Mountain biking TSS - some ponderings

I don’t mtb, but no power meter on my gravel bike (current or former), I’ve been using hrTSS from Training Peaks.

I’ve only skimmed this thread now, but in the podcast they’ve frequently mentioned all stress such as work/ family (not just training) counting as overall stress.

However, this thread (and sometimes the podcast too) seems to be suggested dismissing the higher heart rate (heart is a muscle)/ upper body work/ none leg work.

Each to their own, but for me, HR captures that and I want it counted (particularly on my old gravel bike I could be physically quite beat up as it wasn’t very forgiving). I’d rather be over cautious than put myself in a hole.

I am all about additional reasons to geek out with the data. Agreed, analyzing time spent coasting can be beneficial!

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I have recently got a power metre on my MTB. I thought it would be interesting to go back and compare 4 or 5 rides and the HrTSS was only about 5% off my power TSS. So on that basis it is a reasonable estimate.

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Sure, here you go.

This is the same ride, one is what I uploaded to TrainerRoad. The second is the hrTSS from TrainingPeaks after I stripped the power data out of the .fit file and uploaded.


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I love comfortably numb! There are much more technically demanding trails in the Whistler valley too, which I am sure none of my power meters (let alone me) would survive. :smile:

Just found this thread, and this whole topic is a big bugaboo of mine. I’ve been mountain biking for 14 years, and have used power meters on them for 4 years. The data is atrocious. I’ve used 3 different generations of Stages and one Raceface Cinch. Every single one of these power meters had spikes on the downhills, like 0 watts/0 cadence - 2000 watts/167 cadence - back to 0. My body can not do that! I believe the power meters just go berserk due to impacts from the trail. For that reason most of my outdoor power data is trash. TrainingPeaks, Strava, Xert - none of them automatically figure this out and edit the power file. I tried editing it out myself in Training Peaks, but it happens so often that this gets very time-consuming. They need to test them under more rigorous conditions such as jumps, drops, rock gardens, heck, cattle hoof prints. And don’t get me started on creek crossings…

There is a real opportunity here and a niche to fill in this area by the power meter manufacturers. Also the coaches and physiologists have a real opportunity to develop better training methodologies for mountain biking specifically. Every tool and measurement we use was developed from road. I cringe when I hear roadie coaches mansplain to you that there’s no difference between the two - but they hardly ever ride off-road let alone compete there. I can tell you from 14 years of experience that any outdoor road ride is way easier on the body, produces way less fatigue, and is quicker to recover from than an equivalent length MTB ride.

Indoor structured trainer rides can be more fatiguing than both road rides and mtb rides of the same length, because of the more constant stress and intensity.

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I’ve been using my Quarq XX1 Dub PM for about a year and power has been pretty spot on. You can see it here:

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Thanks! Yes, the Quarq’s used to be a little above my price range, but now they have more reasonable models. I think that will be the next one I try.

Looks like there are some fun trails out in MI!

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You get what you pay for when it comes to PM’s.

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