in the old days Rich recommended 100TSS per ride as a good benchmark. that usually correlates to like a 1hour 10minutes with a 16minute warm up, on a typical weekday.
This is a little tangential, but might help. It's on my mind while I sit here in DIA with a four hour delay until I can get to my CO home for sixteen days of IM focus training. I've done this before, I found that I could manage 130 plus.minus TSS per day on a sustained basis, run and bike combined. I start to get really fatigued when I get over 900/7 days. So the acute and chronic training loads may be more important to watch than any single days TSS. This is coming with weeks 6 to 3 to go before an IM.
Al's point is an important one. Each of us has a TSS/day 'ceiling', above which we'll just struggle, mostly based on genetics. Finding that ceiling is part of the art of training (as is pushing it upwards). One important thing I've found is that the ceiling seems to be different for OS-style training vs. IM-style training. I could handle much more TSS when IM training than I could in the OS with constant focus on intensity.
I run a multi year report in WKO showing TSS/day and you can easily see the ramps to the annual ironman event. The highest number every year comes several weeks before the IM and is almost identical year over year.
Not currently tracking run and swim TSS, as I'm on a Mac and have been delaying figuring out a WKO solution. For now I just loosely track bike TSS only.
More often I have IF goals vs TSS goals for workouts. More specifically, I find my self sorta-setting Pnorm goals as I ride. I do a lot of the same routes frequently and I have Pnorm benchmarks that I try to meet or beat...if I can remember them . Over time the all of the numbers go up = I'm getting stronger.
Everyone's weekly TSS, across all three sports, is individual but likely doesn't vary as much as you might think. After all, the volume 90% of AG'ers usually sorts itself out into similar swim, bike and run volumes, usually as a function of hours available each day.
In the end, I think it's more important to pay attention to what you learn you can and can't do each day, and how what you do today affects tomorrow. The nut I try to crack each week is my Tuesday run:
As I look at my weekend cycling and what I plan to do now that I'm 16wks out from IMWI, my weekends are pretty beefy, with a very hard and long Sunday ride and a shorter but harder Sunday ride. But I can stay off my feet the rest of the weekend, sleep, recover, etc. This sets me up for...
A run with T-pace intervals on Monday. For now must 2 x 1 mile but maybe 3x in a few weeks. Lunch swim but that doesn't really affect me at all.
Tuesday hill repeat bike: these are my primary tool for lifting my FTP on the bike. Each of these is very important so I basically treat Tuesday like I'm preparing for a race or test.
Wednesday long run
Thurs climbing bike. Give the running legs a day off.
Friday interval run then back to Saturday and Sunday.
The rub is this: I want to get in a minimum of 4x runs per week. I don't want to run on the weekend so I can maximize that cycling and post ride recovery. Don't run on Thursday because it's after a Wed long run. So that little 3-4, maybe 5 mile run on Tuesday becomes very important. I don't want to do it as a brick but I have very, very poor track record of running in the evening. As I look at my next 16wks that little run is now one of my most important training sessions. I ask myself what's the minimum effective running I can do (Strides, in my case) and how can I motivate myself to get that run done EVERY Tues evening?
My point is that stuff like this, paying attention to each day and how it fits with the next and the next, is more important that TSS scores and other numbers geekery.
Comments
My notes:
In the end, I think it's more important to pay attention to what you learn you can and can't do each day, and how what you do today affects tomorrow. The nut I try to crack each week is my Tuesday run:
The rub is this: I want to get in a minimum of 4x runs per week. I don't want to run on the weekend so I can maximize that cycling and post ride recovery. Don't run on Thursday because it's after a Wed long run. So that little 3-4, maybe 5 mile run on Tuesday becomes very important. I don't want to do it as a brick but I have very, very poor track record of running in the evening. As I look at my next 16wks that little run is now one of my most important training sessions. I ask myself what's the minimum effective running I can do (Strides, in my case) and how can I motivate myself to get that run done EVERY Tues evening?
My point is that stuff like this, paying attention to each day and how it fits with the next and the next, is more important that TSS scores and other numbers geekery.