Ramp Rate and Weekly TSS

Training
1

Got a question regarding ramp rate and my weekly TSS. I’m not new to training, and I understand that we hope to functionally over-reach each week doing a bit more week than the previous week. However, sometimes we have a big ride scheduled that doesn’t necessarily coincide with the final week in a loading cycle which is generally going to be your biggest week TSS-wise. Nor does it fit in with your current training block.

For example, lets say that your last 4 weeks looked like this:

Week 1: 300TSS
Week 2: 330TSS
Week 3: 380TSS
Week 4: 535TSS (Big ride that drove weekly TSS and ramp up way high)
Week 5: What to do this week?
Week 6: 200TSS (Recovery)

As you can see, my week 4 was significantly more stressful than the previous week, and I’m left with a decision for week 5.

A: Perhaps I rest/recover this week
B: Go for more TSS than week 4 at the risk of non-functionally overreaching and going too far
C: Plan a week that includes some amount of stress or intensity, but is still less than week 5 (E.g. 400-420TSS)

This is all theoretical, but I often find myself working outdoor rides that don’t necessarily coincide with a TR workout or my current training plan and they might drive my weekly TSS up much faster/higher than if I had just ridden indoors that day. I’m wondering how to plan the week after.

2

I’m basically just an http://intervals.icu hype man on the forum these days, but if you’re not on it, you should get on it. Because it’ll give you a much more holistic view than just TSS. It’ll tell you your fitness, your ramp rate, and your fatigue.

Because what I’d advise is that you try to make your next week’s TSS keep (or move) your fatigue in the -10 to -30 range. It may be that you need to add volume to do that, it may be that you need to take it away. The TSS scores aren’t enough to tell me.

But if you sync your TR calendar to the site, you can look at the impact on your TSS, fitness, and fatigue of your upcoming workouts - and then you can play around with your TR calendar and see how that affects things.

The last thing I’d say is also don’t just go by the numbers, but how you feel. Do you feel like the big ride needs recovery? Are your feeling fatigued? If so, maybe you downgrade the Tuesday workout to something easier, then get back into full flow for Thursday and a big finish on the weekend.

4 Likes
3

I’m really liking http://intervals.icu/ I let my training peaked account laps for this ne tool.