Tag: Physiology

𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐞-𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

Stress Balance, based on your stress 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 stress score as a shorter run at a higher intensity.

Yet intensity is important, as the adaptations from higher intensities may be quite different than those from lower intensities.

And you may want to match those adaptations to your goal race – training for a marathon may 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 groups, then displays the result as a stacked bar chart, with each stacked bar representing a week of training.

When Running with Power, the groups 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 it means 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 stress scores).

The TID chart is the third key metric for monitoring your training (along with Stress Balance and Ramp Rate).

𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?

❓ Questions?
📖 Getting Started

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐲

Training stresses your body, encouraging it to adapt.

But it’s a balance. Stress the body too little, and it will not adapt; stress it too much or too quickly, and it will break down instead of adapting; stress the body correctly, and sustained long-term improvements are possible.

And the stresses are cumulative – as you continue to train, you continue to encourage adaptations.

Your training load is the sum of these cumulative stresses. Monitoring your training load helps ensure your training is productive, and that you minimise injury risk.

𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐬

Your Stress Balance indicates whether your training is productive, with a negative (but not too negative) score indicating productive training.

Your Ramp Rate shows if you may be adding training load too quickly, replacing ‘the 10% rule’ with a metric based on your training volume and intensity.

𝐑𝐚𝐦𝐩 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞

Ramp Rate is the week-on-week difference in your Chronic Training Load or your 42-day weighted average (depending on which set of metrics you’re using).

Why week-on-week? Because Long Runs will tend to impact your training load more than shorter interval sessions or easy/recovery runs.

Using a week-on-week calculation will ‘smooth out’ any fluctuations caused by your workout mix while still producing a useful metric.

𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?

❓ Questions?
📖 Getting Started

For more about Ramp Rate, see Training Load Progression in the Facebook group Palladino Power Project.

𝐀𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞

Stress Scores, calculated for each workout, represent each workout’s metabolic stress – its impact on your body.

You can use these scores to model the shorter-term and longer-term impacts from each workout.

Combining these, you can obtain a Stress Balance, indicating whether your training is ‘productive’.

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

How does your Stress Balance help ensure your training is productive?

Your stress balance is the difference between the longer-term impacts and the shorter-term impacts:
🔹 A very positive balance indicates detraining or a lack of any meaningful training.
🔹 A positive balance may indicate tapering or a missed workout.
🔹 A negative balance indicates productive training – enough stress to encourage adaptations, but not so much that there is a greater risk of injury or over-training.
🔹 A very negative balance may indicate over-training, with a greater risk of injury.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞?

You can use your stress balance to monitor your training, but be aware that:
🔹 You need 80+ days of workout data for your stress balance to be accurate (because of the way the model works)
🔹 You should track your scores and compare them to how you actually feel to build your experience of what your stress balance represents (for you)

Nevertheless, your stress balance is a useful way to monitor whether your training is productive.

𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?

❓ Questions?
📖 Getting Started

𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 – 𝐚 𝐭𝐰𝐨-𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐢𝐧!

On one side of the coin, the reason you’re training – improving your performance, your fitness, your speed, your ability to run further for longer.

One the other, the impact of your workouts – fatigue, muscle soreness, dehydration, injury risk … the list could go on.

Can a single Stress Score be used to model the changes in your performance ability:
🔹 in the shorter-term, from stress to which your body has not yet adapted?
🔹 in the longer-term, from stress to which your body may have adapted?

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡

Research into the effects of training stress has resulted in various models:
✅ Rowbottom proposed a Stimulus, Fatigue, Recovery, Adaptation model, sometimes referred to as the supercompensation model
✅ Banister proposed an Impulse-Response model, popularised in the TRIMP metric based on Heart Rate measurements
✅ Allen, Coggan and McGregor adapted the Impulse-Response model for use with power, encapsulating it in the Performance Manager model.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥

The model has the following components:

1. A Training Stress Score (TSS)
2. A Chronic Training Load (CTL), modelling longer-term adaptations
3. An Acute Training Load (ATL), modelling shorter-term impacts
4. A Training Stress Balance, indicating whether your training is ‘productive’

The Performance Manager model uses 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 Stress Scores (per workout) to calculate personal training metrics that indicate whether 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 training is productive – not too much, not too little, just right for you.

𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?

❓ Questions?
📖 Getting Started

For more information on the models, see:
🔹 Rowbottom, D.J., (2000), in Garrett, W.E., Kirkendall, D.T., (eds.). Periodization of Training. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
🔹 Calvert, T.W., Banister, E.W., Savage, M.V., Bach, T., (1976) A Systems Model of the Effects of Training on Physical Performance
🔹 Allen, H., Coggan, A. & McGregor, S. (2019) Training+Racing with a Power Meter, 3rd Edition (pp. 158-160). Boulder: Velopress.
🔹 The Science of the TrainingPeaks Performance Manager on the TrainingPeaks website

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬?

Let’s face it, training is stressful.

It’s easy to overdo it, leading to injury and time spent recovering (rather than training).

But if you’re training for an event, a little stress is a necessity.

It’s a balance. Stress your body too little, and it will not adapt; stress it too much or too quickly, and it will break down instead of adapting; stress your body correctly, and sustained long-term improvements are possible.

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬

Want to know how stressful your workout was? Calculate its Stress Score.

Stress Scores combine ‘how hard?’ and ‘how long?’

They represent the workout’s metabolic stress – its impact on your body.

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫

A one-hour run at Threshold Power produces a score of 100.

Why?

Scoring relative to your Threshold Power means Stress Scores:
✅ match improvements in your fitness. As you become fitter, you can run the same workouts with less relative stress; or you can handle harder workouts for the same relative stress.
✅ match individual capabilities. If our thresholds are different and we run a workout together, your stress score for the workout will differ from my stress score for the same workout, reflecting our individual capabilities.

Stress Scores are the foundation for metrics you can use to monitor your training stress.

𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?

❓ Questions?
📖 Getting Started

For more information on Stress Scores, see:
🔹 What is TSS? on the TrainingPeaks website
🔹 Running Stress Score (RSS) on the Stryd website