Formula for "value" of a workout?

Training
1

Hello folks,

To be more specific, is there a formula for the “value” of a workout that was immediately preceded by another workout?

Yesterday due to raised humidity I decided to swap out my scheduled Tallac +3 with its 5 x 15 SS intervals spanning 120 minutes, instead opting for Avalanche Spire -1 with its shorter intervals but higher intensity of 5 x 6 minute O/U spanning 60 minutes and then immediately followed by 90 minutes of Brasstown Zone 2.

The 90 minute Zone 2 felt more difficult than if I had foregone the O/U workout and stuck to only the Zone 2 for the day - no surprises here. And yet the calculated TSS is the same for the Zone 2 workout in either scenario, even though the TSS feels more TSS’y (haha) having done the preceding workout.

I think that summing the TSS of both workouts isn’t quite the right solution, as I could have instead started with a 30 minute sprint/VO2max workout with less TSS but causing a similar muscular fatigue effect going into the Zone 2 workout.

Of course this question extends into a scenario where I could have made it one single workout of 150 minutes, perhaps manually padding the O/U workout with an extra 90 minutes of Zone 2. I just feel that that second portion on its own should have more value than if I had only done the Zone 2 for the day. I think it does have more value, but there’s no calculation/formula for it?

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Phil

2

WKO5 gives a Training Impact Score, that will e you a pretty good idea of the anaerobic and aerobic impact of any session. This will probably be what you need.

3

TSS calculation doesn’t take into account what you’ve done earlier in the day/week/etc. It’s up to you and your goals to decide whether doing a workout when you’re already tired is of greater or lesser value. If adding the Z2 work after the over-unders puts your daily TSS way over what your plan called for that day it would likely be less beneficial than not doing it at all.

Edit to note: had you made it into one 150min workout the TSS calculation would still have been the same. I can’t tell if that was clear to you or not.