Training Peaks... PMC, TSB, CTL, ATL... WTF!

Ever since I had read Joe Friels Training Bible, I have had an interest in the Performance Management and recovery but the literature does not link with Strava. The numbers are different as well as the terminology.

After a fairly lengthy conversation with a fellow time trialist I basically had my arm twisted and ended up signing up... I say lengthy and twisted arm... It took two screen shots and I was sold.

So that was my weekend gone... I was busy adding all my training plans for the whole seasons training.

This is the comparison against Strava:

As you can see... the profiles are actually identical. The values however are slightly different. This meant I was unable to refer to Joe Friels literature.

Now the best thing about Training Peaks 'Performance Management Chat' (PMC) is that you can include future workouts. All you need to do is add the TSS of the workout and it will calculate your Chronic Training Load (CTL - the blue line) and your Training Stress Balance (TSB - orange line). 

Still learning about all the specifics so I'm not going to embarrass myself just yet.

The next few months though is rather exciting...

The decrease in TSB is representative of and increase in training load throughout a 3 week training block. The increase represents the recovery week. Joe Friel advises you should hold your TSB between -10 to -30 during training periods. Increasing to between +15 and +25.

Your CTL is dependent on the level of TSS your body can handle. More doesn't necessarily mean better. It can result in over training and have massive negative impacts.

I'm rather worried that my original plan of...

Sustained Power Build - 8 weeks

40K TT Specialty Plan - 8 Weeks 

Sweet Spot Base - 12 Weeks

Short Power Build - 8 Weeks

Gravity Specialty Plan - 8 Weeks

... is going to be a massive case of over training and believe I may reach burnout before I reach my peak in October.

I might play around with the plan a little. I think I should give myself a week off between the 40K TT and Sweet Spot Base... moving 7 months of plans down is going to be rather time consuming though... 

There goes another weekend! :D 

Interesting though... Averaging over 100TSS is more than I was expecting... I'm either able to sustain a large amount of training stress or I'm seriously overtraining. I suppose there is only one way to find out.