I have general wondering how should you progress with CTL during the season?
At this moment I have CTL at level of 72 and current weekly TSS around 600. In order to progress with CTL I need to be increasing TSS, but I see no such thing in most of the plans. Trainerroad doesn’t progress so much with TSS among all weeks. Progressing TSS each week will lead to really high value of TSS. Should I stay whole season with TSS 450-550?
I estimate TSS per year as 24 000. Should I not worry about CTL and still there will be progression without CTL increasing?
Hi Damian, not sure how long you have beem using TR but it’s worth keeping in mind that what your calender looks like now. probably isn’t what it wil look like in a week or so, TR will continuesly adapt the plan and change the intensity as it goes, so what you have planned for the next week or two will change, let alone the next year or so
TR’s approach is largely structured around a fairly rigid training schedule. You should see a small/gradual increase in CTL as you move through build, but nothing dramatic. Most of the progression for TR is through increased intensity as the weeks progress. And if your FTP is going up, you are doing more and more work every week, but your TSS/CTL may not move much since those metrics are a function of FTP. You are still progressing your training stress if the watts are going up, sometimes looking at TSS/CTL doesn’t tell the entire story.
Focusing on ramping TSS and pushing CTL up is another way to drive/measure your training stress, just not the lead story for the TR approach. Both can be effective and both has drawbacks.
Personally, I use bits of the TR system to progress my intensity/interval sessions (ie - managing intensity) and then leverage Intervals.icu to manage my overall training stress (ie - managing volume vs. fatigue). So, TR for intervals and Intervals.icu to manage all my endurance work and overall training stress. If I had to say what each of those approaches brings to my training, I’d say that TR does a nice job of increasing my FTP and my ability to hit good wattage for X minutes on my power curve. But driving my CTL up over time (while balancing stress) allows me to hit those numbers later in races and allows me to push hard all day in long races.
If you haven’t played with Intervals.icu, it’s worth a look. In my opinion, it compliments the TR system nicely for folks who want to take a little more ownership of their training approach (or just want more insight into what TR is doing).
Thank you all for reply. Actually my whole wondering came from intervals.icu and Joe Friel book.
I worked through 12 weeks TR build plan. I needed to push program to most agresive approach. Manually change duration of workouts (TR was all the time pushing me with recommendation with easier trainings) and still got to much time in grey zone.
For me the volume of the training was a bit to low which TR presents. Very hard for me to let go CTL which I’ve earned with hard work from previous training blocks.
Also I’m starting to thinking about next season and have some ATP, but unfortunately TR doesn’t have such a tool.
TR’s approach includes Classical Periodization & Supercompensation to help you effectively build fitness and achieve your cycling goals. We target specific power zones and energy systems to maximize your performance gains instead of focusing on TSS. But as @SugaryRideAdventure mentioned, as you start completing your scheduled workouts the plan will start adjusting.
Just like most training tools, the “Form” metric in Intervals.icu is just a data point to help inform your training. There are times I’ll intentionally hang out in the red for a bit and I’ll respond well and there are times I need to back off even when I’m still in the green. Leaning your limits based on how you feel comes with experience and is going to do a better job than any tool (in my opinion).
Again, just my opinion, but chasing CTL/TSS can result in steps backwards if you aren’t careful. I get it, we all like to see graphs on the screen trending higher, but CTL does not directly tie to fitness or performance. There are times you want to give some of that CTL back to facilitate adaptations and/or peak for an event. None of this is a knock on Intervals.icu or using that tool to help manage your training, just need to listen to your body first and use Intervals as a supporting data point. This is an area that TR does a nice job with constantly asking for feedback after each workout to keep you out of a hole. While there is nothing wrong with intentionally going into a hole periodically to see how you respond, it should be done with intention and caution. It’s all a part of being curious and figuring out what does/does not work for you.
We’re retired and the kids are grown, retirement is basically a cheat code for training compared to when I had to balance career. On the flip side, the age thing isn’t trending in the right direction…
There are some great responses here already!