those numbers and recall how I felt and performed, both in training and in race preparation. This, in turn, gives me a better idea of how deep of a hole to dig before I begin to get myself in trouble.
Bear with me, I am slowly getting there. Isn't TSB a reflection of ATL/CTL on one side and rest on the other (similar to a see-saw) with ATL having a larger impact than CTL. How can one have a zero TSB if you have been training consistently for "x" number of weeks/months? Isn't it all considered to be physiologic stress on the body. Would consistently similar intensity/duration in training result in a less negative number or is this incorrect.
I read that a TSB shouldn't typically change by more than 5 points per week o/w it might be a sign that things are getting ramped up too quickly. Can you guys comment on this? I am planning on using the TrainingPeaks software specifically to monitor this. . .as well as the fact that I love the pretty graphs/pie charts
I have tried the Apollo software in the past but it simply isn't as easy to upload my varioius gadgets plus it doesn't combine all the sports into one big PMC. I have set mine up so it shows the aggregate sports as well as individual biking/running modules. My thought is that if I start to overtrain I would hopefully catch it by the increasing TSB. Next I could then look to see if it is due to biking or running and adjust accordingly. Not sure if this is how it's down, but this is how I've rationalized my plan.
A good performance management chart starts with accurate FTP and pace settings to calculate accurate TSS scores. I calculate TSS for swim training also (same way as it is calculated for running). When training for an IM, I even make a spreadsheet where I predict CTL, ATL and TSB based on the training workouts from the plan, and an estimate of the TSS points I should expect per training (based on past experience). I throw all this in my spreadsheet and I get a good view where I'll need to add rest. After every workout i overwrite the guessed value with the actual value so it's always up to date.
I've gone as deep as -59 when it comes to TSB, but I learned when going that low (or for me, going below -35) there's a good chance of getting sick in the next few days. If you include all workouts in one chart (swim, bike, run) -20 is quite sustainable for a few weeks without any problems, though I follow the Trainingpeaks recommendation to force TSB to become positive for a few days ever 2-3 weeks. Most of the time it kind of happens automatically when life gets in the way of training (travel for work, family things to do, ...) and I take advantage of those to allow my TSB to be positive, but sometimes I just plan it in.
I wrote an article posted here that covers this: http://members.endurancenation.us/Resources/Wiki/tabid/108/Default.aspx?topic=WKO++options+for+Mac+Users
That said, any recommendation for an acceptable level of TSB is wrong. It's highly individual, and requires experience and sophistication to figure it out. The number for many people is very different if you're training in an OS-style vs. an in-season style. It's different if you're getting regular rest vs. traveling internationally and jet-lagged. It's just plain very subtle.
You can think of it like a measure of how fast you're bumping up your training. Bumping it up with volume (especially bike volume) is pretty easy, and many folks can tolerate a lot. Bumping it up with intensity (especially run intensity) can be pretty tough, and needs to be done with attention.
It's for those reasons that I think that you're better off not focusing on any of those metrics during the OS, and instead just get the main set work done and worry about getting faster, lifting your FTP and Vdot. Focusing on those other metrics can lead to some bad choices, like adding in 'extra work' during the OS (nearly always a bad idea).
Here is a good discussion...with real life example
http://www.trainstravels.co.uk/2012...ent-chart/