Been a TR user for many years, both via TR plans and not. Also dabbling in pickleball (PB) as to not be such a “one trick pony” (i.e. just the bike). I initially I assumed there would be little to no carryover / benefit to biking. My PB matches are “competitive” (springs, jumping, etc.). And my PB “load” (TSS) definitely impacts my ability to complete TR workouts (ie stress is stress). But after a couple of years of doing both PB & TR, I’m quite sure there is some fitness carryover to cycling. Curious if anyone else has experience with “other sport carryover”. I find it helpful to use the TSS estimate from my Garmin watch / Strava for PB. The TSS estimate feels approximate and helps me plan the week on the bike. Thanks in advance.
everyone is about to tell you there’s no carryover
for me, I don’t care. I don’t wanna be a cyclist specialist. cycling is my main thing but no where close to my only thing. therefore I will never reach my cycling potential.
but I’ll be able to chop down a tree with my hands and lift it
i’ll be able to run up and down the street
i’ll be able to put my palm flat on the floor.
I’ll be able to do a handstand.
etc.
I have other interests and I gave up tracking how one impacts the other. I just go off feel. (I’m not saying you should give up tracking that as it helps you plan - I’ve been tracking too much stuff in my life lately and taking a mini-tracking break…or maybe a major tracking break.).
I just wanted to point out to not listen to non-sense you’re about to get on how playing another sport doesn’t help.
it makes you a better athlete and more capable of coping with life and you’ll get more hours on the bike in your lifetime because you won’t break down as easily. <—my opinion
as for your question, I would keep it simple. like say you play a mediumly hard game, put it at 50TSS and if you ball out and you’re fried maybe it 60. (just made those numbers up have no idea…point is just have two numbers and make it super simple). or two numbers per hour…something like that.
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Love your reply, it reminds me that one thing I left out of my post is that I feel like I’m getting tons more “functional fitness” from PB than “just” biking. i.e. when I first started PB, while I had a high FTP for my age/sex, after 1 hr of PB I could barely walk the next morning. Now I can play 2-3 hours on consecutive days and still ride strong.
yeah there’s zero carry over from cycling to anything functional.
i mean it’s an extremely unnatural motion on your feet, you’re hunched over, eating garbage, making your heart race at unnatural levels for way too long…humans aren’t designed to be at threshold for an hour. we’re made to sprint after an animal and walk a lot.
lol
again, not knocking it as it’s my main thing but i’ll argue cycling makes you a worse athlete…so you gotta do other stuff to compensate. (imo)
(mostly talking traditional road cycling / stationary trainer. I think mountain bikers get more rounded workouts than us).
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I’d check these articles out for a fun read. They might give you a different opinion to consider. 
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I’d personally worry less about tracking how each sport influences the other, but cycling certainly builds your aerobic and musculoskeletal systems.
Aerobic adaptations are generally very similar from one to the next (that’s why cross-training exists), and while cycling mostly utilizes specific muscle groups and isn’t as bone conditioning as other sports, it’s hard to argue that a well-trained cyclist doesn’t have “strong” legs. Aerobic fitness is important in most sports too!
Pickleball is probably a great alternative to cycling for you since it’s higher impact, and utilizes many of the lower-body muscles and tendons that cycling doesn’t. Oh, and you get to use your upper body for a change too! 
I’m on board with @genefish though in terms of being a well-rounded and healthy human. I’d say the more types of activities you do consistently, the better. Enjoy life however you can! 
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There’s some level of carry over in most type of activities. The level is obviously very dependent. The biggest carry over of endurance sports is the general build of aerobic capacity. There’s certain muscle building sports that have more carry over than others (football and wrestling vs football and cycling).
If there is any carryover/impact between something else and cycling, I’d say it’s primarily from an aerobic standpoint. I’ve been a very heavy weightlifter for over 20 years. I don’t calculate the TSS of my strength training workouts because IMO, they have little impact on my cycling training.
If you really want to calculate the pickleball work, I’d look at your average heartbeat over a set period, compare it to a similar cycling workout, and use that to calculate your TSS. I.e. if you do a 1 hr bike ride at 135 bpm average and that’s 45 TSS, and your 1 hr pickleball session is similar, I’d consider that relatively apples to apples.
Like others mentioned, cross functional training is important for overall life/athletic ability/health. It may not always make you a better cyclist (but that’s not everyone’s goal), but it may prevent injuries and contribute to an overall better quality of life. You may be able to get up off the floor easier, brace yourself for a fall better, and prevent a myriad of other injuries that a lack of well rounded exercise provides.
I forgot to mention that IF you do want to figure your PB activities into your training load, we support lots of different types of activities now. As long as you’re recording the activity with HR data and syncing it to TR, we’ll consider it in your training!
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