Mixing your training intensities
Training Load Balance, based on your Training Load Scores, includes both intensity and duration but it doesn’t provide any insight into the distribution of running intensities in your training.
A longer run at a lower intensity can produce the same Training Load Score as a shorter run at a higher intensity.
Yet intensity is important, as the adaptations from higher intensities can be quite different than those from lower intensities.
And you may want to match those adaptations to your goal race – training for a marathon should have a different mix of intensities than training for a 5k.
Training Intensity Distribution (TID)
A TID chart groups your time spent at each intensity into 3 or more zones, then displays the result as a stacked bar chart, with each stacked bar representing a week of training.
The chart can show percentage of time in each zone (with the stacked bars all the same 100% height), or actual time spent in each zone (with the height of each zone representing the time spent in that zone).
When Running with Power, the zones are typically ranges based on percentages of your Threshold Power. This ensures that when your Threshold Power changes, your adjusted intensities are still relative to what you’re capable of (and you don’t need to adjust the chart).
You can produce the chart for completed workouts to check the mix that you ran. Or you can produce the chart for planned workouts, to adjust the mix you’re planning to run, using planned Training Load Scores.
The TID chart is the third key metric for monitoring your training (along with Training Load Balance and Ramp Rate).