Training Effect on 910XT

kimmydct

So I just stumbled across this measure on my Garmin 910XT...  Its called Training Effect and wanted to see if anyone else was aware of it and uses it.   Here is the explanation:

What is Training Effect?

Have you ever wondered what good your workout is doing? Training Effect measures the impact of exercise on your aerobic fitness. Using your heart rate, Training Effect tells you if the exercise you do is maintaining your current fitness level or improving it. With that information, you can vary your intensity to achieve your goals.

Training Effect is for all aerobic sports, all equipment and all healthy individuals.

Training Effect Scale

5.0 – Overreaching

4.0 – Highly Improving

3.0 – Improving

2.0 – Maintaining

1.0 – Minor

 

So for spin class, I hit a 4.3.  Today's Sufferfest video 2.9.  Just wanted to see if this number really means anything and get the team's thoughts on it. 

roblroy2

I have looked at this before, and I think it is quite interesting because it adapts to your workout patterns, heart rate etc. However, my understanding is that it is grading you on that single workout. To that end, I think TSS is quite similar and a bit more of a universal number - lots of systems/trackers/software understand the concept of TSS.

I'm not sure if you are a Training Peaks member, but I find their Performance Management Chart (PMC) to be a bit data intensive but more helpful. It's more helpful to me because it looks at how much stress you are putting on your body (relative to your own abilities) over a trailing period of time and is checking for not only the stress of that workout but the cumulative stresses including the rest that you are taking. So it takes quite a while to understand all of the data in the chart, but I have come to appreciate it.

http://support.trainingpeaks.com/personal-edition/charts/performance-management-chart-(pmc).aspx

There are other members on here much more experienced with interpreting everything that this shows you, but I'm sure they can jump in with some additional comments. Hope this helps.

Dino Sarti

I use it a lot for running, because I don't think rTSS is anything real special. I primarily use it to see if I worked as hard I thought I did. During the OS with all the threshold work most sessions are at the upper end of 4 if not a 5. Beyond using for fun, I never found that useful. It's an HR measure and as result will not be as popular in the "Power and Pace" Haus.

rtagher

I've come to pretty much ignore this because so often it labels my workout as "overreaching" on my runs when I know I am right where I wanted to be. Seems to be pretty accurate for my bikes, but I've just come to ignore it.